Some PPC features

• Fast results – can normally start to see results within hours (or even minutes) of activating a campaign
• Only pay when a user clicks
• Reasonably easy to focus on the Keywords you want
• Don’t necessarily have to change your web site
• Great Tracking capabilities (so that it is easy to monitor, measure, adjust and improve)
• You get to define where users go (you define the website landing page)
• Can target distinct regions/localities for your ad to be displayed
• Achieve first page visibility quickly and easily (but not always cheaply)

PPC can be an effective way to get exposure for a site (particularly a new site). However once you stop paying, your ads stop showing, and your traffic volumes drop – there may be few long term benefits. PPC is comparatively quick and easy to setup – but keep in mind that it is also easy for your competition – if they have bigger budgets, they could ultimately win.

Provided that you recognize how much a click is worth, and are certain that the rewards outweigh the expense, PPC can be highly effective. You would not for instance care if it costs you $2,000 (or more) a day provided that it generates $5,000.

PPC is among the few ways a fresh site can get found in the search engine results and start to build traffic (and sales revenue) while the long term Seo methods kick in. The data generated from a PPC Campaign (such as which keywords are converting) can also be an extremely useful source of information for an SEO campaign.

Search engine optimisation Advantages

Below are some of the positive aspects of Search engine optimization:

• Visitors from Organic Search are Totally free
• The rankings a website achieves through SEO can continue for a very long time after the work has been done
• On-page improvements (that are most likely necessary for SEO) can help improve conversions along with traffic
• Commonly more searchers click the natural search results (88%) versus the pay per click ads (12%), so you may well get a good deal more traffic from Organic results.
• Users typically feel Organic Search Results have a higher “trust” level

Of course SEO is not free – it requires effort and investment, frequently over a long period. In some demanding niches it can be extremely hard (or even impossible) to attain page 1 rankings, but in most niches it is possible to comparatively easily achieve respectable rankings and traffic. In any case, it’s the user that should be at the heart of any SEO strategies. Almots anything you do to improve the user experience may well increase your rankings and conversion rates (and ultimately increase sales/enquiries)

Both PPC and SEO have their benefits and drawbacks and depending on your specific goals, either (or even both) could be best for your needs.

Do this Now ! Run a search on Google and find your Pay Per Click (PPC) ad. Click on it. Where does it bring you? Your home page? I hope not. If it does you should consider creating a specific landing page for your PPC ads. A landing page is the page you create with the primary goal of converting your PPC traffic into sales or enquiries. This page should encourage your potential customers (that you have already paid for!) to go exactly where you think they want to go.

Here are some tips to create a good landing page:

1) Focus! Focus! Focus!

The landing page should be about your product or service. No links to other sites, no advertisements, no waffle. When people arrive at your landing page, they should already be predisposed to buy (since you wrote such an excellent ad to get them here in the first place) and are trying to either find out more information about your product/service, or click the “Buy now” button.

2) Specialise your landing page

Use a different landing page for each group of keyphrases. If you sell Widgets and Wodgets, don’t use the same landing page for each. Create a new landing page for each product (or each group of products) and send the clients directly to the page they are interested in.

3) Give them information

If they are not yet sold on your product or service, then they are going to be looking for more detailed information when they arrive at your landing page. Give it to them. You have to convince them that you have the perfect product or service to solve their problem. If they run out of information before they make a commitment to buy, then you have lost them. Nobody will spend money until they are convinced that your product or service is the right choice for them. So prove it.

4) Tell the reader what you want them to do

Use calls-to-action. If you want them to buy your product, than tell them often how to do it (“Click here to buy”). If you want them to call you, post the number up with instructions (“Call us now at 1800-999-999″). Repeat it throughout the text, then again in big and bold at the end.

5) Use graphics

Use pictures to sell your product or service. Pictures of the product or pictures of satisfied customers sell. Use them – and use them often.

6) Run tests

Set up two (or more) landing pages to see which ones convert better. You can use Giigles Website Optimiser toolf for tjhis or set up two identical ads and send one to each landing page, then compare conversion rates for each page. Figure out why one converts better and try to improve the other one. Then, run more tests until you are completely satisfied with the results.

Set up your landing pages so that your potential customers arrive for a safe and controlled landing. If all goes well, they will step out of the plane with their credit cards already in hand – and their money almost in your pocket.