Should You Use PPC Or SEO - Part 2
Last week I discussed the pros and cons of using Pay-Per-Click for your online marketing. Today I wanted to conclude the two-part series by taking a closer look at Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and seeing if it is the right fit for your company.
What Is Search Engine Optimization?
Search Engine Optimization is working on the on-site and off-site factors that help you rank organically in the various search engines. Using Google as an example, it helps you rank on the left side of the page whereas Pay-Per-Click helps you rank on the right side of the page.
Pros of Search Engine Optimization
- Drive More Traffic - More people pay attention to the organic results versus the sponsored results. Ranking at the top of the first page for a search term organically will drive much more traffic than paying to be number one in the sponsored links section.
- Ongoing Cost Minimal - The biggest expense comes at the start with SEO. You have to identify the right keywords, build the content, develop linking partnerships, and submit your site to the search engines. There will always be additional work to create more links and content but the bulk of the cost is at the start and not ongoing like Pay-Per-Click.
- Cheaper In The Long Run - After you do the work to get to number one, you do not have to pay for each click that goes to your website. The almost fixed startup costs can be spread out over all of your organic hits and will usually give a much greater ROI than Pay-Per-Click.
- Click Fraud Not An Issue - If an unqualified lead clicks through to your website and leaves you do not have to pay for it. Similarly, if someone clicks on your website by accident or your competitors click through while doing research on you, your marketing budget does not get pinched like it would under a Pay-Per-Click campaign.
Cons of Search Engine Optimization
- Startup Costs Significant - This is the biggest con of SEO. It can be very expensive to set up at the start, especially if you do not know what you are doing and have to bring in a professional. Expect to pay dearly for the service. If the price is cheap then you likely are not dealing with a true SEO expert. Make sure to check references and examples of successful projects.
- Longer Term Traffic - While PPC can bring you traffic right away, SEO requires a longer term approach. It could take three months before Google even indexes your content pages. It will take even longer to build your links and establish a credible PageRank. Are you willing to wait it out?
- Negative Impact On Web Design - SEO often requires that you change the architecture and layout of your web page. You will need to add more content and improve the keyword frequency of the important words you want to be ranked for. Having a website with a flashy graphical interface may look really cool but it will not help drive traffic to your site through the search engines.
So which is better - PPC or SEO? The answer is: it depends. Review the pros and cons of each to better understand your own situation. Many entrepreneurs often use both campaigns simultaneously and generate results from PPC and SEO.
I would love to hear what your experiences have been with PPC vs. SEO.
Evan Carmichael
Evan CarmichaelYoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager
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6 Comments so far
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I would disagree with your statment that “Startup Costs Significant - This is the biggest con of SEO.” Startup cost of SEO is $0. If someone is reading this blog or any of the SEO blogs they have read enough to get started with DIY SEO. Making some very simple changes in your site and follow some very simple rules will take you a long way. PPC is fine but you still have to have Good Content to make PPC stick when they get to your site. SEO/SEM rule = Content is King. You still have to drive traffic to your site throug organic searchs or you will fail. Web sites for profit is a business and like any business you have to have knowledge to suceed. I have 1 site that is ranked #4 in the google SERP that is only 6 months old and all i did was follow some very basic SEO rules. SEO can be a very expensive if you pay some fly by night SEO spammer to go and spam a bunch of links for you. You’ll be out the money and out of the Google index. Just my thoughts.
So even if the direct costs are low to start-up, it still takes time, and time is much more valuable than money. I say, do both! A common strategy is to use low-budget PPC on new sites to refine them, find out which keywords perform best, and rememdy conversion problems - after this, it’s worth starting an SEO campaign; if there’s an immediate need for more revenue, you can simply up PPC spend, which by now should be effective.
Shortbus - it depends what phrase is it ranked on the #4 in serp. Sometimes is impossible to reach top 10 in 6 months for someone who start to read a blog about seo. What I am trying to say that I agree with Evan about Startup Costs Significant, but I am not saying that you don’t have. It just depends what kind of bussiness is it and how hard is to optimized website and reach top ten for not one but a lot of strategic phrases. One phrase is not enough and it is not a key to success.
I think SEO is one of those things that you have to aggressively target and make a goal of your website. It’s all or nothing - where as PPC is directly related to your budget. If you can win the SEO battle in your market, you’re golden. But if you aren’t in it to win, then don’t waste your time with it.
Last weekend I attended a Wordpress seminar which had Matt Cutts(google software engineer and head of their Webspam team) as the keynote speaker. His presentation was about SEO tips and here is a link that has all of googles guidelines and tips, http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769. Thought this might help.
John
www.corporateretriever.com
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