Jun
Why Do SEO Professionals Dislike PPC?
The debate continues to rage over whether SEO or PPC will benefit your online marketing strategy most effectively. While it’s true that PPC can generate quality traffic for your site, there are some good reasons most SEO professionals balk at using it extensively. Let’s take a look at the top four:
Cost Vs. Results
PPC carries a much higher cost than SEO. There’s the monthly fee to the search engine, the fee per click, and the money wasted by fraudulent clicking. And the fact is, the results achieved by PPC campaigns generally don’t justify all that money, especially when you can get similar or better results by instituting a well-designed SEO strategy. No, SEO is not strictly free, but it does offer a higher ratio of results to cost over the long-term.
Finite Effectiveness
It’s difficult to maintain a PPC campaign over the long-term. It requires constant maintenance and continuous outflow of cash. Once the well dries up, so does your traffic. On the other hand, once SEO is in place, it will continue producing results for years to come. With solid techniques and regular website maintenance, you can continue seeing high listings for your chosen keywords, even if the algorithms change.
User Psychology
Studies show that 100% of users will view the organic search listings on a given search results page, while significantly fewer will bother with the ads. Increasingly, users have become immune to obvious advertising, resulting in decreased effectiveness of PPC campaigns. This behavior can be attributed to higher levels of trust in the organic search results, natural aversion to the sales pitch, or expectations of better content on a page listed by Google as opposed to one listed by a paying advertiser. In any case, most users will be more likely to click your link if it appears on the first page of search results than they will if you pay to have it listed in the ad section.
Deceptively Easy
Anyone can throw together a few PPC ads and get them listed, right? Right, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that all those ads will be equally effective. The ease of starting a PPC campaign can deceive businesses into thinking it will require little effort to maintain. The truth, however, is that the kind of ads that receive the best ranking positions require extensive keyword research, scrupulous maintenance, and a robust budget.
Engaging in SEO takes some knowhow, but in the long-term you’ll be rewarded with better results that cost less and require less maintenance than a PPC campaign. With that said, I am a big advocate of utilizing both services as part of your marketing campaign to provide maximum exposure. So long as the ROI is there!
Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.Related posts:
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I am often amazed by the PPC bashing that a lot of SEO’s
engage in.
I would definitely agree that you should use both provided that the ROI is
there!
It is also incredibly rare to find a site that will rank quickly PPC is instant
and should never be discounted. I try to convince prospects that PPC can
be great, if they don’t accept this without evidence I tend to be a bit nervous
about taking them on for SEO work in any case.
Justin March
That’s a good approach Justin. In fact, we implement PPC into our SEO campaigns. This is especially important early on, because while rankings can take some time to attain, we are still able to provide “wins” quickly through PPC very early on in the relationship. This makes our clients feel warm and fuzzy.
Happy to see your blog as it is just what I?ve looking for and excited to read all the posts.
I am look onward to another grand article from you.
I, personally, have never profited from Adwords or the like (i.e., I’ve never gotten more out of it than I’ve put into it). So for me, I have no choice but to optimize my site. Besides, I don’t really have a site where I sell an actual product (in which case pouring money into advertising might be a sound investment)…
Yes SEO is better then PPC because For PPC we have to pay and for SEO we doing some task like off page means link building SEO is More effective than PPC we get visiotor as well as Backling With the help of SEO
PPC is not a big job you just have to run the campaign and there is no technical requirement also but for SEO you have to do all the things manually and this is the worth of SEO than PPC
i love SEO
I am making money by SEO and building backlinks, undoutedbly it is much better than PPC.
Am also like SEO because it is cheap then PPC and its effectiveness is strong then PPC however it works slowly but give results for long time, therefor i think SEOs have good reason to dislike PPC.
I think if you just started up a business and your way is to be seen on the web you should start with both.
To get your business going it could be a good thing going in to a PPC campaign. And also beside that work with your SEO in the long term.
Then when you have reach the spot in the SERP that you want you could stop with the PPC and just go by SEO.
If you notice that your sells goes down when ending the PPC, just bring it back again!
Thanks Sven, definitely agree with you!
Well for me PPC really needs money to run it while SEO is what the webmaster’s really needed. You might need money for it maybe when you are just starting because you need some tools and whatever there is to optimize your website. But once stable, it will run its own course.
SEO needs cost, too. People are the most cost. SEO normally takes long time to work, PPC can have effect for a short period. They are both important. PPC is a best tool for new company. And seo is for every company.
PCC is one of the most effective tools in online marketing. Enough knowledge about how PPC works and choosing the right or relevant keywords for the products and services offered is important.
Thanks Justin.
I’m fairly new to the SEO/IM game and have absolutely shared these suspicions about PPC. It’s good to get the opinion of someone who really knows the game.
I certainly won’t be jumping on the PPC bandwagon any time soon, but I will keep it in mind as a possibly viable option once I have more experience and have a little more disposable income.
PPC and SEO has been very famous in the area of online marketing. Well, we all have some shared of opinions about PPC and SEO. In terms of effectiveness, this two really works and it only makes a difference on the time.
PPC’s true strengths are its speed and expansiveness. With a PPC campaign, you’ll be on the first page for a multitude of targeted terms among on a daily basis. However, the terms will price anywhere from pennies to many dollars per click; also, for a PPC campaign to be done properly, it has always best to hire a firm which that can manage full time.
I am making money by SEO and building back links.PPC is a best tool for new company. And seo is for every company.Thank you for sharing.
The obvious reason is, tons of $$ it has involved. PPC is difficult compared to SEO especially for newbie and has lot many chanllenges, although recently SEO has also become tougher with lot many competitions addeded to every niche.
The answer for that is simply the competition between PPC and SEO. In terms of it’s effectiveness, both are effective in their own way. PPC needs a real big handler to be able to manage it well.
I love to use PPC as a way to test keywords. This gives me an idea into how effective and how highly searched certain niche keywords are or are not. Thanks Justin for the informative post. PPC does get some targeted traffic to a website while SEO measures are being implemented.
PPC is good for short term plan while you are engaging in seo campaign. PPC gives you result immeadiately while SEO takes longer time and a lot of patience to achieve. As long their is a profit earn, it’s better to use PPC.
So true – I started with PPC, but I think that SEO has yielded far better results and has been more effective in the long run. Thanks for the rundown of the differences, though!
PPC vs. SEO. There are unending arguments on this topic. But still the best thing to do is to combile this two. When website is new, its better to have PPC while having seo campaign. When you will be the No.1 in SERP, its better to continue PPC if there is a profit placed to the table.
I think I lean more on the side of SEO, for sure.
SEO is free if you do it manually but the only problem with this is it involved too much hardwork like writing an articles and submitting it to article directories, writing itself is hard if you are not a writer.
SEO’s hate CPC because basically, cpc it’s kind of the oposite of seo in online marketing. In SEO u pay an amount of money and then u can see your site climbing in SERPs without any aditional costs, while on cpc u are in the search results as long as you pay..
From my point of view, SEO is a waaaay better option on a long term project!
~alex