There are so many types of internet marketing that sometimes it can be difficult for a business to know where to start. Once you’ve found a company offering web design packages and you’ve got your website up and running, two of the most common forms of marketing which you may come across include SEO and PPC.
But which of the two should you focus on?
SEO
When people start looking for web design packages, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is often the first form of internet marketing that businesses hear about, and there are a number of good reasons to focus on it.
The aim of SEO is to optimise your website so that it appears in the search engines when people make a search using a related keyword. The major benefits include:
- It’s free (unless you hire a firm to carry out a campaign for you).
- If you start getting to the top of the rankings for your main keywords it can drive huge amounts of highly targeted traffic to your website.
- The results can be long lasting and carry on even when you stop your campaign.
Of course there are also downsides to SEO, and these include:
- It is very competitive, especially for some keywords and industries.
- SEO is changing all the time so there is a lot to learn if you want to do it yourself.
- It can take quite a long time to start ranking even with the best techniques.
PPC
PPC (Pay Per Click) is a great way to advertise your company online once you’ve set up a website with a company providing web design packages. It consists of the adverts that appear at the top and down the side of the search results pages, as well as in relevant pages of content on the internet. The benefits of PPC include:
- You only pay when someone clicks on your link and visits your website.
- It is highly targeted because you are getting your website right in front of the people who are looking for your products and services.
- It’s instant, so you can start appearing on the first page very quickly.
- You can determine how much you want to pay so you don’t go over budget.
Despite the benefits of PPC, there are a few disadvantages that you should be aware of, including:
- A successful campaign is hard to manage on your own so you might need someone to help you out.
- It can get quite expensive, especially in competitive industries.
- Once you stop paying for it then the campaign stops completely and there are no long-lasting benefits.
Choose the Best Technique for You
There is no right and wrong when it comes to SEO and PPC. For some businesses one may work better than the other, but it will depend on your own business which one works best for you. However, SEO is often more appealing at first for start-ups because you do not need a large budget.
So after you have found a designer of web design packages, try out both techniques for a few months and see which one seems to work best for you as this is the only real way to find out.