There seems to be a lot of confusion between Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC). Both of these activities fall under the umbrella of Search Engine Marketing (SEM). However, they are very different activities and its the smart marketer that makes a point of learning the difference but embracing both. This is a Heat Map chart created by Google. A heat map is created by tracking where people actually LOOK on a website. This is done using some really cool technology that we’ll talk about on another post.

You use SEO best practices to make sure that your website appears in the “organic search” results of a Google page. That is the column on the left, and in this image, you can see how popular that column is to our search audience. This is the section that has the most credibility. Appearing on the first page, above the “fold” of a Google results page is the goal of all business marketers. However, the process of improving your organic rankings and moving up the food chain of Google (or Yahoo, or any search engine tool) is a laborious process. It takes a long-term commitment — it can sometimes take 6-8 months before you even start moving up the ranks.

Does this mean you give up and abandon SEO as a marketing strategy? Of course not. But you need to set clear expectations with all of your senior management that this is a long term process. I also recommend you hire an outside firm that specializes in SEO rankings. There are entire teams of people in India that are just dedicated to try and get other sites to link to their clients’ sites (a key SEO strategy). Chances are you don’t have someone on staff willing or able to do this all day long. And links are just one component of a proper SEO strategy. In another article, I’ll cover SEO in more depth. Right now, I really just want to explain the difference between SEO and PPC.

So what’s PPC then? And does it really make sense to use pay-per-click advertising? Absolutely. It is a fantastic way to drive people to your website, generate raw leads and build brand recognition for your company. It would appear that a lot of companies agree with me. A recent report by The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) showed that Internet advertising revenues reached $5.8 billion for the first quarter of 2008. This was an 18.2 percent increase over the same period in 2007, and represent the second highest quarter ever recorded, after Q4 2007′s $5.9 billion.

PPC Advertising offers immediate gratification — something very difficult to achieve with traditional advertising. You create campaigns, launch them online, and you can immediately begin measuring the effectiveness of your ads. What ever the goal (download a paper, watch an online video, request more information, etc.) your marketing team can begin to test, modify, tweak and improve these campaigns until they are running at optimum level. And you can ramp up your spending as you see results — instead of spending a fortune in advance and then praying for success.

PPC Advertising isn’t easy. There are a lot of books, blogs, and resources on the market to help educate your marketing team on how to create, launch and manage a PPC strategy. A great online resource is Marketing Sherpa. Your best approach to Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is to adopt a long term strategy for your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) activities, and a shorter — more tactical plan for your Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns.