How to Use PPC and SEO to Improve Your Online Sales
How to Use PPC and SEO to Improve Your Online Sales
The majority of business owners set up a website for their store because they know that selling their products online opens their business up to whole new markets. However, once they’ve gotten that far they realize that they have no idea how to make their online store lucrative.
You might have a thriving brick-and-mortar store with a large and loyal client base, a great set of products, and a chic, stylish website that really presents your business well, but that doesn’t mean it will translate to online sales.
The first step to selling products online is reaching an agreement with a
payment gateway. Then, to make it all work, and to get the most out of your online efforts, you need to have at least a basic understanding of how search engines (like Google, Yahoo and Bing) work.
How Search Engines Works
Search engines are designed to determine and display the information that is most relevant to the keyword term that is being searched. Meaning, whatever you type into the search bar, search engines are designed to show you the website most closely related to that term. The search engine then shows you what it deems as the most relevant results in drop-down order.
A search engine determines relevancy by calculating a multitude of factors, including how many times the site contains that keyword, how relevant the keyword is to the material, the number of links into the site, how often new content is posted on the site, and the general strength and usefulness of the site. A website that is well-built around its keywords is more likely to be ranked higher on the list of results. The higher your website is ranked, the more likely it is to be clicked on and the more likely you are to make a sale.
As you’ve surely experienced with your own online searches, as soon as you find the information you’re looking for you stop flipping through search results. So therefore, being on the first page of results gives your website the best chance of being clicked on. Results on page 6, 7, 8, and so forth, have a pretty slim shot. You can’t make a sale without your website being clicked on. As you can see, your online business is completely dependent on its rankings on search engines for success.
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Pay-Per-Click
Pay-per-click is the most efficient and arguably most cost effective form of search engine marketing because the advertiser only pays when their ad is actually clicked. You can rest assured that the return on investment is proportional to the amount of money that you have invested.
The process begins by advertisers bidding on specific keywords related to their business. When someone searches a keyword that you have placed a bid on, your ad will be placed at the top of the first page. This is a great marketing tool for getting your business on the first page of results instead of pouring money into SEO to slowly inch your way up search engine results.
As I said above, you only pay the amount that you have agreed to once your ad is clicked. PPC gives business owners a lot more control because you get to decide who sees your message. You can set up different messages for different demographics or geographies. Have one message appear in
New York, a different in
Florida and a third in
Colorado to give a more authentic and personalized flair to your ads.
In comparison to SEO, PPC
internet advertising gives you a much better chance that the people who enter your site are actually looking for your product.
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization is the process of deliberately and systematically tweaking your website to improve its ranking on search engines. SEO is how you improve your organic search results, in comparison to paid search results that are achieved through PPC campaigns. The term “organic” is used to distinguish between real search results and paid ads.
Having a website that is SEO friendly will naturally make its way up search results as you garner more and more visitors. Having a website that is built around sound SEO principles will not only appeal to search engines, but will surely catch the eye of the potential customers who brows your site as well. Here are a few basic ways to improve your website:
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Choose Relevant Keywords- Your website should be structured around a set of keywords that are relevant to what you do. The best way to decide these keywords is to research your high-ranking competition and see which keywords are helping them rank well.
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URLs and Title Tags- URLs and title tags should reiterate your keywords and should serve as a clear description of what the page contains. Without entering the page a visitor should be able to know what is coming up next.
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Make Your Site Easy to Navigate- For the sake of both search engines and users, make sure that all your most important content is as close to your front page as possible. If your products and valuable content are buried deep in your site no one will find it!
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Regularly Update Content- Many sites are put together and then left to sit unchanged and un-updated for years. Search engines devalue these sites. On the opposite side of the spectrum, search engines give more value to sites that have new content being uploaded regularly. A blog or news section is a great way to accomplish this task. Avoid uploading duplicate content.
Even though it may seem from the description above that PPC is the way to go, having a site that is built around SEO principles is in your site’s best interest in the long run. The best bet is to make sure your website is SEO friendly and then use PPC campaigns to really target specific demographics and keywords. Using both SEO and PPC will dramatically improve the success of your Ecommerce business.