July 9th, 2011 : SEO Vs. Paid Advertising - Why Search Engine Optimization Is More Effective

SEO Vs. Paid Advertising - Why Search Engine Optimization Is More Effective

Being found on the Internet is much like getting your business seen on TV. And hiring an SEO professional is much like hiring a Public Relations expert to go on TV and talk about your business. In both cases, you get much more exposure at a price lower than buying official advertising.

In fact, search engines offer paid advertising spots much the same as TV stations offer 30-second commercials. In both cases, the costs would be too much. So what is SEO, and how does it bring you more customers from the internet?

Why SEO Beats Paid Advertising

If you look at the results after searching on Google, you'll notice some paid advertisements at the top and on the right-hand side. Those are like commercials. Underneath, you'll see the actual "organic" search results. Those are regular web pages on the internet that didn't pay to be listed. They're more like news and television shows. It's what people are really interested to see.

It is much better for your web site to be among the normal search results. The first reason is that people tend to trust it more than paid advertisements. The next reason is you save much more money. Paid advertisements may get plenty of visitors to your website, but the quality of those visitors is much lower. They tend not to contact you as much. If they do, they're much more skeptical about your business. When you're found among the "organic" results, the percentage of people who contact you is much higher. Plus, they tend to be more willing and eager to do business with you.

From the viewpoint of keeping your expenses lower, natural search results also beat paid advertising. With SEO, you enjoy a predictable fixed cost that will never surprise you. Once your website is listed, it stays there with minor maintenance. However, paid advertising stops the minute you can't afford it. There is also the risk of having too many visitors who don't convert to sales. Your expenses could skyrocket unexpectedly, yet you wouldn't see enough new business to justify the expense. That's why the predictable cost of SEO is a much better choice than paid advertising.

When Is The Best Time To Hire An SEO Professional?

Many people mistakenly believe they must first create a website before hiring an SEO company. The reality is that SEO professionals can often give you faster results when they're involved in the creation of the website. The good news is that it saves you from having to find a web designer. Most professional SEOs hire their own designers or use templates to create websites from scratch.

The reason why it's better is because the SEO professional can set up your web site to be search-engine friendly from the beginning. Many times, it's faster to set it up themselves than to reverse-engineer the work of someone else. If the web site is done correctly the first time, there should be no need to go back and fix it. SEO professionals often know graphic designers who can create logos or images if you want some extra "dazzle" to your web site.

Many times, however, SEO professionals must deal with someone else's web design work. This is the standard situation, so they would be thrilled if you were the exception. You may even be able to save money hiring an SEO professional versus hiring a web designer. Additionally, many web designers place a greater priority on beauty and aesthetics that slow down the web site and hurt your efforts for bringing more customers to your business. With an SEO, you can get a high-performance website that brings more business while also keeping a clean and professional look.

Simply put, the sooner you contact an SEO professional, the better. Their job is to bring customers to your business.

Tags: Local Internet Marketing, Local Internet Advertising

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