You recognize your website is a crucial part of your marketing strategy, but you're not sure how to get more traffic to it. Should you invest in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - also known as "organic listings" - or Pay Per Click (PPC) - "paid listings" - marketing? Which will give you better results and Return on Investment (ROI)? If your website has neither, the choice is clear. Get optimized for the organic listings: SEO.
This debate has been around for years, and most experts believe that a mix of both strategies can be very effective. But recent (May 13) research published by Hitwise could be eye opening. They report that paid search traffic share is down 26%. If you don't already know the relative breakdown, an average of less than 10% of search engine traffic to all categories of websites comes from paid listings.
If, on average, 90% of search engine traffic comes from organic listings, why isn't your site optimized? We all can recognize the paid listings - the ones at the top and down the right side of a search engine results page. However, eye-tracking studies show that people often exhibit "banner blindness" to the paid listings. That means many people don't really "see" the ads.
Organic listings are generally considered more "trusted" by searchers. Google's founders' most sacred objective has always been to bring the most relevant results to their searchers. Paid listings have allowed Google (and other search engines) to remain a viable business (wildly so!) but their original objective remains. That means the organic listings will remain central to Google's results page.
The cost of setting up your site for Search Engine Optimization, compared with the cost of setting up a Pay Per Click campaign, can be similar. Both require time spent on choosing the right keywords to target. If you are in the top 10 - or number 1 - for phrases which no one searches, that's a lot of money spent for nothing. Once the SEO process is completed, it can take several months for the results to pay off. But usually if it's done correctly, the benefits can last for several years.
In contrast, Pay Per Click requires ongoing expense. You need to pay for the clicks, of course - anywhere from a few pennies to $50 and up per click! - and the labor for someone to manage the ads. In the world of PPC, your competition is constantly bidding on your keywords. If you're not watching, your budget may run out before the end of the month and your ads will stop appearing. And "click fraud" continues to be an ongoing problem. That's when an ad is clicked on solely to force the advertiser to pay for the click. Not only do unethical companies employ humans to perform manual clicks on their competition, there is software that will simulate clicks from different locations around the world. While Google can and does detect some of this fraud, it continues to be a problem.
That said, if your site is already Search Engine Optimized, and you are ready to go to the next level, then PPC may be the next step for you. It will absolutely bring traffic to your site. But beware. Traffic does not always translate into customers or clients. You will need to determine if your industry is one that will benefit from Pay Per Click. Maximizing return on investment for your PPC is beyond the scope of this article.
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