To get more website traffic, placement on Google and other search engines is essential. Getting on the first page of Google is hard.
There are ways of getting high placement, but it can cost money and/or be difficult. In order to get on the first page of Google, there are two main options:
- Paid advertising– Pay Per Click (PPC).
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Here’s a brief breakdown of each of these methods of getting more website traffic. (Please note, that while we recognize there are other search engines other than Google, for simplicity’s sake, this article is focusing only on Google.)
PPC (Pay Per Click)
Through Google’s AdWords, you can pay Google to get on the first page. These links are the ones that have a light colour in the background or appear in the column on the right hand side. While it’s free to place the links there, you pay every time someone clicks on your link – that’s why it’s called Pay Per Click.
The links are based on key words that you choose. For example, you might choose “Criminal Lawyer” or you might choose “Commercial Real Estate Lawyer.” Depending on what you choose, you will get attract people who are looking different types of products or services.
PPC Link costs vary, and they can change every day. They are purchased by auction – whoever bids the most gets the best position.
You can imagine the risk that’s involved in this. If you aren’t targeting the right people with your key words, you can get a lot of the wrong people clicking on your PPC ad. And every time they click, you pay. You could be spending a lot of money for nothing.
Managing Google AdWords, requires daily attention to manage effectively.
Strengths
– Immediate hits – you can get impact as soon as the campaign starts
– Focus – you can get great precision control on the exact key words that you want to target
– When managed properly, you can get a direct correlation between the amount spent and the leads closed
Weaknesses
– When you stop buying key words, the leads stop
– There’s a risk in buying the wrong words; and paying for people to visit your site, who will never buy from you
– It takes time to manage buying the right AdWords on Google.
Other
– PPC has to be managed effectively for your target audience. The goal is not to get more traffic to your site. The goal is to get the right traffic to your website. The goal is to get people that are interested in your product or service.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Search Engine Optimization is the process of doing the right things to get your website to have high search engine ranking.
Here are factors which can influence your SEO ranking:
– Use SEO best practices on your website
– Submitting website and it’s structure to Google and Bing
– Regularly create new quality content
– Share your content through social media, blogs, etc.
– Have other websites link to your website
– Create links on your website to other websites
An SEO campaign often takes time to have impact. It usually takes time (2-4 months) to get rankings through SEO. The benefit is that it has lasting impact on your SEO ranking.
Strengths
– Rank well using SEO, and more leads will not mean more cost
– When done properly, SEO has some staying power
– Creating quality content not only creates a better website, when you share it through social media and other channels, that means that there are many more places that people can find out about the products and services you offer!
Weaknesses
– SEO takes time to build
– SEO takes effort and/or money, to create great content, and involve yourself and others in commenting
– Google and other search engines try to identify people who are trying to cheat the system. You must be careful to make sure you are doing the right things and not taking short cuts. Because if Google believes you are trying to cheat the system, they will negatively impact your ranking (that means you get moved down significantly on your SEO ranking)
Conclusions
Both PPC and SEO can be great ways to get more website traffic.
If you are looking for something that is going to impact your business right away, PPC is the way to go.
– If you are looking for something that is going to impact your business right away, PPC is the way to go.
– If you are looking long term (3 months or more), both SEO and PPC can be effective strategies
– Experts have found that there is a synergy to using both SEO and PPC campaign together
If you are looking for strategies to get more traffic to your website, please contact The Story Website Design and Marketing at 647-723-7046.
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