In these days of increasing online competition, most web site owners recognise the importance of marketing their sites, and not just assuming that they will be found. However, many are unsure whether they should promote their site with SEO (search engine optimisation) or PPC (pay per click advertising).

The answer is probably not that black and white, and in fact most websites work best if you incorporate a combination of SEO and PPC. The best mix will depend on your specific business goals and needs.

To help with the decision on when PPC or SEO is most relevant, outlined below are some of the advantages and disadvantages of each :

Pay per click advertising (PPC)

Advantages:

• Immediate Results : PPC generates traffic almost immediately - not in several months time. This makes it ideal for New sites which will take a while to be listed organically.
• Time based promotions : PPC ads are ideal for time dependent activities such as special offers, competitions, or seasonal sales .
• Control : PPC can be stopped or started whenever you wish - so you’ve got some control over traffic volume. If you are swamped with orders or enquiries you can turn PPC off until the backlog clears. PPC also provides a great deal of control over other aspects - such as budget, and even the geographical location or time of day your ds aree displayed.
• Testing : PPC ads allow you to relatively easily (and cheaply) test the effectiveness of different keyword phrases and landing pages.
• Search Engine Unfriendly : PPC ads can be used to promote sites that may not otherwise be found via search engines e.g. new sites, single page sites, or sites that for other reasons may be difficult to rank organically for.
• Keyword Range : PPC ads allow you to bid on a large range of keywords, including misspellings and other keyword variations that you don’t necessarily want on your web pages.

Disadvantages:

• Expense : PPC advertising can become expensive (with little or no return) if the wrong keywords are used, the bid price is not appropriate, or if the campaign is not managed.
• Fraud : Click fraud can be an issue - particularly for very competitive areas.

Major PPC provides such as Google Adwords, Yahoo and adCenter are offering much better tools for setting up and managing Adwords campaign,s however they can still be complex to manage effectively - if you advertise your website with PPC ads then you should seriously consider professional campaign management.

Search engine optimization (SEO):

Advantages:

• Cheap : Once established, traffic through organic search engine results is almost free.
• Long Term : Once optimised, your website should continue to deliver traffic for the long term.
• Cost Management : the number of visitors isn’t based on your budget - your budget doesn’t need to increase to increase traffic.

Disadvantages:

• Up Front overheads : SEO can be relatively time-consuming up-front.
• Long Term results : SEO is not usually a quick fix, results can take weeks or months to be achieved.
• Black Hat : be aware of some SEO techniques which are not approved of by Search Engines, these can sometimes have reasonable short term results, but may ultimately have a negative impact on your rankings.
• Site redesign : SEO can require a redesign of your web pages to make your website search engine friendly. However, this usually also results in a better user experience.

Search engine optimization delivers lasting results and it can cost considerably less in the long term. However, correct use of optimisation techniques is important (sometimes they can backfire).

Pay per click advertising and search engine optimisation both provide opportunities to promote your site and build traffic. Both can contribute significantly to the success of your online business. If you use both wisely, you should be able to get many new site visitors and customers without spending a fortune.