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The Art of Internet Marketing

Having a website is a great way to showcase your products and services. However, with literally billions of web pages on the internet there’s plenty of competition for visitors and business.

So how do you attract traffic and help your website to stand out from the crowd?

Pay per Click

With pay per click advertising (PPC), you pay to be listed in the search engines’ sponsored results for the terms that you think your customers use when they search the internet.

This means that you are able to attract people who are actively looking for your products and services and who are therefore effectively qualified leads.

Plus, because you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad, you can ensure that what you spend is directly related to the business you generate.

Although this marketing method is a great way to get an instant listing and attract sales, the down side is that you have to pay for every click, whether visitors have a genuine interest in your products or not.

Click fraud, where competitors deliberately click on their rivals’ ads to cost them money, is a growing problem. In fact a recent report suggested that around 20% of all clicks on PPC ads were ‘fraudulent’.

Search Engine Optimisation

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is slightly different. It involves making certain changes to your website and establishing links with other sites in order to gain high rankings in the search engines’ natural listings for a particular search term.

As the vast majority of search engine users click on the natural rather than sponsored listings, SEO helps companies to attract a higher volume of targeted traffic than PPC plus you don’t have to pay each time someone clicks through to your site.

Furthermore your listing should remain visible even when you have finished your campaign unlike with PPC where your ad disappears as soon as you stop paying for it.

However do be aware that SEO is a long-term solution as results are not immediate.

Also there is no guarantee that you will achieve the rankings that you want and some area are so competitive that it would be virtually impossible to ever hit the top spots. For instance a new football website could be well optimised, but would probably struggle to surpass giants such as the BBC or Sky Sports.

What’s The Best Online Marketing Method?

Both PPC and SEO can produce excellent results owing to the fact that the majority of internet users rely on search engines to find websites. However they can be expensive and so if you are operating on a small budget you might want to consider other options.

Website reviews for example will tell you exactly what changes you need to make to your website to optimise it for the search engines at a fraction of the price of using a consultant to do the work for you. Armed with the information you need you can make the necessary amendments yourself and reap the rewards of a high search engine ranking.

Internet marketing training is also a cost effective option for those who want to learn how to run their own successful marketing campaigns without having to pay an agency to help them.

Whatever your marketing preference, one thing is clear- if you do not promote your website and find a way to stand out from the crowd chances are you will lose potential sales to your more visible competitors.

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Re-Publishing Information

Please feel free to publish any of these articles on your websites.

If you do so, please include the following 'about the author' box:

Victoria Selman is the founder of SEMS Consultancy- an internet marketing consultancy specialising in search engine optimisation. SEMS Consultancy prides itself on offering a personal, reliable and cost effective service for those looking to establish or promote an existing online business.