After receive several emails from readers asking about SEO, SEM and PPC, with a strong focus on which is most popular and which is best, I decided that I would touch on this to give you all a little understanding.
The first thing to look at is the overall opinion of the word when it comes to which of the three terms is being searched for most on the Internet and these were the results I gathered:
I’m not too surprised by what I found, let me explain:
1. SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing, which I would say is the overall name used to describe all online marketing which deals with search engines. Therefore, seeing it as being the most popular phrase, I’m not too surprised.
2. SEO vs PPC – When it comes to online marketing, the two fundimental types we have are Search Engine Optimisation (What is SEO?) and Pay Per Click advertising. Naturally, PPC always has a money requirement attached to it, whereas a fair amount of SEO can be done without spending any money. From the graph we can see that SEO is starting to become more popular than PPC in the eyes of Google Trends, which is a reliable source. With the state of the economy and the huge competition facing web startups, it makes sense for people to explore SEO over PPC.
Here’s something to remember:
SEO – Long Term, Large Capital Injection, Lower Running Costs
PPC – Short Term, Average Capital Injection, Higher Running Costs
The secret is to follow the same trend as the graph above shows, start with both SEO and PPC when you’re trying to get established on the Internet and in time, when the SEO kicks in, you’ll be able to reduce your PPC.
Don’t try and do it yourself, it’s incredibly easy to damage your rankings, spent the money and have a professional do it for you, the outcome will be favourable – trust me!
