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Blog Entry 1 of 3 Search Engine Optimization vs. Pay-Per-Click

As more and more business owners are realizing, traditional media such as newspapers, TV, Radio, and Magazines are not brining in the same ROI they once were. The media more and more people are using as their media of choice is the web. As a business owner you know of a few ways to market your business online, but which web marketing plan is the best? Search Engine Optimization known as SEO, Pay-Per-Click known as SEM are the two most effective ways to capture your audience. To find out which one is right for you here are a few helpful tips.

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Denver SEO vs. SEM, What Is It? Which Is Better?

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Contributed by: Bryan Mosley on 9/22/2007

There are arguments from both backers of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM or Pay-Per-Click), to which is the better product to invest marketing dollars. I use and recommend both but choose SEO as the better long term investment.

To define each, SEO is positioning or optimizing your website so that search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, Alltheweb, Ask.com, etc. recognize and list your business as close to the #1 position in your business keyword categories. SEO is often referred to as organic or natural search. SEM is purchasing listings on keyword search results with Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, Alltheweb, Ask.com, etc. in your business keyword categories. SEM is often referred to as paid search.

The determining factor is your business, what you're selling and how you use your website once you have captured a potential customer. Here are the contributing factors you need answers to before you make a decision regarding SEO or SEM:

Is your target market local, regional, national, or global?

This will make a significant difference how you market your product. First of all with SEO, the larger your geographic target, the more competitors you'll have. The more competitors you have will effect the time it will take to get to the front page of search results. For SEM, more competitors means a higher pay-per-click rate, this will drive up your cost per lead.

Know Your Keywords

You need to know exactly what keywords or phrases people are looking for. DO NOT GUESS OR ASSUME WHAT YOUR CUSTOMER IS TYPING WHEN THEY SEARCH. I do this for a living and have giving up assuming keywords. Take for instance a day spa in Denver, the owner would know to include "day spa denver", "massages denver" but would they know to also include "a spa in denver", or "spa packages denver"? Both keyword phrases have

How competitive are your keyword searches?

How many paid search results show up on top of the organic list? How many in the right hand column? How many competitors as opposed to listing services or articles appear in the organic list? The more that appear, the more competitive your business search category is.

Do your competitors appear in multiple keyword search results?

Set aside an hour or so and search as a customer would search for your product. Take note of what companies appear in the top ten listings and who appears in the sponsored area. If one of your competitors appears multiple times on organic lists, your competitors are probably optimizing their websites. By knowing who is organically moving up on search and who is using pay-per-click you can create a stronger web plan and you should begin monitoring your results vs. your competition.

Are you tracking your current traffic?

There is only one way to make sure what results SEO and SEM bring you, track your web traffic. If traffic has increased make sure your website is keeping potential customers, offer incentives to keep them from jumping to one of your competitors sites.

Time Frames

SEM Pay-Per-Click is immediate. Your listing will appear as soon as you choose your keywords and create a spending limit. However just as soon as stop paying for leads or you're spending limit is reached, your pay-per-click listing goes away. SEO is a more difficult to predict, we've had customers achieve page 1 Google listings as soon as 13 days and as long as 6 months. Most clients see movement within 3-4 weeks and are top 20 or top 10 listed by 60-90 days.

Work with a web company to manage your web marketing efforts

With the money and time your spend to manage your website, it is much more cost effective to hire a web marketing company. A good web marketing company should know exactly what your site will require after a reviewing your site. Look for a company that has a guarantee for Search Engine Optimization. Also be cautious about working with the larger Denver web companies, their service will be the same as a lot of medium and small companies, but at a cost sometimes as much as 10 times of a smaller web marketer.

Here are a couple of recommended web marketing companies that have proven track records and affordable pricing:

MOBS Marketing
Services: SEO Specialists, Web design/development, Google, Yahoo! services
720-323-9592
www.mobsmarketing.com

Unus Marketing
Full Marketing Agency
303-525-5899
www.unusmarketing.com

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Bryan Mosley

Westminster , CO

Bryan Mosley has posted 3 blog entries and 0 comments since joining on 8/13/2007. Bryan Mosley 's average blog rating is 5.

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