Search Engine Optimisation vs Pay per Click Advertising
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of modifying a website to achieve high organic rankings in search engines for certain keywords.
Pay per Click (PPC) advertising is where you pay a search engine every time some clicks on your ad. Google Adwords is the main company in this sector.
In 2005, £4.70 billion was spent on Pay per Click marketing, compared to only £1.05 billion for search engine optimisation. Both techniques have their advantages and disadvantages summarised below:
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Search Engine Optimisation
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Pay per Click
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Cost
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- High up-front costs before results are achieved
- No guarantee of success
- Lower long-term cost if successful
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- Results-based
- Only pay for click-throughs
- When marketing budget runs out the results stop
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Time Frame
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- It’s a long-term process, anything from 3-9 months
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- Instant, can be up-and-running within minutes
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Search Results
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- 50% of search engine users choose to visit websites that appear in the top organic listings
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- 80% of search engine visitors report that they never click on sponsored ads
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Traffic
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- Organic click-through rates are on average 3 times higher than for paid listings
- Some SEO companies make large changes to your site making it less attractive to visitors, resulting in fewer conversions and sales
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- Click-through rates tend to be quite low, between 2% and 5%
- There is some evidence to suggest that the conversion rate for paid listings is lower but this is likely to vary depending on your industry
- Excellent for geographic targeting
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Keywords
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- SEO companies may choose keywords that they can get high rankings for but which aren’t high traffic keywords or aren’t targeting the right people
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- Full control over target keywords and tracking means that you can determine what is profitable and what isn’t
- In competitive industries relevant keywords can be very expensive
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Relevance
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- 72.3% of people feel that Google’s organic search results are more relevant than the sponsored listings
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- 86% of search engine users feel that organic listings are more relevant than paid listings
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Fraud
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- Some SEO companies use ‘black-hat’ methods which can get your website banned from search engines
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- Estimates suggest that click fraud accounts for 15-20% of all click-throughs
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ROI
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- Only 11% of advertisers report that they receive a higher Return on Investment (ROI) through PPC than SEO
- The long-term process of SEO means that initially ROI can be very low
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- PPC is a lower risk option – you can be guaranteed a certain amount of traffic for a set cost
- If the wrong SEO company is chosen then a huge loss can be made
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For most small businesses the instant nature of pay per click advertising, its predictability, and better cashflow will make it the preferred choice. However, search engine optimisation should also be carried out, perhaps by yourself initially. For more information see how to optimise a website and the list of online directories that you can submit your website to.
In the debate of Search Engine Optimisation vs Pay per Click both marketing strategies are important. PPC can be used until SEO results begin to come through, at which point PPC spend can be reduced.
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