Affiliate Marketing is the term used where by an orgnisation allows other people to act as a sales team for them. For instance the external sales team will have a Website dedicated to advertising the products/services for other organisations. Affiliate Marketing is established mostly through interactive links and special offers advertised on an external site, potential customers click on the links where they are instantly taken to the organisations Website to complete a potential sale.
Affiliate websites usually use SEO as their main form of Internet Marketing, combining SEO and an established website with ample content enable affiliate websites to often rank above the companies sites they are advertising. Affiliate Marketers usually receive a percentage from the sale that is made on a click through to the companies website. A wide range of organisations have an affiliate marketing scheme for instance – Boots, Sky and MotherCare. The benefit of Affiliate marketing is that your products/services are widely advertised over the Internet. You are also guaranteed a ROI, as you don’t pay the affiliate marketers until a sale is made through their Website. Consequently a disadvantage of affiliate marketing is that the organisation will still have a monthly fee to the affiliate networks who advertise your affiliate schemes to the website owners.
SEO is an organic Internet Marketing method; it primarily focuses on using keywords in order to allow a website to gain a high position ranking within the search engine. For instance a Search Engine Optimisation company may use SEO as a key word. Their Website will then be modified to incorporate the SEO keyword numerous times, in order to achieve the acquired density required. Through SEO a website becomes increasingly search engine friendly this allows search engines such as Google to locate your site and display it highly within their rankings. The benefits of SEO are that its low comparable costs to PPC, are fixed regardless of results. SEO also creates a highly targeted flow of traffic to your Website; visitors have found your site through typing your keyword into a search engine – They are searching for your products/services. An experienced SEO will also be able to adapt your website to increase your conversion rate, maximising the ROI. There is only one disadvantage of SEO – You are not guaranteed results, however an experienced company who can achieve high rankings for themselves such as with SEO and Search Engine Optimisaton, can usually provide the same service for their clients.
To conclude affiliate marketing and SEO are both forms of Internet marketing, if you would like any further information, please do not hesitate to contact The UK SEO Agency team.
