Pay per click is a good idea for new websites that don't rank highly in organic search, but also invest in search engine optimisation for the long term.

The main difference between Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) is that traffic coming from SEO (organic) is free while traffic generated from PPC is not free (as the name implies you have to pay a cost per click). If you want to improve your chances of visitors and potential customers finding your website in the three top search engines Google, BING and Yahoo, then you'll want to consider both Organic Search and Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising as part of your online digital marketing strategy. Web designers, developers and copywriters use search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques to improve a website's chances of ranking highly in organic search results.

What is organic search?

Organic search results appear in the main part on a search engine results page. The search engine ranks each page of a website using their own special formula or "algorithm".

Each search engine's algorithm is a closely-guarded secret, using a number of factors including how many relevant search terms (keywords) are in the content. This determines where the website appears in the results list for a particular search term. If your website appears high on the list towards the top of the first page, the chances of people finding your website are much higher.

What about pay per click advertising?

Pay Per Click Adverts, also known as sponsored links, appear to the right of or above the organic search results on the first page. These locations are known to be the prime spots to attract attention.

Advertisers pay for their ads to appear here when people search for relevant keywords. The amount they pay depends on how many people click on the ads.

So which one should I go for?

Achieving a high position in organic searches is a good thing to aim for. Results that appear in organic search tend to be more trusted by searchers than PPC links, which are sometimes ignored. However, getting a high position in organic search takes time and can be hard to achieve.

Pay per click advertising on the other hand brings almost immediate results. So if you've recently launched a new website, it's a good idea to use PPC advertising at least for the first few months.

This will improve your chances of appearing on the first page of results for your key search terms, until your website begins to rank in organic search.