Surfers prefer organic SEO 5 to 1 over PPC advertising
It's a fact that surfers prefer organic search results, which
are the result of organic SEO methods, 5 to 1 over Paid Search
engine advertising. I'm not saying this because I'm a firm
believer in the long term benefits of SEO over SEM (even though
I am), I'm saying it because it's true. PPC does have it's place
in online marketing, but before I get into that, let me expound
on my previous statement.
Why do people go to the organic listings before they go to the
sponsor ads? It's very simple. People know that organic listings
are more likely to have what they're looking for. Sites that are
shown as a result of a search have creditability over paid
listing sites. This is important to keep in mind, in addition to
the fact that if your site ranks well organically, you will
spend substantially less money on PPC and overall online
marketing. I have a few clients that receive thousands of hits a
day based solely on organic searches. These results, along with
the ever-increasing cost of PPC advertising, make me wonder why
more companies don't utilize organic SEO methods.
In regard to PPC, it's certainly an effective way to drive
traffic to your site quickly. PPC campaigns are an excellent
option for those waiting for a higher page rank or companies
that sell high dollar items or have large profit margins. If
your average sale is 5 dollars, you can't really afford to be
paying much for an ad. If one average order can pay for an
entire day's or even week's PPC budget, it's probably well worth
the money. Unfortunately, a successful PPC campaign takes a lot
more than money. A successful PPC campaign is all about
monitoring. Of the many subpar PPC campaigns I have "inherited"
from frustrated site owners, roughly 80% were improperly
monitored or tracked. Why is tracking so important? For one
thing, without any sort of tracking, how will you know how much
you are spending for a lead or a sale? Aside from not having
tracking in place, many PPC managers bid on bad keywords, allow
poorly written ads and utilize improper landing pages. Again, a
successful PPC campaign takes a lot more than money.
Another thing many fail to realize when it comes to organic SEO
and PPC is that one can be used to the advantage of the other.
PPC can be used to test whether or not the keywords you are
targeting are right for you. This works especially well for a
company that has a unique service or product. Sometimes,
traditional keywords or phrases are ineffective. PPC combined
with tracking can help you determine if the keywords you are
bidding on are converting. If they are, you can the create pages
for the organic search which will hopefully alleviate your need
for future PPC spending or at least curtail it significantly.
There are also other ways to use PPC to "test" areas in which
you could benefit from organic SEO, though many SEM firms will
not tell you this. Why? Because they either don't know how to
use PPC in this capacity or they want you to remain dependent on
PPC for the life of your business. Not all, but many SEM firms
view their clients much in the same way that high interest
lenders view borrowers with good credit. They want you to stay
put and throw your money out the window and will be more than
happy to let you do so until you figure out that you don't have
to.
The idea behind SEM is to help your ROI. Since I lean more
toward SEO than SEM, I tend to use PPC as a way to test the
market and to help new businesses bring in traffic. Ideally,
organic SEO will help minimize the cost of PPC. It's my opinion
that companies who focus solely on PPC are putting all their
eggs in one basket and will always be dependent on their
marketing budget. As PPC prices soar, so will your PPC expenses.
So, the next time you search for an SEM firm, ask how they can
help you save money and achieve better results over the long
term by incorporating organic SEO into your overall marketing
strategy. If a 5 to 1 preference isn't a good enough reason to
engage in organic SEO, then I don't know what is.