BUS 572 -1 Search Engine Optimization, Pay per click advertising

Two very important topics this week were pay per click advertising and search engine optimization. Pay per click advertising is defined as "a type of sponsored online advertising that is used on a wide range of websites, including search engines, where the advertiser only pays if a web user clicks on their ad" (Brick Marketing).! Pay per click advertising allows the user to easily set up a system in which they pay every time someone clicks on their link that was found through search engine optimization. Using pay per click advertising is very time-consuming and requires constant monitoring in order to stay within budget. However, Google has parameters as well which allow the user to set a limit of what they want to spend on PPC advertising. It can be an effective marketing tool but must be used wisely to see gain. An example of pay per click advertising is the sponsored search results on the side of the organic Google search results; these adds consist of only a few lines and their placement depends on how much the company has paid for the spot--higher up spots on the search results page are much more expensive. 

Search engine optimization is part of search engine marketing and its aim is to improve a Web site's ranking in the natural search results (Stokes, 2013). SEO can be much more effective than PPC advertising because it does not incur a cost to the user. Along with this, people tend to trust the organic search results more because they do not feel as if they are being sold something. It is essential to any businesses' success that it has a very visible online presence; in the age of technology, everyone gets their information from the internet. An example of search engine optimization would be a company paying Google for the ad word "shoes", which would allow consumers to easily find their business. This ad word is very expensive per click. Do you think there could be ethical or legal issues with SEO and PPC advertising? 

This week, the most important skill set I have acquired is learning how to search for a web site's ranking in the Google search results. This is extremely important to any business because it allows them to assess their online visibility and accessibility. Without it, it is not possible to know where you "stand" on the Web. 

I am enjoying this personal learning journey. I have learned much about how businesses market online (the basic foundation knowledge) and I already feel more empowered to pursue my own business interests and that of our client, Brenda DeCroo. This course is very hands-on and experiential, which has allowed me to learn much better than reading a dry textbook (ours is user-friendly!) For our next session, I would like to continue to be proficient in Google's marketing tools and I would like to learn more about them and what they can do for business owners. What would you like to learn? Thanks for reading!

Brick Marketing