It is a real challenge for any company competing on the net. There are billions of websites listed in Google alone. All these websites are competing with yours for clicks. So how can your website stand out from the rest? An experienced SEO company will be able to assist with search engine optimisation services but what about the other methods

Recently, the way business operates has completely changed. Going back just a bit, the Internet wasn’t where people bought their products and services. Customers would check out the local shops for what they wanted. The Internet has spun buying habits on its head. If you can’t wait for next day delivery, you do still have the shops. However they aren’t used as much as they were. Now business have to pick from an SEO company, a social media agency or a company to manage an Adwords campaign.

Internet marketers tend to expertise in one of the three methods. There are those companies that specialise in all areas, but they are few and far between. So what exactly is each marketing method, and what are their advantages and disadvantages.

Search engine optimisation is the holy grail of the internet marketer. Simply put, imagine when you type in Google for a product, you are given two sets of results. Paid adverts feature on the right. Organic results appear in the middle. These listings are unpaid and are in a nutshell, what Google deems worthy of being up there! Imagine being able to appear at the top of these listings. Even better, imagine being able to appear in the top three. This is where an SEO company comes in. There are a number of different methods to SEO. Mainly, there is onsite optimisation which includes optimising the content. Next you have link building which a good SEO company should help with. Link building involves sending backlinks to your website from others. It is very basically, when website X puts a link to you. So what are the disadvantages? It is actually hard to fault SEO, because if you are exceptionally good at it, the benefits are enourmous. One disadvantage even with the best companies is that Google can be unpredictable. A method that was successful can soon stop working. However a good SEO company will always be up to date with the latest and best methods.

If patience and time isn’t on your side, you might consider pay per click advertising. You can bid to be listed on the right hand side with pay per click. You can to an extent determine exactly where you appear. A good advert will encourage people to click through. You aren’t able to control what appears with organic results. Pay per click is also instant- you can be up and advertising in no time. It can take months and months to hit even the top ten in Google, and even then you have no guarantees at all. With the pay per click model you can pay your way to the top instantly. Although arguable a good Adwords management company will be able to optimise your campaign in such away, you will save their fees and more. Adwords can be very expensive though- I’ve seen bids that are more than what the product itself is worth. A good SEO company can be hired at a fraction of the price.

Unless you have been living in an air raid bunker for the last few years, you must have encountered social media! Who doesn’t have an account with the two main social networking sites- Facebook and Twitter? Who was shocked when their parents added them on Facebook? More and more companies are using social media to reach their customers. Social media is a new, more subtle way of getting your brand noticed. The worse thing to do with social media, is to contantly pump out promotions and offers. Social media is all about creating fans, who in turn ‘tweet’ about or ‘like’ your company and tell their friends. A good social media company can definitely help you with this form of advertising, but do be aware it is very different to traditional forms.