This is also known as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising.  The major search engines all provide this facility.  PPC can be very effective in driving targeted traffic to a website, on a modest budget.  The results appear on the right hand side of the results page.  (Organic results appear in the middle). Even a very modest budget can achieve good results.

Space for text in Adwords adverts is very strictly limited, so there is a particular premium on good copy. Well researched keywords are essential.  (See our Text and keywords page). You are competing against other advertisers for the better rankings so the best results need a well managed campaign, including trial and error, to see how effective different adverts and different keywords are.  

As for organic searching, PPC needs to be set-up and managed correctly.  Therefore a degree of input is required from clients to maximise success when we provide this service.

For both organic searching and paid advertising there are some techniques that can be considered sharp practice and that search engines frown on.  In the extreme these can result in your site being blacklisted by the search engines. We only use ethical approaches, often referred to as "White Hat".  You might like to read more in the article “SEO – White Hat vs Black Hat”.