First of all you must understand that PPC will never help improve your positioning in the regular editorial search results. PPC listings most always appear in a "Sponsored or Featured" area which is usually at the top or side of the regular search results. While it is nice to “show up first” there are still a lot of end users, myself included, who will not click on "paid" listings but will rather scan through the regular editorial search results.
Pay per click will not optimize your site so that it reflects who you are and what you offer. If your site is poorly optimized before you begin to advertise it with PPC, it will still be poorly optimized afterwards. On the other hand, a well executed SEO plan will improve your position in the regular editorial search results. You will have a finely tuned web site that reflects who you are and what you offer. One particular client in the home improvement business was averaging 5% of their new client acquisitions from their web site. They employed a traditional SEO campaign targeting 5 keyword phrases and are now seeing 90% of new client acquisitions come directly from their web site. They have been maintaining this campaign for a period of three years now at a cost of only $50 per month.
Another downfall to PPC is that when you stop paying for click-thrus, your listings disappears and so does the traffic they bring. In one recent case study regarding an online architectural antique marketplace, the client was paying a minimum of $500 per week on PPC campaigns. They were bidding on a large number of keywords and phrases at a rate of anywhere from a penny to a nickel per click. With the recent move by many PPC search engines to raise their minimum bid requirements, the client was now facing budgets doubling and even quadrupling in size. Therefore they decided scaled back their PPC budget and are now spending $500 a month on a traditional SEO campaign that targets multiple keywords and phrases. They opted for the long term effect of SEO as opposed to the short term results of PPC.
In most cases, once you have good positioning in the regular search results, you will continually receive free traffic. It may require some minor adjustments from time to time but all in all brings in consistent free traffic so long as people are searching for your products or services. You are not held hostage to having to continuously throw money at search engines to maintain your listings.
I am not saying that PPC is bad and you shouldn’t take advantage of it. If you have the budget that will go beyond a traditional SEO campaign, then by all means, utilize PPC as well. You gain instant exposure and only pay for actual visitors to your site.
But never ever disregard SEO in place of PPC! SEO should be the foundation of your online marketing strategy because in the long run, the benefits of SEO will far outweigh anything else you do.
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Pay per click will not optimize your site so that it reflects who you are and what you offer. If your site is poorly optimized before you begin to advertise it with PPC, it will still be poorly optimized afterwards. On the other hand, a well executed SEO plan will improve your position in the regular editorial search results. You will have a finely tuned web site that reflects who you are and what you offer. One particular client in the home improvement business was averaging 5% of their new client acquisitions from their web site. They employed a traditional SEO campaign targeting 5 keyword phrases and are now seeing 90% of new client acquisitions come directly from their web site. They have been maintaining this campaign for a period of three years now at a cost of only $50 per month.
Another downfall to PPC is that when you stop paying for click-thrus, your listings disappears and so does the traffic they bring. In one recent case study regarding an online architectural antique marketplace, the client was paying a minimum of $500 per week on PPC campaigns. They were bidding on a large number of keywords and phrases at a rate of anywhere from a penny to a nickel per click. With the recent move by many PPC search engines to raise their minimum bid requirements, the client was now facing budgets doubling and even quadrupling in size. Therefore they decided scaled back their PPC budget and are now spending $500 a month on a traditional SEO campaign that targets multiple keywords and phrases. They opted for the long term effect of SEO as opposed to the short term results of PPC.
In most cases, once you have good positioning in the regular search results, you will continually receive free traffic. It may require some minor adjustments from time to time but all in all brings in consistent free traffic so long as people are searching for your products or services. You are not held hostage to having to continuously throw money at search engines to maintain your listings.
I am not saying that PPC is bad and you shouldn’t take advantage of it. If you have the budget that will go beyond a traditional SEO campaign, then by all means, utilize PPC as well. You gain instant exposure and only pay for actual visitors to your site.
But never ever disregard SEO in place of PPC! SEO should be the foundation of your online marketing strategy because in the long run, the benefits of SEO will far outweigh anything else you do.
