Articles
Vaulting to the Top of Search Engine Results
By Michael Parker
Last quarter the focus was on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) where I explained how, through careful optimization, we can help to make a site appear higher in search engine results. This time I’ll focus on a method that will get you to the very top of the results immediately — PPC marketing.
The way PPC works is by bidding on certain keyword phrases and depending on how much you are willing to bid you appear higher in the results on the search pages. You only pay for the number of “clicks” or times that a user follows the link to your site. Once you set up a PPC campaign you’ll appear at the very top of the page under the heading “sponsored results.” The PPC results appear above those of the non-paid listings.
One advantage of PPC is you can immediately vault to the top of the search engine results in a matter of hours whereas Search Engine Optimization is a more organic process taking anywhere from 1-3 months before results are realized. The disadvantage of PPC is that for every person that clicks on your link you will pay whatever you have bid for that keyword phrase.
At the beginning of a Search Engine Marketing campaign, we suggest our clients split their marketing budget between a Search Engine Optimization campaign and PPC. As the former begins to bear fruit you can slowly wean yourself off the more expensive PPC and focus a larger percentage of your budget on the SEO portion of the campaign.
