When someone thinks of Internet marketing two popular methods come to their mind - organic search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising.

Pay per Click (PPC) advertising is a paid online advertising model, such as Google AdWords. Pay per Click results typically appear as "sponsored links" above or beside the normal (Organic) Search Engine results.

Organic search engine results are the natural, unpaid search engine results that are determined by the Search Engine. These are generally varied and contain a lengthier description of the web page they are presenting.

Ideally, using both these methods can lead to higher visibility for your site and get the traffic flowing in. But this is often not possible primarily due to limited budgets or minimal resources. When you are faced with a dilemma on zeroing down a specific choice, how do you decide which is the best one for you?

Surprisingly, studies and surveys have revealed that less search engine users visit pay per click advertising sites than visit organic sites because they have a greater level of trust for organic search than for pay-per-click. In fact 4 out of 5 search engine users report that they never click on PPC results. Compare this with the 70% of search engine users who reported visiting organic listings daily. The 'trust' factor is not to be taken seriously considering the black hat techniques that are often adopted by organic marketers.

The best thing about pay-per-click campaigns is the instant results they produce vis-à-vis organic ones that can last for months together and in fact, will show results after a certain gestation period. An organic campaign if done gradually in a proper phased manner, can literally promote increased traffic and rankings for years together.

Moreover, PPC campaigns fizzle out soon if there are budgetary constraints or you decide to halt the campaign whereas with organic one, the results are long-lasting. However, PPC spells good news for those who are looking for short-term or seasonal gains and want to run their marketing campaign for a limited period. It also makes more business sense for those running on shoe-string budgets.

A definite advantage that PPC campaigns have is that functionally, they are pretty easier to grasp and handle while organic campaigns have intricate tactics that only a professional can work with. They are also able to target the exact audience that you are looking for.

Having discussed both the Internet marketing strategies, we come to the conclusion that no method is perfect. It all depends on what your business goals are and how much ROI you are expecting out of your web marketing endeavors. Your decision should also be based on the market conditions at that point of time.

The best Internet marketing tactic would be a careful balance of both PPC and organic search. You can begin driving traffic to your site immediately through pay-per-click while steadily building organic search rankings. As the site starts to rank highly for some keywords in organic search, you can choose to discontinue bidding on those keywords on the PPC side.

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