An Introduction to SEO and PPC

It can be frustrating when you've invested a lot of time (and in some cases, money) into building and developing a website and then find there is very little traffic making its way to us.

There are many ways to direct traffic to your website. Of course there are traditional off-line methods such as word of mouth (which is still very important in a lot of cases), direct marketing, television and radio advertising, billboards etc. With such an increasing emphasis placed on the digital world, however, it is becoming more and more important to know how to market your website online particularly as this is the medium which you are hoping to communicate on.

Without a doubt, the most important way to boost your web traffic is by ranking highly on search engines. Recent figures state that approximately 81% of all traffic is generated by search engines. That is a massive proportion of total traffic. As mentioned earlier, word of mouth and other forms of advertising are still valuable and in no way should these be stopped, but there should definitely be a greater focus on ensuring you rank highly on search engines.

Optimising your website for search engines can be a tricky job. Hopefully a lot of this work will have been done in the initial development stages. If not, don't worry. These things can all be changed. The primary focus should be on your content. Search engines love content. If it is unique and includes your desired keywords (or search terms) then you have already given yourself a head start. Unfortunately though, this is not always enough so you will need to work on generating links to your web page also. This can be done by submitting your website to relevant web directories and contacting other website owners and arrange some kind of link exchange.

If you are looking for a faster way to direct traffic to your website, there is another option. Pay Per Click (or PPC) has become a more popular way of advertising recently, mostly thanks to Google's AdWords scheme. To use this scheme, you must sign up for an AdWords account and choose your budget. Once you have chosen this, you then select the keywords you wish to rank for and then choose how much you would be willing to pay per click.

Before signing up for any kind of PPC system, make sure you have a clear idea of what your keywords are and what your budget is. Make sure also that you read the information thoroughly, so you know exactly what you are paying for. PPC can generate excellent results but can also be quite expensive.

For more information about choosing your keywords or to check your current status in terms of search engine rankings, it may be worthwhile requesting a free SEO report. SEO reports will generally recommend keywords and advise you of your current rankings.

Combining a traditional approach to SEO (link building, up to date content) with PPC is perhaps the most effective way of increasing web traffic. Just ensure that you are clear on what you hope to achieve and any required budget before making any decisions!