long term reign vs short term gain
SEO or PPC? It’s a question that all online business folk will ask themselves at some point or other. The bad news is that there’s no definitive answer. The good news is that the bad news isn’t that bad at all. Much more useful than looking at in terms of SEO ‘or’ PPC though, is to instead objectively consider the benefits of both: SEO versus PPC.
SEO – speculate to accumulate
Think about Search Engine Optimisation as being like taking out a mortgage to buy and renovate a big old house. You commit to the investment and make modest payments over a period of time, but ultimately your hard work and long-sighted approach pays off and your ‘house’ goes up significantly in value. Best of all though – the fruits of all your labour and investment are yours to keep, so you can carry on benefitting from them into the future with only the odd bit of maintenance here and there. Search Engine Optimisation boasts great potential for making a good return on investment and helps drive your website up the organic search listings over time. SEO represents the long view.
PPC – lease a piece of the action
Pay Per Click on the other hand, is like renting a luxury serviced penthouse apartment. You make regular and comparatively expensive payments, but you instantly get all the trappings and become the popular guy from the word go. While you’re there it’s fantastic, but the day you stop paying the rent you’re out on your ear with nothing to your name. It’s great while it lasts, and there’s no harm in a bit of short-term indulgence every now and then, but it’s not something you should do forever if you want to make the most out of your money. Without running a wider SEO strategy at the same time as your PPC activity you’re doing very little for the long term prospects of your business. When you stop paying, the traffic your PPC marketing campaign generates goes away as quickly as it came. PPC represents the quick fix for getting relevant traffic to your site.
To PPC or not to PPC – that is the question
PPC advertising does have a place – and that place is alongside an SEO strategy. Effective Search Engine Optimisation is always going to pay off in the long term, but even the best SEO strategy takes time to deliver positive results. PPC can attract traffic to your website in the period before your SEO strategy starts to take effect. It shouldn’t be seen as akin to buying the exact same benefits that SEO brings though, because PPC adverts appear in a different section of the search engine results pages (the ‘sponsored links’ section) and research consistently proves that users prefer the natural search results over sponsored links on any search engine. But PPC still represents a better proposition than having no search engine visibility whatsoever prior to your SEO strategy kicking in. And Pay Per Click marketing doesn’t just benefit new sites - PPC can also be used periodically to drive traffic in targeted areas such as new product launches and special offers. Pay Per Click activity can complement your Search Engine Optimisation strategy – not replace it.
The result of SEO versus PPC? A draw – quite literally.
Find out how SEO and PPC marketing can benefit your business.
Click here for a free analysis of your website.