Every website owner wants to increase traffic to the website. The three most popular options are Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click Advertising, and Article Marketing.
Search Engine Optimization, also known as SEO, is a great way to create traffic. SEO typically requires hiring a consultant to design your website in a fashion to rank high with the major search engines. One of the biggest challenges is to figure out the algorithm needed for the large search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. The goal is achieve the best search engine ranking possible. The problem is that what works today may not work tomorrow. Search engines recalibrate constantly, so you need to stay on top of this on a continual basis. Thus, you will be routinely racking up charges with your SEO consultant.
Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is a giant money maker for Google and Yahoo. A PPC advertisement is the quickest and most immediate way to drive traffic to your website, but it can be very expensive and surprisingly ineffective. Google is the best known with AdWords; you can literally be up and running in a matter of minutes. But, there can be problems. If you don’t know how to write ads, you get slammed with huge keyword costs. Most website owners desire to be listed first on the first search page; but, that can really cost you. You can pay over $2.00 (or more) per click to get there. Multiply that by the number of clicks you get and you will find your cost per day. It can really scare you.
Article Marketing is another alternative. I love Article Marketing because it is free, believable, and easy. Also, Article Marketing perfectly targets your customer. The process is simple. Write a short article (no more than a page) on a subject that you are expert in or passionate about. Include your byline and website address. Submit your article to the appropriate ezine or ezine submission site. Get your article read by thousands. It is almost that easy. The big search engines love content, so content rich articles are exactly the right bait to catch them with. Your readers are people who want to know about your expertise. For more information, they hit the link to your website. Bingo! Articles have long lives since they can reside on an ezine website for months or years. The downside is the potential slow ramp to get the article to market.
I recommend that you use a mix of SEO, PPC and Article Marketing. SEO is the best at attracting the search engines, but it needs to be managed on an ongoing basis. PPC is the most immediate method, but it can be expensive. Article Marketing may be the most effective method, although it requires you to write and wait.
John Bradley Jackson
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