There are two main ways to boost traffic to your website. PPC meaning pay-per-click or SEO meaning search engine optimization. PPC is a paid way to increase traffic while SEO can be free unless you need to hire someone to put the time into it.
Do you know which one would work best for your companies website and why?
Here are 3 questions to ask yourself to narrow down which avenue will work out better for your website:
1. How large is your website advertising budget? In choosing between SEO and PPC, you first need to decide what size advertising budget your business can support. You can set your daily spending limit as low as you'd like, but it can be a good idea to start with a minimum of $5 to $10 a day. If you have no money to commit to advertising, you'll need to stick with free SEO methods. But if you have even a little capital to invest in PPC advertising, consider giving it a try because it offers a number of benefits, including:
• Faster testing. Websites should focus on achieving conversion, whether it's selling products, signing up email newsletter subscribers or some other action. That means actively testing website variables to improve conversion rates. These tests, however, require traffic to generate data, so you might want to purchase traffic through PPC advertising to get faster results.• Protection from SEO algorithm updates. One major weakness of SEO is that algorithms change from time to time. When that happens, sites that have been optimized in one way can lose rankings — and profits — practically overnight. But when you pay for traffic, you're assured a steady stream of visitors, no matter what changes Google and the other search engines make.
2. How high are the average CPCs in your industry?
In addition to setting your overall advertising budget, take a look at what other people in your industry are paying for ads. PPC platforms typically allow users to bid what they're willing to pay for a single keyword click — a fee that's referred to as “cost-per-click” (CPC). For instance, if you want to reach people searching for the keyword phrase “car insurance online,” you could use the Traffic Estimator within the free Google External Keyword Research Tool and see that the average CPC for the phrase is $2.76. But average CPCs can run much higher — $28.55, for example, for the phrase “auto insurance.” Those prices make it more difficult for new advertisers to turn a profit from PPC traffic. In such cases, SEO might be a better choice.3. How competitive are the SERPs in your niche?
You also will want to determine how competitive the search engine results pages (SERPs) are for your target keywords. To do this, enter your keywords into the Google External Keyword Research Tool, which will tell you the estimated competition level, as well as the number of advertisers bidding on your keywords and the average CPCs. In the most competitive industries, you may find that results pages for your target keywords are dominated by authority websites. They can be nearly impossible to displace without a significant investment of time and money. In such cases, it may ultimately make more sense to pay for traffic via PPC promotions.
If you and your site are ready you should try combining the two for a powerhouse combination that is sure to increase traffic to your website.
Image Source: Jeff McNeill on Flickr
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