The debate between PPC and SEO has been going on for some years now. The question always arises, which one is more effective. Of course, we believe they are most effective when they work together and compliment each other. But that doesn't say anything about why companies use one or the other. PPC is popular among companies just starting out on their Web marketing ventures for a number of reasons. First, SEO takes time. Good SEO takes a long time.

Rand Fishkin started a war between PPC and SEO providers . At first glance his thesis seems correct. Maybe companies should be spending more money on SEO than on PPC. But Rand's position is really based on incomplete data as shown by this response from SEMVironment. We've said for a long time now that PPC and SEO compliment each and that's the same conclusion drawn from SEMvironment,

Google Analytics announced a few days ago that it has added advanced segmentation . This is good news for PPC advertisers. Advanced segmentation allows you to break down your visitors into smaller segments for better analysis. For instance, you can look to see how many of your paid search visitors have converted. If the percentage isn't big enough for you then you can tweak your ad content or landing page to increase your conversions.

For any growing business that is looking to expand online knows that it takes more than just launching a website and hoping people find you. You might be asking yourself, is online PR really that important? The answer is, yes!

It's been said that Facebook is not a good model for PPC. I don't think we should rush to judgment. Perhaps no one has really created a PPC camapign that has risen to the same level of success as that of Google. But I think it's possible. First, I would not start my social media PPC campaign with paid advertising. The first step must be to build a solid base of friends and fans with your Facebook profile.

Many people are under the impression that the internet has millions of users all over the world searching for things they want or need every second of the day, and they are 100% right. Sorry to burst your bubble but chances are they are not looking for what you have to say and that is something you have to realize before you launch your blog. Going out and launching a blog and writing some blog posts is not going to get you the traffic you are expecting.

Managing keywords is the most important thing when it comes to online commerce, particularly managing PPC campaigns. Here is a list of common mistakes that new advertisers make in their PPC campaigns and how you can remedy them: Too many keywords per ad group - Too many keywords can kill an advertising campaign by watering down your optimization. Make sure that you are targeting only the necessary keywords for a particular campaign and delete unnecessary keywords.

More and more people attempt to try to jump on the bandwagon with social networking websites thinking that if you build it they will come. Not the case, launching a social networking website these days requires more than just a good idea. Simply building a website and letting it sit will not bring in traffic.

In every business there is a language. Many times that language is unique to that business. Doctors and lawyers may speak Latin, but almost no one else does. Even then, the Latin is a modern American Latin. Well, it's all Greek to me. But I'm not talking cultural languages here. I'm talking professional languages. Jargon. You know what I mean.

Bryan Eisenberg wrote a blog post for small business owners titled 7 Signs Your PPC Campaigns Need Optimization. It's an excellent blog post and I agree with his points. Here they are in a nutshell: You use the set it and forget it strategy to PPC. You don't have proper tracking in place. You have not tested at least 3 variations of your PPC ad. You have not tested matching options. You have a long list of keywords in your ad groups.

If you use Google's Content Network or use pay-per-click advertising at any of the search engines then you may consider blocking your ad from appearing on some domains. Why? Because it could increase your click throughs and ROI. There are any number of reasons why you may want to consider domain blocking,

When it comes to PPC ad copywriting, every little detail counts. Even spaces. Here's an example: Let's say you sell stepladders. Or is that step ladders? Type them both into Google and you'll likely get different results. Let's see ' Ignoring the paid search ads, when I typed "stepladders" into Google, the top five results were: Amazon.com Grainger.com doityourself.com stacksandstacks.com icanhascheezburger.com But when I typed "step ladders" into Google,

One of the measuring sticks for Google's Quality Score is content relevancy or user experience. No one really knows what that means. No one other than Google, that is. But we have a pretty good idea. Google wants to know that its advertisers are advertising products that meet customers' needs and that when a searcher clicks on an ad they don't go to a page that advertises something other than what the ad that got them there was advertising. In other words,

Ten years ago it was nice to have a website representing your company or business. Now, not having one is just plain dumb. For any local business the internet approach should be a must. It should be right up there with eating and breathing. Everything has gone digital and tackling your online audience and letting them know what is going on online with your business or company has never been more important. Yes, the economy has slowed down,

Google Analytics is improving once again. This time they've gone and included motion charts that allow you to see a video presentation of your statistics. Cool! The Google Analytics Blog discusses the new feature in more detail, but here are a few thoughts on the motion charts from a PPC perspective: The most important aspect of the motion charts is time tracking. Instead of just seeing trends in a two-dimensional framework,

A lot of emphasis is placed on conversions by companies when discussing their PPC campaigns. But you can generate leads through PPC just as well as close sales. The strategy is a little different, but not much. To start with, your landing page must be written differently. You are not closing a sale so why ask for the sale? That's not to say you won't have a call to action. Every landing page should have a call to action.

It is no surprise that the power of the internet has completely changed we go about daily life. It seems like everyday there is something new being introduced to us that guarantees to make our lives easier. With our troubled economy here more and more of us will be looking for new employment. Some by choice and many by no choice at all. Most employers are so utterly flooded with resumes that many do not know where to begin digging. It will be very important for you,

There have been many blogs writing and praising Obama recently for his amazing approach at leveraging himself online to win the recent presidential election. Obama has ignited a new path of thinking that I think we will start seeing many other politicians take to become visible for any political race. Obama knew how to get the young vote and he did it with every possible social networking site he could get his hands on.

December is the month for three separate and simultaneous holidays. The practitioners of the three holidays are all in different market segments with little to no overlap. If you have products that appeal to all three market segments then you should not advertise them together in the same campaigns. It's time to target your holiday advertising to the right market. Hanukkah begins on Dec. 21 at sun down and runs for eight days. Christmas falls on Dec. 25. And Kwanzaa,

When it comes to pay per click advertising, you should optimize your campaign and each ad around a keyword or key phrase. But which is better? In a sense, both a keyword and a key phrase can be beneficial depending on a few factors. I think you should be able to use both effectively if you want to succeed at PPC. But when should you use a key phrase as opposed to a keyword? There's no easy answer to that question. I think perhaps the best approach is to write two ads,