SEO or PPC?
When it comes to marketing, most business owners have grappled with the issue of online versus print. Once the decision to go online has been made, the next choice is between the two most popular Web-based marketing methods: search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click advertising (PPC). It is not always easy to decide.
If you compare SEO and PPC on the basis of lead time, workload and cost, you'll have a better idea of where to invest your resources.
Lead Time and Effort
Before beginning either type of marketing campaign, you must carry out thorough keyword research. Whether you do this research yourself or hire a consultant to do it, you really can't proceed without it. If money is a factor, you can reduce costs by using the free tools that are available online. But you should also invest time in educating yourself about how to choose the best keywords for your business.
Once you have your keywords, you can move onto the next phase, which is considerably longer for SEO. In SEO you need to add your keywords in the places that search engines look for them - title tags, URLs, Web site content, internal links. Next: start your link building campaign. You should also check your source code to make sure there are no technical issues that might impede the search engine robots from navigating, and eventually ranking, your site. After all of this is done, you need to wait, sometimes for weeks, to see the results of your efforts. If done right, it will be worth the wait. Don't expect to see results overnight.
With PPC, you need to write an ad and place a bid on a keyword. Ad writing can take time - it is not as simple as it sounds. PPC ads have tight character limits and it can be tough to get your message across and use keywords in the small amount of space you are given. But even with sufficient attention paid to copywriting, your PPC campaign can be up and running within a few hours.
Dollars and Cents
This comparison is a bit of a toss-up. If you go with an SEO consultant, your costs will rise. Do your SEO yourself and there will still be costs, albeit in time and not in actual dollars.
With PPC, the cost per click (CPC) is key. If you do not have an effective bid management strategy and a solid monitoring program for your PPC campaign, you could end up paying a lot every time someone clicks on your ad. If you bid too low, you will not place well in the sponsored listings on a search engine. Most businesses find it necessary to either purchase bid management software or pay a consultant to manage their PPC.
Both SEO and PPC require analysis to ensure that returns are worth the investment of your time and money. The resources for this analysis must be accounted for in your marketing budget.
The Bottom Line
The short answer is that both are good. A two-pronged approach is often best, especially where marketing budgets are limited.
If you have a new product or service, you can use PPC to build interest in it, and then pause the PPC once you have reached the volume of traffic you were aiming for. You can also use PPC to attract visitors to a new site while you work on your SEO. When your SEO is done, you can slow down the PPC and let your natural search engine rankings take over.
Contact Wolf21 today to discuss your search engine marketing program.