Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 1 “I want to be on the first page of Google results. What do I need to do?” This is what I usually hear from most clients. Most don’t know the complexity of achieving top search engine results, and most are shocked at the level of effort required to rank on key terms. In today’s world, mixing organic search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising is a great start to achieving a formidable search engine presence. Here’s why: Control Your Traffic You want traffic and you want it now. But you have conditions and you are realizing that natural search engine optimization is anything but predicable. Pay-per-click advertising has evolved into something that is increasingly flexible. Want to your ad to show only at specific hours of the day or in specific geographies? Have an ad that should only show for a limited date range? Do you want to test which ad copy has a higher click-through rate (CTR)? You can achieve this and more with pay-per-click management tools. What’s more, if you are making nice strides in your natural SEO you can easily eliminate or pause those words from your pay-per-click campaign. Content Is Everything I’m not the first person to tell you that your site’s content is vital. You may have invested a lot of time in your content development and maybe you properly tagged your pages, but chances are you don’t have enough keyword-rich content throughout your site to achieve top rankings on all of your top keywords. Enter pay-per-click advertising. Research the keywords that you want to rank on, and with the right budget, your ads appear almost immediately. Keep in mind that the ranking and performance of your ads directly correlates to whether your site strongly supports the keyword, so make sure the pages you drive traffic to are strong. Social Media Helps But… Social media and organic SEO have become increasingly intertwined. The more your content is shared, the more credible your content becomes, which results in higher search engine rankings. But this process takes time and is highly dependent on – you guessed it – content. So if your social media presence isn’t winning any awards just yet, you should consider investing in a pay-per-click campaign to kick-start your presence. Traffic At Any Budget Though pay-per-click advertising is getting more expensive over time, there is an opportunity for businesses of all sizes to compete in nearly every industry, even without seven figure marketing budgets. If you are in an industry that is highly competitive, look at bidding on keywords that are less popular but still will drive traffic to your site. To narrow the reach of your ads but potentially enhance click-through quality, change your display targeting options. There are lots of tricks of the trade to allow you to play in the pay-per-click space, even with a small budget. Ready to improve your search engine presence? Let the experts at ZAG Interactive help develop a plan that’s customized for your business. Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article was written for Business 2 Community by Michelle Brown.Learn how to publish your content on B2C Author: Michelle Brown Follow @http://twitter.com/zaginteractive Michelle Brown is Director of Marketing for ZAG Interactive, a full-service web development firm based in Connecticut. ZAG Interactive offers website design, development, marketing, and strategic services to clients nationwide. Learn about ZAG.… View full profile ›More by this author:How to Use LinkedIn to Get More SalesHow Web Design Impacts Your Customers’ Online ExperienceSize Matters When It Comes to SEO