SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.  When using any of the three largest search engines, you will get two types of results for a search on any keyword term or phrase, paid SEO results and organic SEO results.  Paid SEO is very much what it sounds like.   Advertisers will bid on a keyword term to appear on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).  Typically a SERP is divided into paid and organic results.  The paid results will be along the very top in shaded area, and left or right sides of the SERP.  Organic results will take up the largest part of the page.

Here is an example, I own a coffee business and I want an Internet user to find my site if they search for the term “ Atlanta Web Design “.  I am willing to pay the search engines companies .45 cents every time someone clicks on through to my site from their search engines.   Competitors are also bidding on this keyword, the highest bidder is paying .65 cents per click, and the next highest after that pays .40 cents.  My site should appear on the first page of search engine results on the “paid results” portion of the page, I should appear second from the top, just after the .65 cent bidder.   This example is not 100% accurate, as there are a few other factors that affect exactly where your paid listing appears, but it’s close enough for the purpose of understanding the concept.

If your site begins to receive hundreds of clicks a day, the costs can quickly begin to add up.  A much better solution is to gain a good organic listing.  Organic SEO listings are free regardless of how many times anyone clicks on through to your site.  Search engines will rank your site depending on the several factors, but the bottom line is that your site will be listed if it is deemed to be the best match for the keyword term for the search term.  These factors include, but are not limited to; URL, page title, number of backlinks and quality of content.

Good organic SEO results are much more difficult to attain that paid listings.  Hiring a quality Organic SEO Expert can be a very cost effective solution over the long term.  Achieving results for competitive keyword terms requires a good amount of work, expertise and can be costly, but paying per click for competitive terms can be much more expensive.  High bids on these competitive terms can be over $20 per click!

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