What does it take to make a site come off PPC?

Details: Thursday, 14 April 2011 18:24; Hits: 384

There is a scenario that is so depressingly familiar we are getting totally bored with it these days. Clients come to us telling us how well a site performs on a Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign and asking us to help fine-tune it so that it does not quite cost so much.

Let’s dispel a few myths here. First a PPC campaign is online advertising and advertising, whichever way you cut it, costs money. Second a PPC campaign will not carry any favours with Google. The company has built its business model upon the principle that it does not bend over backwards for anyone and it is this that has made its reputation what it is in terms of relevancy and trustworthiness of results. Third, a PPC campaign proves nothing about a website’s SEO standing (if anything, if you have to pay in order to get traffic it’s a little like paying ‘friends’ to come to your birthday party).

When we optimise a website one of the measures of success we use is the website’s ability to attract specific, targeted traffic that does not need to be paid for using a PPC. Indeed, websites we have optimised have exceeded their previous traffic measures without the benefit of any PPC in place at all.

Texas Real Estate magazine, for example, is now on the first page of Google for over 300 key search terms that are subject specific to Texas Real Estate as well as peripheral ones.

Texas Land, for example, delivers the website to the first page of Google against over nine million competing pages.

The question here is what exactly does it take to get a website to come off PPC?

The rules are simple:

Optimised site structure (the way you cross-link articles and pages and archive on-site material).
Optimised site pages (check to make sure your meta tags and alt tags are correct, reinforce the site identity and conform to Google’s meta tag guidelines regarding length)
Optimised site content (make sure the content you post on your site is fresh, relevant and keyword optimised)
A coherent keyword strategy (there really is no substitute for keywords which acquire, over time, thematic bulk on your website)
A coherent cross-linking strategy (if you do not cross-link your pages correctly you are missing out on an opportunity to maximise the indexing of your website)
A coherent off-page optimisation process (even the best optimised website in the world needs a little helping hand by way of some off-page optimisation)
A well-planned social marketing strategy (SEO is only part of the picture of success. You also need to consider how you can employ social networks to increase your site’s relevant traffic)
A viral online campaign (without some online publicity you will only be limited to visitors who find your site directly)
An RSS feed (RSS feeds are all the rage amongst those looking for specific updates on products on specific sites)
A Blog (a blog enables your site to present a very human face to its online visitors and still create fresh, keyword optimised content each day).

None of these actions is instant or will provide instant results. Apply them however and you will end up with a site that, like Texas Real Estate magazine, serves over 100,000 pages each month and dominates Google in its industry without having to spend a single cent on a pay-per-click Google Adwords campaign.

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