A little over a decade ago Search Engine Optimization was still in the embryo stage, it did not even have a name yet. Some people happily wandered around the Internet and are excited at the interesting things they could find, while others became increasingly frustrated at wasting time in trying to find what they were looking for.

Now SEO is ‘the’ buzzword on everyone’s lips and over time Pay per click Optimization came along to fight for a piece of this lucrative business that has turned into a multi-billion dollar industry. For the man on the street it can be bewildering when you want to promote your own website as you can easily be drowned under the mountain of conflicting advice thrown to you constantly.

Pay per Click is fast and hot

To understand why PPC and SEO both work, you must understand how they work. Basically you sign up for the service and you pay x-amount every time someone clicks on your site. This is the ‘push’ method; your site is pushed to the top of the search listings, so people see it straight away. This is the ideal way to go if you want to promote your website very fast for a limited time period for you will burn money fast.

The trick is to convert those website hits into paying customers that in turn generate income for you, otherwise you will be paying for thousands of clicks that bring in no money. PPC is excellent if you need to promote a campaign fast, have a promotion that is going to last only for a limited period of time or for those businesses that are seasonal, so they have to get the word out fast, get their customers interested in the minimum of time, thereby generate their own income before the season is over.

Search Engine Optimization the steadily growing tree

Natural Search Engine Optimization is most definitely alive and growing. Going with this means that your ranking depends on the pulling together of certain criteria, the type of website you have, the content of your website and your marketing strategy.

You want your website to appear on the first two pages when someone does a search. Search Engine Optimization works through what is called the ‘pull’ method; people come look for you, you don’t push your product into their faces. Above all, you get this ranking for free. It takes time to build natural SEO, but you lay a solid foundation that will keep on growing in time.

What website owners must remember is that searchers are not stupid, they know sponsored sites involve money and often they mistrust that. They also know that a free ranked website is placed in that spot because for instance Google deemed them worthy of that place and this is something most people can identify with. It is really up to each website owner; do they want to push and go in like a fast burning rocket, or do they want to go in free, build their rating slowly on a strong foundation, in the end it comes down to your circumstances, needs and budget.

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