Search Engine Marketing traditionally encompasses two major disciplines:
- Search Engine Optimisation ( 'natural' or organic' listings )
These are the listings that appear as a result of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), This process takes time, is rarely simple, but doesn't cost you anything when a user finds you and clicks to your site. - Pay per Click ( sponsored or paid listings )
With Pay Per Click (PPC) you set up an account with the search engine you want to pay to attract customers to your site, select the keywords that you want and decide how much you want to pay when a user clicks through to your site.
Research indicates that users are twice as likely to click on an organic search result than a sponsored listing as they quite rightly recognise that the sponsored listings are only there as a result of the site being prepared to pay more than anyone else for the keyword. In contrast they assume that the organic results are going to be more relevant to their search term.
