Topic: PPC vs SEO ?
PPC against SEO? What's better?
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PPC against SEO? What's better?
The argument rages on. Is PPC or SEO more effective? Which is easier? Which is faster? Which is better? There are compelling points for and against each. But any marketer with the budget and resources should utilize both for their strengths and the integration that can be achieved. Each has its place. Still there is a friendly rivalry between the two sides.
PPC has a better conversion rate. It's true that PPC converts slightly higher than SEO in a keyword-to-keyword comparison. But 88% of the traffic comes from SEO and 12% from PPC.
• PPC is easier to customize. Search engines have more controls on what can and can't be included in a paid search ad. Best practices aside, an SEO can make a title tag say whatever they want.
• PPC is easier. PPC is easier to set up in the short-term. But it's just as easy for your competitors, eliminating the competitive advantage.
So SEO offers more traffic, fewer limitations and higher barriers to entry. But PPC does have some legitimate advantages:
• PPC can be updated immediately. With PPC, a marketer can quickly change a campaign's keywords and where they point, often within minutes. Changing SEO keywords, which are woven into titles and copy and anchor text, among other places, takes much longer. Never mind that search engine spiders then have to crawl the updated site.
• PPC will hold its place on SERPs. With the incorporation of real-time search, natural search results get pushed down the SERP. Real-time results are positioned front and center. But paid search ads make search engines too much money to be displaced.
The session was mostly audience questions, which brought out some interesting information. Each side faces certain limitations. PPC is controlled by a budget. It will get ads onto pages very quickly, but at a price. Successful ads will draw clicks and lead to conversions. But successful ads often require testing. Those clicks cost more money. And maintaining a campaign month after month costs even more money. SEO, for its part, is limited by brainpower, creativity and level of effort/manpower. There's a lot that can be done, but it won't yield many dividends right away.
Although we like to pit the two sides against each other, integration of SEO and PPC is actually the most productive approach. Having a paid ad on a SERP increases the likelihood of conversion on an SEO listing. And data from each side can be invaluable to the other. The trick is to actually share.
It's hard to gauge just how to split a budget between PPC and SEO. None of the experts would commit to an exact breakdown without testing keywords and researching competitors. Client and industry, not to mention campaign goals, would all be important factors. Successful online marketing campaigns aren't one size fits all. Attribution is a problem inherent in integration. If SEO and PPC are both involved in a conversion, which gets the credit? Do they split it evenly? Does one get more credit based on the role it played? There is no good way to determine this at the moment.
The discussion drifted away from the PPC/SEO competition, but with worthwhile results. PPC types have issues with search engines' push for personalization because of session query matching. People's searches on the same term can have different intentions on different days. This makes matching PPC ads to keywords a bit more challenging. Most long tail traffic from SEO comes without having to optimize for it. If search results are good for a company's top phrases, the rest will follow. Longer phrases containing those main keywords will also rank well. No work has to be done.
The consensus after the session was that marketers shouldn't be limited to SEO or PPC. Integration is the best approach. Each has different strengths and weaknesses. And they compliment each other well. A company with the time and resources should leverage both to reach its marketing goals.
There are currently 2 main ways to generate visits from search engine users. Firstly, implementing a search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy for a website can enable it to rank well for selected terms within the main search results and secondly, by using pay-per-click advertising, which displays your listing within the sponsored results on many of the popular search tools.
Both of these options can be used alongside each other and can be a cost-effective way to attract new visitors to your website, but they also have their own advantages and disadvantages, as outlined below:
Set-up time and costs
Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) can be set up to work effectively within a few days, whilst developing a site's search engine optimisation may take months in many cases. Therefore using PPC can be useful for new websites, or for short term promotions as there is less initial cost involved and results will be achieved sooner.
Long term value
As it charges for every click to a site, PPC will remain a constant cost for a business over time. In contrast, a successful optimisation project can provide added value long after the initial work has been undertaken, allowing its cost-effectiveness to overtake that of PPC in the long term.
Risk
The value, or return on investment, that an SEO project can provide may vary dramatically. For example, a business with a well established website containing extensive content can stand to gain far more from SEO than a newly launched website with minimal content.
Assessing this value against the initial costs of optimising a site can be difficult. In contrast, the effectiveness of a PPC campaign can be assessed as money is invested, meaning that, if monitored closely, there is very little risk involved.
Measurability
Providers of PPC advertising, such as Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing provide information on clicks, with no need to set up any extra tracking, as leads or sales can also be tracked with the addition of a small piece of code, meaning that the cost per sale or lead can be tracked from the outset.
In contrast, to measure the effectiveness of a natural search engine optimization project, a website analytics package or log files need to be reviewed, which can be a more complex process.
One or both?
In the majority of cases it can be worthwhile to include elements of both activities within a search engine marketing campaign. For example, once a website has established good natural search engine visibility PPC can still be used to:
Fill gaps were the site is not naturally visible
Target the most specific keywords, which are often very cost effective
Provide flexibility for short term campaigns
Test new keywords, with a view to optimizing the site for these.
Last edited by mycha21 (2011-12-16 12:00:49)
I hope in future there will be all except the SEO work..
PPC against SEO?
If you are targeting instant traffic at your website then PPC is the best option but if you have patience and wait for visitors after long wait then SEO is good.
If you are expert in optimizing your website by using white hat SEO then I will suggest you to go the SEO because PPC campaign is costlier but SEO does not need more investment.
PPC and SEO are not mutually exclusive. With PPC you get your ad at the top of the look for outcomes and then with SEO get another web page record. I like to evaluate out PPC for any industry I am really going after before I do a considerable SEO produce.
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