This week's edition of Marketing Sherpa includes an interesting article on the importance of SEO in online marketing. As you can see in the chart, Search Engine Optimization is by far the most effective way to get high quality prospects that can be converted into sales.

Although people trust the paid advertisements that are placed beside the 'organic' search results, more often than not they will click on high ranking results. The thinking is that if Google ranks a company high, it must be a good company!

If you combine good SEO with PPC advertising, you can see a dramatic increase in quality leads. Some tips:

• Choosing the right keywords and blocking out keywords that are irrelevant is an important first step.
• Know what your online strategy is and what you want visitors to do once they are on your website (Conversion)
• Know your audience
• Constantly monitor your success with Analytics

hen it comes to driving traffic to your website: better is better.