Internet Marketing Strategy for New Websites

SEO and PPC are two major Search Marketing strategies which are practiced by Internet marketers to promote their website on the Net. Both the techniques are entirely different from each other and play very important role while making the Internet Marketing Strategies. Both the techniques have their own advantages as well as disadvantages and thus one should always weigh the pros and cons before proceeding with the strategy.

First of all let us understand both the techniques - Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the natural way of ranking in the SERPs. It includes the process of optimizing any website to gain top positions or ranks in the Search Engine Result Pages or simply SERPs for various keywords, and drive more traffic to the website. In order to accomplish the task the website's search engine compatibility is enhanced by more effectively formatting the site code, structure and content.

Search Engine Optimization tries to change the ranking by looking at a number of factors including on page optimization, link popularity, Page Rank and so on. If your site is well optimized for Search Engine then obviously there are more chances for your site to get top rankings in the SERPs. One of the best benefits of SEO is that you don't have to pay anything for the clicks.

PPC or Pay Per Click advertising is a type of search marketing technique where the Search Engines place a sponsored link on their SERPs for the suggested keywords and the advertisers have to pay a set amount every time their ad is clicked by a prospect. These are instant links and are based upon sponsorship model. Another benefit of PPC is that, the more often visitors come to your site, the better is you Click Through Ratio (CTR) and the better the Search Engines will like your website.

Now the question arises, which practice is better. Both methods actually serve different purposes. This is a very subjective question and the strategies depend totally upon the specific needs and differ from website to website. To decide which strategy is best, consider the basics. Always take the big picture into account. Before getting started with the Search Engine Marketing, you should decide which of the two strategies will work best for your site. This planning will help you to stay on the track and not waste time unnecessarily.

Top Search Engine positions and Search engine marketing is undoubtedly one of the best sources of targeted traffic but it takes some time to show the results. The major plus point of SEO is that it does not cost anything to get the ranking (apart from the resources used to do SEO) on the site. Whereas PPC gets instant traffic but it includes bidding cost for the sponsored links.

So, in my opinion, the best Search Marketing strategy should be to go with PPC for newer websites to get immediate traffic and analyze conversions, and also to carry on the business. In the mean while, SEO should be started for the sites and should be taken with a long term view in mind. When the site starts coming in the SERPs, a balance between the two can be maintained to reap the benefits.

Once you have done a thorough analysis of both SEO and PPC, you will be able to decide the best Search Engine Marketing strategy for your website.

The author is the Internet Marketing Manager of a multi national firm with offices in India, UK and USA. She maintains a Blog - e-marketing-strategies.blogspot.com on Internet Marketing Strategies to share her experiences and discuss the latest trends and techniques in the field.