Article Contributed by Mark S.

Business owners are pressed for time, pressed for funds and most importantly pressed for survival in this competitive world. It becomes very crucial to deploy the limited resources available in the best possible manner to ensure continued and successful survival and growth of business. Marketing is a very wide arena helping businessmen to achieve this, and online marketing has become the key to reach wider audience at much cheaper rates.

For those who have decided to take the plunge and go for online marketing, you will be faced with this very important question: Which strategy is better SEO or PPC?

Let’s just briefly skim over what these 2 very important terms under online marketing mean:

"Organic" or "Natural" search engine optimization (SEO) consists of optimizing web pages to enhance their position in the naturally occurring search results. Organic SEO consists of On-page and Off-page optimization tactics which is generally undertaken by a professional SEO firm or experienced SEO consultant.

When you purchase visitors or "clicks" from a search engine, it is called "pay-per-click" (PPC) search engine advertising (or PPCSE). One of the highest recognized PPCSE is Google Adwords. Pay-per-click search engine advertising allows to quickly leverage search engine traffic by "bidding" (paying) for high-value keywords related to particular product or service.

As you can see organic SEO is a free service in monetary terms although investments is required in terms of time and resources whereas PPC is a paid service. At the first glance, one would definitely get attracted to the free services of organic SEO and benefits garnered from it. But the latest statistics show a different picture as shown below:

SEO drives 75%+ of all search traffic, yet garners less than 15% of marketing budgets for SEM campaigns. PPC receives less than 25% of all search traffic, yet earns 80%+ of SEM campaign budgets.

Surprised?

One of the major reasons for quick adoption of PPC strategy is that it is very similar to traditional paid advertisement strategy and business owners can manage such campaign on their own. Whereas SEO requires a pre-requisite set of skills to ensure your website reaches the top rankings on search engine search through various on-site optimizations and off-site organic search engine optimization strategies. Another reason why businesses, prefer PPC is that they have better control over the entire program and they know exactly how and where their dollar is spent and results for each dollar spent, can be seen through subsequent Ad words report. They also do not have to change their tactics each time the search engines change their algorithms, which can prove a real headache, especially for those who are only interested in quick, short term results. Organic SEO might seem like too much of work, with absolutely no guaranteed results for short term goal seekers.

While a PPC campaign can deliver leads with relative ease, it can be a big money drain and has no real longevity -- once you stop shelling out the cash, the website traffic goes away. SEO and link building require a lot more creative effort, but can have more sustainable results. It also allows a business to target a larger base of users, as most studies reveal that 75 - 80% of searchers click on organic listings as opposed to paid listings. As time goes on, web surfers are less prone to clicking PPC links on the right side of Google’s results or in the top sponsored links section. Why? In the past web surfers didn’t understand the difference between sponsored and non-sponsored links. Now web surfers are much more net savvy. The result is that a growing number of web surfers will click on non-sponsored links on the first page of results because they think: if that site made it into the top ten without paying for it, they must really be the best sites.

Just like planting seeds Organic SEO as an internet marketing strategy requires patience, but the rewards when reaped are plentiful. Although organic optimization is not the first choice for many (depending on the brand and business model) organic search does have inherent benefits that are unparalleled by sponsored or paid advertising tactics. The benefits and results last for longer period.

Generally you can go for Organic SEO if you;

ü Have a product that you can dedicate 300-750 words to describe its value.

ü Can exhibit supporting materials images, references and materials that emphasize the products benefits.

ü If you can shroud it in essentially keywords consumers might use to find it in enough frequency, that it can leverage a high-ranking organic search result.

ü This is a good strategy to adopt for lasting results, if you have the patience to hold out for 2-4 months or more depending on your industry & competition, for the benefits to start pouring to your website.

Besides, if you have a product that has a high price point, where there is some room for how much you are willing to spend to keep the cost per sale within bounds, then by all means pay per click advertising is a viable solution.

During tight credit crunch it is advisable to increase reliance on free organic SEO strategies rather than PPC. A hybrid plan (combination of SEO +PPC) is another alternative for those who seek quick results and suffer from very poor rankings, as SEO will ensure with time regular traffic builds for your site, while PPC will bring serious buyers to your site through banner ads, to get the ball rolling for your business. Once SEO tactics picks up, the budget spent on PPC can be minimized and then totally withdrawn, if required.

At the end of the day, decision on any kind of marketing strategy depends on the end results you expect from your online marketing strategy and the budget restrictions you face. Be sure you spell out exactly what you expect from your online marketing strategy before undertaking any plans. Flexibility & Control on your marketing budget is what you will gain from your online marketing strategies, which is very unlikely from traditional marketing techniques.

About the Author:
Mark S. is a qualified SEO Expert working with Analtyix Solutions which is a fast growing back-office service company for Finance and Accounting, IT, Marketing and Operational services. Analytix has been doing SEO for websites from various industry verticals like business brokerage firms, outsourcing firms, IT firms, dentists to e-commerce industry. To receive a free SEO analysis of your site contact Mark at mark@analytixsolutions.net

• 2 Comments

  

Comments

Mark, your article is impressive. I plan to hire somebody for my site SEO. Please get in touch with me on 781-936-0047 in case you do take seo projects.

 Posted by: Amish at December 16, 2008 10:12 AM

Great article! You clearly delivered the differences between the 2 strategies. If I put it in a nutshell, SEO and PPC are both effective internet marketing strategies. But more likely PPC is the one chosen by most entrepreneurs because it is easier to manipulate. On the other hand, SEO presents reliability because of its popularity, which is why readers choose it over PPC generated websites. I Hope I can find relative articles about this. I found a site about b2c internet marketing… it is another strategy that is also popular today. Check it out!

 Posted by: tammygirl25 at February 12, 2009 2:27 PM

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