Pay-Per-Click Versus Organic Seo: Are You Flushing Money Down the Drain?

The cost of Pay-Per-Click advertising is high and rising. Click fraud (estimated by some to be the highest at 35%) only makes matters worse and increases the cost of clicks. And now, more people say they do not click on sponsored ads. Why you ask? Simple, do not trust that they will receive relevant information when you click on a sponsored ad than a direct relationship. Web surfers now understand through personal experience that PPC ads only to the highest bidder with virtually no regard for relevance. In the early days (ie - 3 to 5 years ago), this was not the case. At that time, had relevance (Overture, now Yahoo has been a leader in this field).

So, it's pay-per-click where you should invest your hard earned dollars in marketing? And if so, how can you measure success? The answers are short - and perhaps not easily.

First of all let me say, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and organic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) are two completely different animals. They each have their place in the world, but not a direct replacement or complete for each other.

There is one fact that stands out though. In almost all cases, the optimization search engines will eventually achieve lower costs per click and pay-per-click. The reason is quite simple. PPC, in part to the rising costs and fraud, requires a continuous (infinite) payment to keep visitors flowing to your website, while organic SEO requires (usually a more significant) initial cost for maximum visibility (placement top 10), but it costs very little to maintain its ranking on search engines over time.

But how can you measure success? Using the cost per click for measuring the effectiveness of these two disparate marketing options is how to measure a time travel in miles-per-hour. Pay per click advertising is an expense, while the optimization of search engines is more like a capital investment. Both can greatly increase the online visibility of a company, but it is important to recognize that it is an ongoing expense, while the other is a short-term investment with long-term benefits.

Pay Per Click Marketing

The costs of advertising, like television commercials, print ads, billboards and so pay-per-click marketing, all have one thing in common. They exist only as long as the sponsor is willing to pay for them. When the payments stop, the ads go away (and so does the business derived from advertising). In some cases, the ads can continue to exist for a period of time (think magazines in the study of your dentist or ads that end up on YouTube). And of course there is some small benefit residue that occurs because the visitors bookmarked your site or remember your domain name. For most, however, pay-per-click marketing campaigns just go away when you stop paying for them.

Has the cost-per-click way for PPC? Absolutely! There is a definite point in time where your PPC campaign begins and when it stops. And then, there is a direct correlation (for the most part), with a sale or get a cable from a PPC visitor.

Search Engine Optimization

Unlike pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization does not have a clear point in time when the benefits (ie - visitors) the campaign ends. When you stop paying for optimizing organic search engine results will continue for a long period of time - usually many months or even years. Assuming that your investment in organic SEO was well planned and successful (ie - the top 10 for quality phrases of one or more keywords), visitors to your web site will continue long after payments stopped.

So, to choose can cost effectively measure the real value of organic SEO. The simple answer is no. Can not. You can absolutely say how much money was spent for the SEO campaign, but systematically, the total number of visitors coming to your site can not be accurately determined until the communication link no longer appears on the organic search results pages search engines.

Quality Organic SEO Takes Time

It is also important to note "the other side of the coin." Putting an effective organic SEO campaign in place takes time. The first results may not appear for weeks or even months. The search engine optimization requires patience. Unlike PPC, SEO does not provide immediate results. Remember, if your site is not in the top 30 (first three pages of results), are not likely to get much benefit from your investment organic SEO. I have seen reports that show 98% of all searches to stop within the first three pages of search results. This means that only 2% of searchers go to page four and beyond. Think about your use of search engines. Even if they do it on page three, I'm really pay much attention to the websites you are visiting? If you do not see what you're looking at 2 seconds or less, you're hitting the back arrow back to the search engine and then switch to the next.

Conclusion

The bottom line: If your business needs its marketing campaign up and running immediately, or you need to test the potential return on investment and conversion candidates phrases organic SEO, pay per click is the way to go. PPC can also be very effective when implemented and maintained by a professional who is adept at maximizing ROI. But, if you want the absolute best long-term value for your dollar marketing, organic SEO you just can not be beat....