Search engine marketing is critical to any business that is serious about selling online. Search engines plays a crucial part in driving visitors to your web site. They can account for 80% or more of all visitors when implemented as part of a structured online marketing strategy.

Forrester Research revealed that more than 80 percent of Internet users find the target Web sites through search engines.

Search engine optimisation – SEO

SEO results are sometimes classified as “organic” or "natural" results. SEO results are generated according to a relevance ranking, which the search engine merits. This means that unlike pay per click results you do not pay for click thru results, which can be as much as £3 for competitive keyword phrases.
(You are charged this fee every time someone clicks on this keyword link regardless if the lead results in a order or not)

SEO is a very detailed and intensive process that involves ongoing web site reviews, monitoring and maintenance. The process does take time. This is because once your website has been optimised, it takes time for it to be indexed by the search engines (it can take up to six weeks to be indexed by the search engines "robots" or "spiders"). However the benefits of search engine optimisation far out weigh any of these factors and should be considered as part of any online marketing strategy. Organic listing is seen as the chosen preferences of the search engines therefore visitors see these links as being more trust worthy.

Behavioral studies have indicated that

• 60.5 percent of Google, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL users selected a natural search result over paid search advertisements as the most relevant on a sample query
• 60.8 percent of Yahoo! and 72.3 percent of Google search engine users chose a natural search result as the most relevant.

Source Search Engine Journal.

Google search engine is considered to be the most relevant search engine to be listed on. Google searches account for up 60% of all searches on the internet therefore it is essential to be indexed on google with your targeted keyword phrases.

Source Fox News.

Pay Per Click – PPC

Pay per click or “PPC” offers excellent opportunities to get your web site listed on the hard to obtain keyword phrases. Keyword phrases are available through an auction like process and campaigns need to be regularly monitored to ensure you keep and maintain your top ranking positions. The main benefit of PPC is that once the campaign is set up, visitors instantly have access to your web site though your chosen keywords phrases.

Keywords phrases are available to the highest bidder, therefore competitive keyword phrase can be very expensive to target. You could easily exhaust your budget if your ppc campaign is not managed properly. This also means targeting the appropriate keyword phrases that are likely to attract visitors who are genuinely interested in your products or services.

Click on free web site analysis report for details on how to find out who your competitors are and how you compare to them.