Both SEO and PPC campaigns are keyword driven: your potential customer finds you through targeted searches done using specific keywords. It is critical that you select the best keywords for your campaign. SEO and PPC can be quite effective in creating your online presence — but there are some differences in using each of these methods.

Some may have heard stories about click fraud when it comes to PPC. This is one of the reasons that running a PPC campaign simply costs more today. But with PPC you are charged each time any potential customer “clicks” on your advertisement. Your advertisements can run in high-profile places such as popular search engines like Google.com and Yahoo.com so that when that potential customer searches for snow globes, your snow globe company will be highlighted in their search results. A PPC ad also means you can target what you would like to say in your ad to attract your customer. You pay different rates for keywords depending on ratios that decide how popular these keywords are. Sometimes it can be surprising to discover a keyword you feel is popular is actually inexpensive and then another keyword is much more expensive.

SEO, or search engine optimization is an excellent way to attract potential customers for a reasonable cost. Quite often this costs much less than a PPC plan. One of the benefits of SEO is that if you stop your SEO campaign for some reason, you will still remain visible. The SEO you have done will still continue to attract traffic to your company website and help get you the business you desire. Of course, maintaining an active SEO campaign is very important — but the SEO that you have done is in many ways like planting seeds in the ground. It will continue to grow and bear fruit for your company long after you have planted those seeds.

Soon 2008 will be a thing of the past. Now is the ideal time to set goals for improvement for 2009 for your business website. You can improve your SEO for 2009. This will attract more customers or clients and will increase your ranking with search engines.

Try using some of our favorite tools to analyze your website. This will give you a good sense of where you are — and where you would like to be.

Learn about your keyword density:

Keyword density is important: you don’t want so many keywords that an article is not considered valuable content. But you also want enough keywords that search engines and spiders to select it as content that is a priority.

Keyword Density Analyzer — www.keyworddensity.com

Keyword Density Tool from Google — http://googlerankings.com/ultimate_seo_tool.php

Analyze your competition:

Just as you are looking at your website, it is critical that you analyze your competition. What better way to understand exactly what you must do than to know what your competition is doing. This tool will help you analyze your competition.

SEO Digger — http://seodigger.com

Check your search engine position:

Use this tool to easily see your search engine position. This is important for every business website owner to know.

In a recent article Search Optimization for Your Website at PC World.com, one of the best suggestions was “Put Quality First.” When you have great web content, your search engine results are going to be much higher due to the incoming links to the content. These incoming links can come from many sources as we know, such as blogs, news stories or sites like Digg or StumbleUpon.

Great keywords are critical but knowing what to do with the keywords is even more important. You simply cannot run these words across the screen and know that magically visitors will come. Great content keeps your visitors entertained and involved at your site.

Content is not just words but also images and videos. The key to great content is making your website one that people simply can’t resist interacting with. A website that they want to return to and will be eager to see new content.

One of the most critical things said by PC World.com in their article was “Do whatever you can to set yourself apart from and above the millions of other sites on the Web.” This is becoming more and more of an issue today. Ten years ago, fewer companies were on the Internet. Today just about every company automatically creates a website and a blog. It used to be “original” to simply even have a website — then it was astounding if your website was unique and different. Now with more websites to compete with you need to do more “outside the box” as the old business saying goes. To get noticed you need to both create value and entertain your visitors.

PC World states that the “typical” website obtains 61% of traffic from organic (nonpaid) search engine results and 41% from Google.com. It has never been more important to create great SEO results that right here, right now.

Source: PC World.com

What sort of features attract online shoppers during the holiday season? There are a great many, but for this discussion we’re going to look at wish lists, saved carts and a variety of delivery methods. All of these options often beat out their near-equivalents of registries (though most people don’t register for the holidays!), layaway and order by mail or catalog. First we’re going to look at the benefits of each and then how those benefits outweigh their similar components, listed herein.

Wish lists allow individuals to shop online and select the items they want to receive so that shoppers can quickly enter a wish list and select those items they’d like to purchase. Wish lists allow shoppers to be certain that the recipient will like the gift, while allowing still for an element of surprise. Wish lists work similarly to a registry, however, most people use registries for bridal and baby showers, as well as wedding gifts; perhaps registries are even used for housewarming gifts. Walking into, for example, Bloomingdales and asking to see someone’s holiday registry is rare, if not completely unheard of (unless that person is having a wedding or baby near the holidays).

The ability to save carts allow shoppers to shop online, and purchase their selections later. This is useful if perhaps someone doesn’t yet have the funds available to purchase a particular product, or if they’re waiting until they reach the minimum limit in order to receive free shipping. Or perhaps, they know they will purchase additional products from that website and don’t wish to initiate multiple yet similar transactions. Saved carts can also be edited, in case shoppers change their minds. Layaway, however, requires at least a deposit, which is sometimes non-refundable.

What are the benefits of multiple delivery options? For one, for those shoppers who like to do their shopping last minute, delivery can often be arranged for Next-Day or 2-Day air, though that option can often be expensive. However, some people require Saturday deliveries, while some delivery companies do not distribute or deliver on Saturdays, so a variety of shipping options is often an appreciated benefit of online shopping. Furthermore, for those shoppers sending gifts to distant relatives and friends, additional shipping options can even include gift wrapping and cards with personalized messages. Delivery can be arranged by a specific date to ensure that the present reaches the recipient on time.  Understanding the reasons shoppers look to the internet is crucial to implementing successful internet marketing strategies.