“Search Engine Marketing, or (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs). According to the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization, SEM methods include: search engine optimization (or SEO), paid placement. Other sources, including the New York Times, define SEM as the practice of buying paid search listings.” Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_marketing 

 Search Engine Marketing is become a lot more attractive to the everday businessman, with it’s amazing cost efficiency and it’s high yield for return on investment, as opposed to older and more traditional forms of advertising such as the YellowPages.

ORGANIC Search Engine Optimization is a service that we offer here at IDS, and that many other companies offer throughout the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. It’s a service that, if done right, will boost your links to the top of the search engines when customers type in certain keywords or phrases that match to your sites content. If done right, this service will considerably increase your web site’s traffic and will ultimately land you a lot more business. (What Does Organic Mean? Take a look at our screenshot to see the difference in Organic and Pay-Per-Click advertising.)

 What’s amazing to me is that many companies offer this service and have absolutely NO idea what they are doing… I find that more and more people are being discouraged from companies claiming to put them #1 on Google, Yahoo, & MSN all in a matter of a month, just to find out that they never get there placement which was promised. What is the difference in our SEO service than a lot of the other companies in the Metroplex? Well, I’d like to think it’s that we actually have researched the means to do this service effectively, have attended the conferences for the National Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization, and have a large customer base of satisfied clients that we’ve succesfully marketed on Google, Yahoo, & MSN. I’ll let my readers decide who’s ultimately the truth teller, just remember to give us a call with any questions you may have concerning this service. It’s a definite must-have if you’re in the service industry and are a smaller to medium sized company.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising is another service that we offer here at Integrity Design Solutions. There are two things you pay for with Pay-Per-Click advertising. 1.) You determine a budget that you’d like to pay to Google, Yahoo, or MSN to list your site on their search engine. 2.) You pay us a monthly fee to manage your account for you, and to report all data to you such as how many hits, from where the customer found your site, etc.

 So we begin this service by first setting up your Google, Yahoo, or MSN account. Usually we do this at your office, together, so that we can determine what kind of budget you are wanting to spend each month on your new online advertising campaign. We offer a monthly based plan, where we monitor your position, track hits and other helpful statistics, and then at the end of the month meet with you to review over all the data, and to compare how much you spend with Google, and how much you made from customers calling FROM online / your web page.

What is the Difference Between the Two Services? SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a one time payment which puts you up onto the top rankings of the search engines and will continue to keep you there over the years as your site is maintained by our company. Search Engine Pay-Per-Click is a small monthly fee with our company, as well as a month-to-month or daily budget with the search engine company.

In Your Opinion, Which Service is More Effective? Even though we earn more sales dollars for Search Engine Optimization, I’m not going to tell you that it’s always better. Search Engine Optimization will eventually save you the cost of your cost-per-click advertising campaign, but takes about a month to get rooted into the search engines, and gain momentum up the ladder into the top positions. Organic Search Engines are just that, a living, breathing, constantly changing environment where competition is tough, and getting to the top is tougher. Sites constantly are going up and down on the organic search engines, and it’s our job to secure your position into the top with our unique marketing strategies and coding abilities. I would tell you that your best FIRST option would be to go with the Pay-Per-Click Ad Campaign first, since this is usually the best option as it’s immediate gratification; meaning the day you sign up for an account with the search engine company, your listing will appear and you more than likely start receiving site traffic and calls the very same day. Eventually I would incorporate, if not already signed up for, the Organic Search Engine Optimization service — once your listing has reached a top position, this will enable you to lower your already high Pay-Per-Click advertising budget, and yet still maintain just as high call volume.

Whose the Best Search Engine? Google.com — Sorry, but it’s a fact… All you other search engines. Don’t kill the messenger. (Please still keep us in your listings though! We love you all.)

 So I hope this has cleared up any questions that you may have had with Search Engine Optimization vs Pay-Per-Click Advertising. Remember, you may always give us a call at your convenience to discuss any of our other services, or any questions you may have had about this article.

As Always, Thanks for Reading, Bookmark our Blog to Receive Up-To-Date Information on the Latest and Greatest of the Web Marketing World.

 I’m your Host, Johnathan Tebeau, CEO of Integrity Design Solutions, Dallas’ Favorite Web Developing Company