But how easy is it to get your site on the first page of the search engine listings?



The simple answer is that it is not simple, nor is it easy. Most search engines use very convoluted mechanisms (algorithms) to decide who is to appear on the top of their listings for any given keyword. One of the most common of these is a linking system, whereby weight is applied to sites that have many links (backlinks) pointing to their web site. You consider this a kind of voting system. There are many other factors that are applied to these algorithms, but for the sake of simplicity, think of it purely in terms of this voting system.

Not only is it time consuming to get votes to your site, the results are not usually apparent anytime soon. You could wait months for your work to bear fruit. That is not to say that you shouldn't be trying to get links, you should. It is a good medium to long term strategy that will deliver long term results. If you need to see results more quickly though, perhaps you should be thinking about pay per click advertising.

Pay per click advertising does offer some advantages over more conventional advertising techniques. Because you have control over your web site, you have control over who visits it. That is the nature of the Internet and effectively how it operates. Because of this, it is possible to target your ads quite precisely, so that your adverts fit specific searches that people make. Because the ads either form part of the search results themselves, or are discretely located on websites as Adsense ads, they are less 'in your face' than some other online marketing methods. Consequently, people who click on them are usually looking for something specific and are in a good frame of mind when they arrive (provided that you advert is on topic of course).

If you approach it correctly, pay per click advertising can be a very cost effective marketing strategy. With proper testing and controls on your spending, you can find good converting ads and then spend more money knowing that these ads will actually bring you a good return. One reason that many people fail at pay per click advertising is through inexperience. They bid too much on ads that haven't been tested to be working. Using this scenario, you could lose your shirt, so prudence is called for, especially whilst you are learning the ropes.

The other benefit (as alluded to previously) is the almost instant gratification that pay per click advertising brings to you. An ad you write can be shown on the Internet moments after placing it, and it is possible to get tangible results very quickly. And because of the nature of the Internet, you suddenly have access to millions of potential customers.

The other side of the coin of course, is to find ways to increase your organic search presence. Maybe you should be considering doing this at the same time as pay per click, so that you cover all your bases. The biggest thing that you need to do is to increase the number of links to your website, and from as good quality websites as possible. There are always innovative ways being developed to create backlinks to your site, so keep your eyes open for new ways to backlinks to increase your natural search engine position.