PPC Or SEO: Which will you choose For Online Marketing?

PPC performs better or SEO? The question is very difficult and most people think that organic search is better than PPC in terms of Internet marketing. This is a general perception that people rely more on the organic search for buying any product. But, this is not a fact.

There has been a significant debate among small businesses regarding the indirect value of online branding versus the direct value of search marketing. A recent report from Engine Ready says branding is worth more than you perceive.

Engine Ready's released a report to the New York Times which covered 18.7 million visits over a two-year period to 27 Engine Ready client sites. The report has shown some really amazing facts about PPC.

According to the study, paid listings performed better than organic listings. Visitors clicking on paid links were 17 percent more likely to buy, and spent about 18 percent more money. On an average, an organic retail visitor is worth about $1.35 and a visitor finding a retail website via a paid link is worth about $1.91. What it suggests? PPC pays more and sometimes it performs better than SEO.

DMOZ File Submission: It can be so Easy

DMOZ is the largest and most comprehensive human edited directory of the web. Websites must fulfill certain criteria before being submitted in DMOZ. The websites are manually reviewed for quality and relevance.

DMOZ listing is excellent for improving your search engine rankings and Google Pagerank. The directory data is syndicated throughout hundreds of websites and even Google Directory uses this data. Having a listing in DMOZ can result in many hundreds of additional backlinks which can improve search engine ranking.

Now, there are some points to be remembered while submitting the site in DMOZ. It rejects spammy/MFA sites, sites without unique content, affiliate sites and SEO competition sites.

So, how can you submit a website over the DMOZ, this point is worth pondering. According to some editors of DMOZ, remember the following 5 points while file submission. To read the 5 points visit Steps to Avoid Rejection from DMOZ Listing

Steps to Avoid Rejection from DMOZ Listing

DMOZ is the name of an open directory project which is the largest and most comprehensive human edited directory of the web. Many websites have been listed in the directory and before submission in DMOZ those websites have been manually reviewed for quality and relevance.

You may ask the benefits of listing in DMOZ. Well, this listing is excellent for improving your search engine rankings, Google Pagerank and of course Trustrank. Also, DMOZ directory data is syndicated throughout many hundreds of websites and even Google Directory uses this data. A great thing is that, having a listing in DMOZ can result in many hundreds of additional backlinks which eventually improves search engine ranking.

Now, the big question is how to submit a website over the DMOZ. According to some editors of DMOZ, it is a 5 step process. These steps are not official DMOZ submission guidelines but these steps may help. Here are those 5 steps…

1. Read carefully the DMOZ submission guidelines: The open directory does not include sites with illegal content, sites with duplicate content or sites consisting largely of affiliate links.
2. Try to choose a regional category rather than a normal one.
3. Read the description of your category and make sure your site belongs there.
4. Make the title official: Sometimes a non promotional description works. Experts advise to use business names a titles.
5. Find an appropriate general, non-regional category. If the editor changed your title or description then copy that and submit again to one non regional relevant category.

So, follow the above steps and keep waiting. And yes don’t forget to continue working on your site.

Who is better – Getting links from Old Age Website than Newly Website ?

Search engine optimization has come a long way since its inception and various schools of thoughts have been developed regarding link building also. While some of the industry players think that content and brand awareness is more important for the SEO preference. Still, some others think that if your link is old age link then SEO give preference to it.

What is the truth then? Before answering, may I ask you a question? Which website becomes popular with time and why? Most probably your answer would be, that website which has rich content and focused approach. You are right and if one website is rich in the content, obviously it is spreading brand awareness.

Now, the golden rule applies here also that old is gold and old is the best. So, this is true to a great extent that SEO prefer old age link than new link. A website’s age is one of the major factors used to rank it in the search engines. And older domains may get a slight edge in search engine rankings.

Moreover, certain other factors also affect SEO preference like freshness of pages, freshness of links, frequency of updates, URL length, site size etc.

Misleading advices about Google Sitelinks

Most probably, the most discussed issue in Internet marketing is Sitelinks. These are a collection of links that are automatically chosen by Google’s algorithm. They appear below the result of a website, linking to main pages of your website. There are various theories regarding how Google calculates Sitelinks.

One theory says that Google might track the number of clicks for different results.

Another theory says that the link architecture of a website may be the reason and the links at the top of the HTML source of a website may have a better chance to be included as Sitelinks.

One theory guesses that Google might be using the Google toolbar to determine Sitelinks. The possibility of a webpage being used as a Sitelinks increases if it is bookmarked a number of times.

Of late, many Internet professionals and bloggers have suggested some ways to get Sitelinks, but it may happen that some of those advices might not have a contribution to your effort. These are some advices like…

Make your website World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) valid, have links from powerful websites, have a lot of links, add Meta tags, have a very well designed navigation menu and some other such advices.

Furthermore, Pagerank has also nothing to do with Sitelinks. There are PR7 and PR2 websites that got Sitelinks. Also, according to some industry professionals Sitelinks are randomly chosen and I also personally believe in the same.

Sitelinks Know-how and how Google Calculates that

There may be millions of keywords that are being stuffed in the Google search box on the daily basis. I wonder often, doesn’t Google get confused in providing the search results and it is providing some Sitelinks also. Now, what are these Sitelinks?

You may have noticed that some search results include a set of links below them to pages within the site. These additional links are called Sitelinks. The process for generating Sitelinks is completely automated and Google does a great home work before showing some particular links to the searchers.

Generally, these Sitelinks are shown when the search engine perceives that these are most useful for the searchers. It saves the searcher’s valuable time.

Now, the big question is why a particular link should be a Sitelink? There are some schools of thought on how does Google calculate Sitelinks.

One theory says that Google might track the number of clicks for different results. If a particular website gets more clicks for a special keyword then the website will get Sitelinks on the result page. This theory sounds practical but how Google is tracking those clicks, it is unimaginable.

According to another theory, the link architecture of a website may be the reason. It further says that links at the top of the HTML source of a website may have a better chance to be included as Sitelinks.

Still another theory guesses that Google may be using the Google toolbar to determine Sitelinks. This toolbar can collect a lot of information about a particular website. The possibility of a webpage being used as a Sitelink increases if it is bookmarked a number of times.

But, still it is difficult to speak concrete reasons as how Google calculates the new Sitelinks. The reason may be a combination of click data, toolbar data and other factors.
It is better to be properly search engine optimized to be listed as a Sitelink.

Google Sitelinks

Google Sitelink - collection of links, automatically chosen by Google’s algorithm, to appear below the result of website, linking to main pages of your website. They are randomly chosen, although you can block any link from appearing.