The days of bidding twenty cents on a competitive keyword and receiving traffic are over. Now with average cost per click on Google costing several dollars the value of a visitor is exponentially more than in years past. Since pay per click advertising is an auction based model where higher bids receive better placement and traffic (depending on quality score) the trend in coming years is the cost of each new visitor will continue to increase. With pay per click advertising costs on the rise how are small business maintaining exposure online without breaking the bank?

One solution is organic search engine optimization (SEO) which provides relevant traffic and a fraction of the cost of pay per click advertising. This is accomplished in short by filling your website with quality content that is a resource on a particular subject, and then informing other sites to link to your content. The end result is search engines regarding your site as an authority and displaying your site in the search results when a relevant term is searched. These organic (or natural) search results are absolute free to click and deliver the same targeted visitor to your website. The only cost associated with SEO is paying for the expertise it takes to enrich your site in a manner that search engines find appealing and then maintain the results / placement against competing websites. The costs can vary by industry and the competition surrounding coveted search terms, but in the long term will result in lower CPA versus pay per click marketing.