Flag this message Comparing The Advantages of SEO Compared To PPC
March 1, 2010By Adrian Ang
Because of the current rise of pay per click (PPC) advertising services such as Yahoo Search Marketing, Google and Microsoft adCenter, professional search engine
optimization (SEO) companies are having to deal more and more with the
issue of why their clients ought to invest funds on conventional SEO
when they could basically commit money on PPC and witness quick results
in the search engines.
Classic Search Engine Optimization
First I will define what traditional SEO is. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of visitors to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. In straightforward terms, SEO is the basic activity of making certain a webpage can be located in search engines for specific words and phrases
Pay Per Click
Now I will define what PPC is making use of Google Adwords as an case study. PPC or pay per click is a service in which an advertiser selects specific keywords or phrases and then creates a listing that will show up when someone searches for that phrase. The advertiser selects an amount they are prepared to fork out for each click on their listing which results in a visit to their site - thus the term "pay per click". At Google Adwords, you can bid anywhere from $.10 up to $50.00 for each click.
If other advertisers have picked the same keyword or phrase as yours, you then are competing against them for the highest position. Whoever is ready to spend the most shows up first and the others following in order. What PPC has granted one to do then is to easily "pay" their way to the top whereas conventional SEO takes a great deal of time and effort.
The overriding question then is how valuable is PPC and should it replace standard search engine optimization techniques?
Pros and Cons of Pay Per Click
First of all you must realize that PPC will never help improve your positioning in the typical search results. PPC listings most always appear in a "Sponsored or Featured" area which is usually at the top or side of the regular search results. While it really is nice to "show up first", however recent studies by Comscore shows that clicks on paid search results has gone down over time, and is now ~22%. That means 3 out of 4 individuals will trust the results in the natural listing in contrast to the results in the PPC listing, and will click on the organic results - which are attributed to SEO.
Pay per click will not optimize your web page so that it reflects who you are and what you offer. If your web site is poorly optimized before you begin to advertise it with PPC, it will still be poorly optimized afterwards. In addition, the cost per click (CPC) is dependent on the 'quality score' of the web page. If it's not effectively optimized for the search engines utilizing SEO, you will constantly be paying much more for your PPC ads in contrast to your competitors who have integrated SEO with their PPC advertising campaigns.
On the other hand, a well executed SEO plan will enhance your position in the organic search results. You will have a finely tuned web page that reflects who you are and what you provide. One particular client in the dry cleaning business was averaging 8% of their new client acquisitions from their web site. They employed a conventional SEO campaign targeting 7 keyword phrases and are now seeing 83% of new client acquisitions come directly from their website. They have been maintaining this campaign for a period of 6 months now at a cost of only $100 per month, in contrast to the $1000 per month they were previously spending on PPC marketing.
Another downfall to PPC is that when you stop paying for PPC advertising, your listings disappears and so does the traffic they bring. With the recent move by many PPC search engines to raise their minimum bid requirements, the prices for keywords are only going to increase over time as more advertisers join the market, bid higher prices for each keyword and fight for the important #1 position in the paid search listing results. With PPC advertising, it's a bidding war that favours advertisers with bigger budgets.
In most cases, once you have excellent positioning in the regular search results via SEO, you will continually receive free traffic. It may require some minor adjustments from time to time but all in all brings in constant free site visitors so long as people are searching for your products or services. You will not be held hostage to having to continually throw money at search engines to maintain your listings.
SEO has to be the foundation of your online marketing strategy because in the long run, the rewards of SEO will far outweigh anything else you do. - 35850
Classic Search Engine Optimization
First I will define what traditional SEO is. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of visitors to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. In straightforward terms, SEO is the basic activity of making certain a webpage can be located in search engines for specific words and phrases
Pay Per Click
Now I will define what PPC is making use of Google Adwords as an case study. PPC or pay per click is a service in which an advertiser selects specific keywords or phrases and then creates a listing that will show up when someone searches for that phrase. The advertiser selects an amount they are prepared to fork out for each click on their listing which results in a visit to their site - thus the term "pay per click". At Google Adwords, you can bid anywhere from $.10 up to $50.00 for each click.
If other advertisers have picked the same keyword or phrase as yours, you then are competing against them for the highest position. Whoever is ready to spend the most shows up first and the others following in order. What PPC has granted one to do then is to easily "pay" their way to the top whereas conventional SEO takes a great deal of time and effort.
The overriding question then is how valuable is PPC and should it replace standard search engine optimization techniques?
Pros and Cons of Pay Per Click
First of all you must realize that PPC will never help improve your positioning in the typical search results. PPC listings most always appear in a "Sponsored or Featured" area which is usually at the top or side of the regular search results. While it really is nice to "show up first", however recent studies by Comscore shows that clicks on paid search results has gone down over time, and is now ~22%. That means 3 out of 4 individuals will trust the results in the natural listing in contrast to the results in the PPC listing, and will click on the organic results - which are attributed to SEO.
Pay per click will not optimize your web page so that it reflects who you are and what you offer. If your web site is poorly optimized before you begin to advertise it with PPC, it will still be poorly optimized afterwards. In addition, the cost per click (CPC) is dependent on the 'quality score' of the web page. If it's not effectively optimized for the search engines utilizing SEO, you will constantly be paying much more for your PPC ads in contrast to your competitors who have integrated SEO with their PPC advertising campaigns.
On the other hand, a well executed SEO plan will enhance your position in the organic search results. You will have a finely tuned web page that reflects who you are and what you provide. One particular client in the dry cleaning business was averaging 8% of their new client acquisitions from their web site. They employed a conventional SEO campaign targeting 7 keyword phrases and are now seeing 83% of new client acquisitions come directly from their website. They have been maintaining this campaign for a period of 6 months now at a cost of only $100 per month, in contrast to the $1000 per month they were previously spending on PPC marketing.
Another downfall to PPC is that when you stop paying for PPC advertising, your listings disappears and so does the traffic they bring. With the recent move by many PPC search engines to raise their minimum bid requirements, the prices for keywords are only going to increase over time as more advertisers join the market, bid higher prices for each keyword and fight for the important #1 position in the paid search listing results. With PPC advertising, it's a bidding war that favours advertisers with bigger budgets.
In most cases, once you have excellent positioning in the regular search results via SEO, you will continually receive free traffic. It may require some minor adjustments from time to time but all in all brings in constant free site visitors so long as people are searching for your products or services. You will not be held hostage to having to continually throw money at search engines to maintain your listings.
SEO has to be the foundation of your online marketing strategy because in the long run, the rewards of SEO will far outweigh anything else you do. - 35850
About the Author:
To learn how to get your website ranked on the 1st page of the Search Engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing), visit AdVantage SEO to find the best advice on Search Engine Optimization for you.
Posted by Garry. Posted In : SEO Training