You’re on your way to launching your business, you have a great product or service, and now what you need to do is put the word out to customers. But with hundreds of businesses competing for attention on the business, how can you ensure you achieve maximum visibility? Two advertising methods, organic SEO and pay-per-click advertising, offer different methods of reaching your base of customers and ensuring the best face of your business is seen.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of building a website in such a way that it maximizes visibility in the search engines people use to navigate the internet. By using techniques that work with the algorithms and keywords that search engines use to determine relevant results, SEO puts your website higher in the search results that come up for relevant keywords. Because customers find your site in the normal use of the internet, this is called ‘organic’ advertising.

Advertisers find this form of reaching customers to be attractive because it creates a natural experience for the customer who finds your website. Because the website comes up on a search they were performing, they don’t feel an aggressive marketing push that may deter some wary customers. However, because of the ever-changing nature of the algorithms search engines use, keeping your site up to date can take some work.

What Is Pay-Per-Click Advertising?

As opposed to search engine optimization which has customers find your website with normal search engine use, pay-per-click (or PPC) advertising presents your business directly to customers. Ads of this type appear first when relevant keywords are entered into a search engine. PPC results are marked as advertisements, distinguishing them from the regular results that a search turns up. Generally, your business pays for every customer that clicks those links, giving this type of advertising its name.

One advantage of PPC advertising is that you’ll often get quicker results because PPC advertising guarantees that customers will see your website advertised right away. However, some customers can be put off by this sort of obvious advertising. In fact, many users of search engines skip right over the paid advertisements that come up first on a results page to look at the ‘organic’ results instead.

Why SEO Is the Right Choice

While the up-front costs of optimizing your website for search engines can seem steep, SEO will ultimately be cheaper than PPC in the long run for your business because PPC advertising campaigns require constant funding. Organically built SEO provides long-lasting equity in your online presence – even when you stop purchasing ads.

In addition, because customers are finding you naturally with SEO marketing, they are less likely to be skeptical that you are trying to reach them through your advertising, creating a more stable flow of customers to your business.

So how do you build equity in your online presence?  Quality content creation is where it’s at.  This means rich social media posts and backlinked blogs that share those optimized keywords that your audience is searching for. Even soliciting (and responding to) online reviews for your business contributes to your organic SEO.

The benefits of SEO are undeniable.  It’s time to get your website up-to-date to match the algorithms search engines are using. Our experienced team knows everything search engines are looking for to give your website maximum visibility. Contact Blue Zone Marketing and start growing your brand today!

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