Internet marketing Archives - Page 47 of 47 by Mark Murnahan

SEO vs. PPC: The 2009 SEO Uprising

Search engine optimization (SEO) reaches the people who are looking for you right now, and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising reaches a back-of-mind market similar to billboards and television advertising. Cost considerations and increasing market competition positions SEO for a huge uprising in 2009. Although it is likely that both SEO and PPC will continue to see big gains against all other marketing methods in 2009, my prediction is that the 2009 SEO uprising will be substantial and swift in the first half of the year and carry through the end of the recession.

SEO and PPC Comparison

Both SEO and PPC each have a strong place in Internet marketing, but let us look at a very simple comparison of SEO and PPC and how they each work for or against you. I will give you a description followed by pros and cons of both SEO and PPC.

Search Engine Optimization a.k.a. SEO

SEO focuses on bringing your Website to the top listings returned by search engines based on its relevance to a search engine user’s query. As quoted from my recent article “SEO in a Nutshell“, a simple decription of SEO is as follows:

“SEO is, the practice of improving the qualities of a Website in order to be better indexed in search engines. In very non-technical terms, SEO makes it possible that when somebody goes to their favorite search engine, usually Google, and searches for something, that they find your listing at or near the top of the list.”

Considering that the focus of SEO is to be found by customers rather than finding customers, it has a much higher conversion of lookers to buyers. Because of SEO’s very nature, it is the most targeted approach to the market.

SEO requires quality Website content that people want, and search for using a search engine. The content should be on-topic, which is to say that if the Website is about beauty products, you do not try to optimize it for fishing lures and tractor tires.

The Pros of SEO – SEO lasts a very long time. Once the content is produced, optimized for search engines, and reaches a high search engine placement, the cost stops while the reward keeps coming in. SEO provides residual benefit, and the return on investment (ROI) of SEO increases over time.

The Cons of SEO – The best results come from paying a writer and SEO professional to research the most effective keywords and achieve the proper search engine placement. This will generally have a higher upfront cost.

Pay Per Click Advertising a.k.a. PPC

PPC is generally based on a bid-rank system, whereby companies place a maximum bid for the position and frequency that their advertisement will be displayed, as well as a daily spending limit. For simple comparison, I am also grouping pay-per-impression advertising and other methods of online display advertising into the mix. They all have much similarity in that they display the advertisers message alongside the content that users were actually seeking.

There are many variations to the pricing models, but the basic principle is that the advertiser pays for each time somebody clicks on their advertisement, or in the case of pay-per-impression ads, every time the ad is displayed to a visitor. A key to PPC or display advertising success is in the ad placement strategically reaching the proper demographic.

The Pros of PPC / Display Ads – PPC and display advertising in general can provide greater exposure to a back-of-mind market that may not have considered your product or service until they saw the advertisement. This can prompt users to buy when they were not already in the market.

The Cons of PPC / Display Ads – Each method of PPC or other online display ads have a termination point. When you stop paying for the ads to run, the benefit is gone. There is not a residual benefit, and the return on investment (ROI) of PPC stops when the spending stops.

SEO vs. PPC / Display Advertising Summary

Each Internet marketing method has a place in Internet marketing, and they often work nicely together. With greater consideration given to the return on investment (ROI) of online advertising and marketing during recession, SEO has a leg up for 2009. While the ROI of PPC and display advertising drops sharply when the investment stops, the ROI of SEO keeps growing.

In either case, 2009 will bring changes to Internet marketing. It is most important that whether you use display advertising or SEO, you should do something to assure your place in the 2009 Internet market.

Author Mark Murnahan is the Chairman and CEO of YourNew.com, Inc. and provides SEO consulting services to companies and non-profit organizations. Mark Murnahan may be reached toll free at 866-A-Web-Guy (*REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE*) for consultation.

Increase Business Online in 60 Seconds?

Perhaps you have seen ads with headlines like “Increase Business Online in 60 Seconds” and you know in an instant that it is another scam (at least I do). That sounds silly, right? They are usually pushing some miracle cure for your business, but those of us participating in the real world know that nothing comes from nothing.

I belong to a face-to-face business networking group in my hometown of Topeka, Kansas. I will attend our weekly meeting in about three hours, and visit with 25 area business people and their guests. The group is a chapter of BNI, and it is based on sharing a mutual business ideology that what comes around goes around. It is a good place to build business relationships and receive qualified referral business from fellow members.

Within this group, there is only allowed one person from each profession, and I am the Internet guy. Each week, we have a 90 minute meeting, and as a portion of the meeting, each member is given the floor for a 60 second brief on their business and any target audience they are seeking. Each week, I am tasked with creating 60 seconds worth of valuable information to market my business to the group and their potential referral base.

When you are forced to condense your business to just 60 seconds, it can really help you to be creative. However, a marketing fact that many people never grasp or act upon is that brief moment in time where you actually have a person’s full attention. it only lasts a moment, and average Internet users will offer you less time if you do not grab their attention quickly.

I am still not sure what I will say in my 60 seconds this morning, but I am pretty certain that it will make the points as follows:

We are all aware of the Internet, and its broad reach.
Most of us know that the Internet is the best marketing method available.
I am here to help them and their peers with custom Website development, Internet marketing, ecommerce, etcetera.

I will wing it. I am a man of words, and I have been a member (and the current Vice President) of the group long enough that I can always recycle some good material from the past.

The point I want to make here is that you only have a short time to deliver your message. Internet users will not give you much time to make a quick point. Be sure that you deliver it to them right, and right now. This actually makes it possible to Increase business online in 60 seconds. If there was fine print, it would have to mention that, although you are actually increasing your business online in 60 seconds, it will take you some time to prepare for that minute. It should also say that this is best implemented with the help of an Internet marketing professional, like me. 🙂

Relationships and Internet Marketing

Relationships come in many types. The relationship we are sharing as author and reader may seem to be very casual and even a bit superficial. I want to explain how and why it matters.

Since statistical data tells me that it would be nearly impossible in my lifetime to even shake hands with all of my readers, I always find it important to try and reach out in my, can I say, “authorly” way. We will probably never do business together, and for now I am just another guy on the Internet. Of course, I welcome your business, so don’t get me wrong. I just want you to know that I am not selling you anything more than some thoughts right now. So just relax and hear me out about relationships and the Internet, and how it all ties together to make you more successful and happy.

I have noticed for some time that each time my wife is pregnant I see a dramatic increase in new business. It has puzzled me for years exactly why this happens. I have always had my ideas on this. Of course, there is a lot that probably comes down to instinct. Doing all the right things just somehow sinks in and I find myself making better judgments, thinking more clearly, and most importantly developing better relationships. I know that having a new baby may be a little too extreme for increasing your business, but there are substitutes to help you emphasize building better relationships.

I find the relationships I build on the Internet to be absolutely crucial to my success. Just consider our new relationship as an example, you and me. Perhaps if I give you valuable information that helps you, and if I help you to feel good about me and my knowledge, you may become a regular reader. Eventually, if you grow comfortable with our relationship, you may call on me for advice or to hire my services. Notice how this is a process. By the time you call me, you will have many opportunities to know me on your terms. You can read hundreds of articles that I have authored, learn of my background, and know just who you are dealing with. It all comes back to the same reasons why social networking Websites have had such amazing success. People are there to actually interact with other people, and not just some corporate giant or sketchy small business. They are building relationships, right here on the Internet.

I hope that I do not insult you if I group you with “most people”, but in many respects, we are all “most people”. What I know about most people is that they want to feel good about the people in their lives. We can say that this does not apply to “those people on the Internet”, but let’s face it … it matters. In case you have not heard, Facebook has over 120,000,000 users in under five years of business. It has been built on relationships. Social networking sites are some of the most successful Internet businesses ever created, and that should teach us all some lessons. “Those Internet people” are you and me. The Internet is where I communicate with many friends, and it is even where I met my wife about eight years and two-going-on-three three kids ago, so you cannot convince me that what I am telling you is false.

People want to know real people. To set a picture for you, it is 6:00am and I am sitting in my kitchen where I just happened to plop down my laptop to make this entry. I have been working since early yesterday morning, and I have a meeting with a new client in just a few hours. As I thought about my morning meeting, it really hit me why this meeting feels different than so many others, and it inspired me to write you this blog entry.

In a short time, I will meet with somebody with whom I have already laid the groundwork of a personal relationship. He is a fellow member of a business networking group where we have both been members for some time. I see him every Thursday morning, and we have a mutual friendship and respect. You may be thinking that it would be great if every meeting could be so relaxed as this. The good news is that they can. It all starts with a relationship, because behind every business person is the person. Be certain that you express this in your business.

H1 Tags Improve Search Engine Placement

Effective search engine optimization involves many factors. Ranking highest in importance is providing informative content with proper page layout and programming. Much consideration should be made to your proper use of heading tags. A good example of the h1 tag is the heading of this paragraph. It is used to define the content of the page, and for proper document layout. Whether is it a Web page or a newspaper, every written article should have a proper heading. On the Internet, we use the h1 tag. Examples of h1 usage are given below.

Let’s examine the importance of h1 tags and how they are viewed by search engines.

Note: Heading tags represent only a small portion of search engine optimization and Website usability. There is a reason that dentists do root canals and that Internet marketers do Websites. In order to achieve the best search engine optimization results, be sure that you have the right professional doing the job. Call YourNew.com at 877-898-9500 for SEO.

Heading Tags Improve Search Engine Placement

Although there is no “sure-fire” way to get to the top of search engine results, this is an important way to improve your chances. This will not guarantee you top placement, but in combination with many other search engine optimization factors, it will be very helpful. There is no substitute for professional search engine optimization from people whom have dedicated their career to this field.

In this article, we will address an old school technique that has always been important, but yet, one that many Web developers overlook as they compromise Website content for appearance. To emphasize, I would like to explain that a Website without viewers is like a billboard in your basement. Regardless how interactive, fun, or visually captivating your site is, if it is not seen, it will not benefit you. Using heading tags, I will show you a way to keep the appearance of your site pleasing, while better defining your Website content for visitors, including search engines.

Allow me to note that most of what is included in search engines is put there by a computer, known as a “robot”, “spider”, or “crawler”. These are computers that use what you tell them to build a database of relevant information to serve out to the people requesting it. If you tell them the wrong things, or don’t tell them the right things, they will not give you the results you are looking for.