PPC VERSUS ORGANIC SEARCH

PPC and Organic Search both have their own advantages over the other. But before we can assess which one is more preferable, and more workable than the other, we must first see what both models have to offer individually.

What is Pay Per Click?

Pay per click or PPC, is an advertising model that is utilized on websites where advertisers are obliged to pay their host only when their advertisements are clicked. In the case of search engines, advertisers bid for keyword phrases that suit their target market. Most content sites charge fixed prices with each click, not preferring to use that system of bidding. Many PPC providers are available on the web, but the largest and most preferred operators are Google AdWords, Yahoo!Search Marketing and Microsoft AdCenter. These operate using a bidding system. This is because Cost per Click usually varies depending upon the search engine and the current competition for a certain keyword that is currently being used. Though the advertising model itself is vulnerable to abuse because of click fraud, Google and other companies have invested in automated systems in order to protect themselves against abusive clicks, usually done by competitors and other web developers.

What is Organic Search?

Organic search results appear in search engine results. They appear according to their relevance to what is searched, not as they are advertised. Pay Per Click is considered as a non-organic search. This distinction is how one should distinguish the two: after entering terms for a search, the first few results are typically advertisements or sponsored results. One can tell they are advertisements because they are usually in a box that distinguishes them from websites in the organic listings; these sites utilize SEO or Search Engine Optimization. The term, as of recent, has grown to be recognized throughout the web marketing industry. As of July 2009, it is used by Google through sites such as Google Analytics. These “organic” listings do not cost money, just to show the user what the most accurate results are, based on the words that they type; however, it is very likely that the companies who are ranking in the top positions are paying for SEO. One of Google’s claims is that a good percentage of their users click for organic searches, as opposed to clicking on ads. The reason many people prefer to click on the organic listings is the belief that companies that rank in the top slots are “authorities” in their field; this is because Google works hard to rank companies on their relevance and strength to the search terms used. Thus it is worthwhile for companies to have an ongoing SEO campaign to help them rank high in the results pages.

Advantages and disadvantages

In order to find out which advertising method that is more suitable to the current work conditions, both advantages and disadvantages for each method must be assessed. First up are the advantages of Pay Per Click advertising. One is that it is faster to set up results for this type of method. Right after setting up a PPC campaign, the ads will immediately show on the pages in less than ten minutes. Another is that it is easier to keep track of what keywords get the most visitors or the most clicks; and what keywords convert into money or profit and what do not.

Another very obvious reason is that it is a good money-making strategy. However, with every advantage that comes with Pay per Click there are an equal set of disadvantages. While it is easy to make money, each visitor has a “click” price. If you stop paying, the visitors may stop coming (unless they are return visitors who previously found and liked your site). Even though a PPC campaign is easy to set up, it takes expertise to fine tune it; there is a large amount of competition and novice PPC advertisers can end up wasting money if they do not have the right knowledge. Also, money would be wasted if the site does not do anything to convert visitors to prospects and eventually to customers.

In the case of organic searches, even though there is not “click” charge per visitor, there certainly will be ongoing SEO costs to achieve and maintain your high search results ranking; it is only after you have high brand recognition and massive backlinks to your site that you can ease off on your SEO campaign. You will always need to monitor what your competition is doing.

If your site is included in online directories or website listings, there is a large chance that every visitor would become a customer. There is also less long term investment, financially speaking. Which means, while the results won’t be immediate, in the long run you will reap the benefits of having the backlinks; this will help build your authority ranking with Google. This will lead to higher ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

The downside of organic searches is that it takes time to increase your ranking in the popular search engines. There are a lot of variables regarding how fast you can expect to rise in the rankings including how competitive your chosen industry is. Also, you need to build high quality and relevant content. Whatever the case, those who want to invest in either type must first assess resources, consider carefully what is best for the website’s niche and decide how much time and expertise is required on your part to get it done right. Chances are great that you will get faster and better results if you outsource your SEO and PPC campaigns to experts; it is the higher and best use of your time and money.

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Both SEO and email get high scores in terms of ROI and they are both low-cost marketing vehicles for small businesses (Marketing Sherpa, 2008). PPC is also competes very well with these strategies which means that it is a viable tactic as well. Banner ads that are on a cost per click basis versus a cost per thousand impressions are faring better too.

Small businesses that do not have in house marketing staff would do well to outsource these marketing strategies to those who have the expertise to do them right. These strategies are highly cost effective but they also require a lot of time and knowledge to get those returns. Many small businesses who attempt the “do it yourself” route are sorely disappointed and become convinced that these measures “do not work”. This is unfortunate since these methods are in fact the best ones for small businesses to use.

According to Marketing Sherpa, “A sign that the industry is getting smarter is that SEO is better understood and rated higher in 2008 over 2007. Like building an Egyptian pyramid, getting a great SEO program in place will take a lot of time and effort. Once built, however, SEO is not going to go anywhere anytime soon – especially if it’s continually and patiently built upon with daily blog entries, new site content and high-quality links.”

They go on to say,” Paid search marketing also is better understood than it was at this time last year. And paid search is providing health returns for the majority of marketers using it. PPC, howver, must inevitably plateau. At some point, a ceiling in search queries will be reached that can be bought efficiently. Like any other industry hungry for expansion, global-search campaigns are the next obvious step. “

Here are some things to consider:

For companies who are spending over $25,000 per month in marketing here is the way they are evaluating it in terms of good ROI:

PPC – 78%, SEO – 72%, House email marketing – 73%, Direct mail – 43%, Print advertising – 14 % , PR – 23% and online advertising (CPM) – only 19%

For those spending less than $10,0000 per month here is the way ROI stacks up:

House email marketing – 69%, SEO – 55%, Direct mail – 33%, PPC – 39%, PR – 39%, print advertising – 10% and online banner advertising (CPM) – 15%

“Marketers with smaller PPC budgets prefer quality over volume [compared to the higher budget per month marketers who prefer volume over quality of visitor] and nurturing a lead over a long period of time. For these reasons, the less-expensive options of email and SEO make a lot more sense.” (Marketing Sherpa, 2008).

SEO or search engine optimization is essentially the “gas” that you put into your business’s online “vehicle”…namely your website.

If you do not want your website to be just an online brochure that you must personally (or someone else in your business) direct traffic to, then you will want to allocate resources to SEO.

Resources can be allocated in a number of different ways:  either you spend the time and effort in learning and doing SEO (essentially a full time job), you have someone in your business devote time and energy to learning and doing SEO or you pay professionals who already know what they are doing to SEO your site.  It is just a matter of how you want to allocate your business’ time, energy and money.

If you are like most businesses, you already have too many “hats” on and you do not have the bandwidth to learn a whole other profession.  Rather than reinvent the wheel, the best choice is to hire the professionals who can get done quickly and right.  You must remember that the longer it takes to get it done, the more time you lose that could have been spent building up your web presence.

So, what is SEO?  It is essential for your website to be found.  Do not listen to anyone who says it is not essential.  If you are serious about getting your website found and serious about it being an important part of your business, you cannot mess around with it.  You need to get it done right and soon.

Fortunately, you do not have spend an arm and a leg to get it done professionally.  Update Small Business has a team of 250 professionals and our rates offer extraordinary value.  We will customize something to fit your budget.

Look for my upcoming interview with Hard to Find Seminar host Michael Senoff.  He will be interviewing me tomorrow and I should have the podcast posted on the site in the next couple of weeks.  I will be covering SEO, SEM and PPC in more detail.

Do you want to create Google slap proof landing pages?

Here are a few tips from Andy Jenkins of Stompernet:

1. Google heavily considers the quality score that it assigns your landing page (e.g. relevance to ppc keywords) as well as the conversion rate of the page. It is best to send ppc visitors to a squeeze page that attempts to collect an email address first rather than directly going for the sale. This will provide opportunities down the road that would not exist if the visitor refuses your initial offer. After the email is garnered, (e.g. through the offering of a free report) you can then make the first attempt at a sale.
2. Have a clear call to action above the fold.
3.SEO is considered important in ppc landing pages as well as in your regular site pages. Make sure meta tags and descriptions are filled out. Use keywords in your decription.
4. Use H1, H2, and H3 tags. The H1 should contain the main keyword and the H2 and H3 contain the LSI terms (derivatives of keywords).
5. Landing pages that have relevant images are helpful. Label with the appropriate keywords but do not use the keywords to label logos or unrelated images. Put captions under images.
6. Make sure your landing pages are fast loading.
7. Keep extremely focused on your landing pages. CTR will go up when you are reaching the right audience.
8. Make sure you have a clear privacy policy, terms of service and clear “contact us” information which should include email and ideally a phone number.
9. Link to other landing pages with anchor text.