Glossary

CPC
CPC stands for Cost Per Click. It is used mainly in online advertising programs such as Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing. The value represented by your CPC is how much you pay every stime someone clicks on your advertisement.

Organic Search Results
When you search for something on a search engine, the organic or natural search results appear underneath the sponsored results. You cannot pay for your position in the organic results list. However, you can hire a search engine optimisation expert to help your website achieve a higher position in these results.

PPC
PPC stands for Pay Per Click. It's a form of online advertising where for every click on your advertisement you pay the publisher.

SEM
SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing. It is generally done using programs such as Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing and is a paid advertising activity. It also incorporates the act of paying other businesses to link to your website and includes any advertising you place on other websites.

SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. The goal of SEO is to get your website to appear on the first page of the organic search results for a specific search phrase or keyword that relates to your online business. This is usually achieved by making changes to your website.

Questions

Does Having Google AdWords Improve Natural Listings?
No. Your AdWords ad's have no effect on your website's organic/natural listing. When you use AdWords, you are able to instantly increase the amount of traffic to your website but you pay for every click thru to your website. Using search engine optimisation to improve your website's natural listing will slowly increase the amount of free traffic to your website and be worth it in the long run.

How will selling through a website boost sales?
Your website will have to be geared towards selling your products and services. If you only have a brochure-style website, people will only be able to find out more information about your business, but they can't act on their desire to buy if there isn't an online store or a booking/quote form to fill out. It can sometimes be tough to ask your visitor to stop what they are doing online, and call you. They may even have to leave the computer to grab the phone and then write down your number, before you hear from them! By making the buying or sign-up process online, easy for the visitor, you hear from them straight away via the website which will increase your sales and leads dramatically.

How do you get to page one of the search results?
There are two methods.

1. The organic way, which may take three months to a year before you start to see results and you may not even reach the first page of search results, depending on your competition for your main keyword phrase and
2. The PPC way, to use Google AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing and have your website appear in the top spots for the sponsored results. You'll start to get traffic on day one, but it costs you every time someone clicks through to your website.

For those interested in the organic way, download our free top 10 search optimisation tips to give you an idea of what you need to do to rank your website higher in the search results.

For those interested in the PPC way, take a look at our search marketing plans for you.

How do I get my website into a search engine?
You simply submit your website to all the major search engines. Here's how!
Google: http://www.google.com/intl/en/submit_content.html
Yahoo: http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
MSN/Live: http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx
DMOZ: http://www.dmoz.org/add.html

Or if you don't have time to do this, I'll do it all for you. Submit your details on our Search Engine Submission page.