SEO versus PPC is one of the hottest debates on the internet nowadays. Which one is better? Personally, I do not think that there is only one good answer.
Let’s first have a look at all the pros and cons of each method: |
| SEO |
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Pros: |
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• Most of the listings through SEO campaigns have a definite psychological advantage against sponsored links. Indeed, almost all searchers rely on organic seo because users trust organic search results more than sponsored pages.
• SEO is a long-term investment. Once the optimization work is done and your site ranks high in search engines, you can reasonably assume that you can maintain that position if you keep an eye on it.
• That makes SEO much more cost effective than PPC over time. After paying the person to optimize your website, it costs almost nothing to maintain the high ranking position. Organic optimization almost always yields a much lower total cost per visitor and cost per conversion than PPC, even including consulting costs. |
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Cons: |
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• One drawbacks of organic search engine optimization is the time it requires to get a website to the top. It can take weeks before seeing the full effects of a professional optimization job and finally enjoy the benefits of your search engine campaign.
• You will not always be guaranteed of Top Rank on Search engines.
• Determining the actual value of a high organic ranking is difficult |
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| PPC |
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Pros: |
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• The biggest benefit of pay per click is the fact that it will provide you with an immediate boost of qualified visitors, lead and sales giving you fast results within just hours or days. Pay-per-click is a great option for a business looking for immediate exposure.
• PPC also give you the added benefits of being able to quickly test your web site and track your conversion rates and turning keywords (visitors) on and off easily.
• It is easy to measure the effectiveness of PPC |
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Cons: |
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• A drawback is that pay-per-click advertising can be quite costly. It is expensive especially on a long-term basis. Popular keywords can cost around $10 per click, depending on the competition.
• There are also studies showing that people tend to distrust paid searches
• The targeted traffic to your website will stop the moment you stop paying |
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| Conclusion |
Which method should you use?
My answer is: both!
Especially if you need to generate traffic quickly. In fact, a pay per click advertising program is your best option if you seek fast results. If you are not in a rush, then you could just stick to SEO because more searchers click on the natural search engine results versus the pay per click ads, so you'll get much more traffic for less. Otherwise, PPC is a great way to generate traffic while waiting for SEO results to kick in but keep it a short term strategy. If you are planning to go with a long-term strategy then SEO will be cheaper compared to Pay Per Click. SEO can get your business almost 30 times the traffic as compared to sponsored links for the same cost. The golden rule in marketing is that you should constantly strive for maximum results and ROI for your budget. In other words, if your marketing is making you a profit - even if it's a thin profit - it's worth it. By this model, pay per click is worth doing, but overall pay per click will leave you with thinner margins. |
