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SEO A Wise Investment?For many SEO may appear somewhat of a mystery so why spend any money on it? Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the term given to a range of processes used by SEO experts to help you get your website to a higher position in the search engine results page for a given set of keywords. When you perform a search for a given keyword you are typically presented with a list of ten options in a list. If you don't find the website of interest then the search engines show a list of page numbers for you to work your way through subsequent pages of results. For a business you want your website to appear on the top 3 pages of search results, below this you will have very few visitors. One way to appear highly in the search results is by having a website and keyword which is unique though with the internet continuing to grow at an incredible rate it is highly unlikely you will be in this enviable position for long. Having spent your marketing budget on your stylish new website isn't it a waste if nobody can find it! While SEO may be one solution to getting your customers to your website, there are other options to consider too. Many companies are spending part of their marketing budgets on Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns. PPC is available by creating accounts with Google Adwords, Microsoft Adcenter and other search engines. PPC adverts are commonly seen down the right hand side of the search results and may be referred as 'sponsored links' or 'Adverts'. PPC is a quick and easy way to get your website visible on page 1 of the search engines for your given keywords but at a cost. Typically when you create your marketing campaign you will also create some text, image and possibly video adverts to be featured. The actual cost per click will depend on the keyword you are targeting, how closely your website relates to your keywords, and the overall competition for these keywords. Some highly competitive keywords can be seen in financial organizations - 'credit cards', 'bank loans' where the cost per click could be pounds to tens of pounds per click. PPC will cost you for every click and once spent you won’t see any further return on this money. SEO on the other hand will also have an ongoing cost to create new content, manage social media sites and perform other optimization tasks. However, time spent on SEO will continue to reap rewards in the future and should be seen as a clear investment for the future of your business. When speaking with an SEO company they will usually start the process by providing a report of how well your existing website design has been created with a view to high search engine position. The SEO team will work with you to establish your chosen keywords which you want to rank highly for. Your SEO company may ask for changes to be made to the design or style of your website and for additional web pages to be created. SEO companies often make use of articles which provide real 'value' both in terms of search engines and also to your customers. Before engaging with your customers ask them what work they will do for you and if they have worked with customers with businesses similar to yours. At the time of writing many small businesses have tried the PPC click while few have taken a longer term strategy of investing in SEO. There is a real opportunity here to get ahead of your competition by combining PPC with an SEO strategy before your competitors do. |
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