Organic SEO VS. Pay Per Click (Adwords)

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1 Organic SEO VS. Pay Per Click (Adwords) ~ Jayson DeMers, Forbes, April 30, 2014 Elite Search Engine Optimization Page 1

2 Trust and Probability to click Only about 25% of people click on Adwords. Research has revealed that Internet users prefer natural search engine results to sponsored links. Some consumers have even actively declared their mistrust for paid adverts. This issue is worsened by the fact that very few users who click on paid ads actually find the services or products they are seeking. The companies that rely on organic search engine optimization tend to offer users products and services tailored to their interests. Elite Search Engine Optimization Page 2

3 5 Reasons Why Organic SEO Is Better Than Google Adwords Reason 1 In Most Cases PPC Burns Money There s no denying that most PPC Adwords campaigns created by business owners are left to run wild without the daily management needed to make them cost effective. This costs businesses an obscene amount of money as these unmanaged campaigns burn cash at off-peak times on keywords that don t convert or worse to landing pages that don t exist. Elite Search Engine Optimization Page 3

4 SEO on the other hand cannot be left running on auto-pilot. As a result more care and attention is paid to optimization and link building activities which in the long run is more cost effective. Reason 2 PPC Costs Can Only Go Up drive up the cost per click. As the market becomes ever more competitive and as Google seek to integrate a paid advertising model into an increasing number of new channels, the costs attributed to PPC are set to increase exponentially as more competitors SEO services don t work on the same business model. SEO is a great playing field leveller with small online retailers able to compete with bigger brands by being more agile and having a smarter SEO strategy. Reason 3 SEO Continues To Work Even Without Administration If you turn off an Adwords campaign your traffic will cease. What s more, the longer you leave it the more risk you have of your quality score dropping and when reactivated your CPC may have increased. As Google etc are always playing catch up with an SEO s link building and on-site optimisation implementation, pausing SEO activity for a week or so will not damage your search position. Elite Search Engine Optimization Page 4

5 Reason 4 Adwords is Limited to Google ( s network) In order to have the maximum amount of exposure across all search engines you will need to double or triple your PPC budget and have accounts on Bing and Yahoo in addition to Google. SEO generally works across all search engines and if done correctly, a targeted link building campaign will see rankings improved across every search engine. Reason 5 PPC Only Gets 20% of Search Traffic According to Google, across all searches only 20% of people click a paid advert in the search results. This means that even at maximum spend, PPC traffic is only bringing 20% of potential customers to a website. SEO s organic and Places listings cater for the remaining 80% of clicks making SEO a far more cost effective long term solution to lead generation. Source: Elite Search Engine Optimization Page 5

6 More Advantages of Organic SEO Cost Google s revenue in 2011 amounted to $37.9 billion. Of this amount, 96% was from advertising proceeds. For widely used keywords in high-ranking industries such as insurance and finance, the approximate cost-per-click was at the $40-$50 mark. Even though there are certain cases where PPC ad campaigns have resulted in high ROI, there is no guarantee to this. Companies who choose such marketing strategies will need large capital to fund their activities. On the other hand, if a company invests in organic SEO, there is a high probability of achieving similar results for free. Even if a specialist is hired for the task, costs incurred will hardly come close to those of PPC campaigns. Long-term results While it may be true that certain PPC campaigns lead to instantaneous results, organic SEO, on the other hand, will produce lasting results, even though it may take longer to do so. The longevity of PPC campaigns is cut short when funds run out or when the campaign comes to an end. Once a company obtains natural high ranking in search engines, the results obtained will have greater sustainability. Organic SEO requires time and effort to produce significant and sustainable results. However, when it is finally functional, it will be a productive and rewarding method that companies can use to obtain and maintain a trusted ranking in search engine pages. Time Needed To Invest In Increasing Organic Search Results? Ranking high in Google s search results organically takes a lot of TLC. It requires careful planning, analysis and is very intensive. Organic SEO takes longer (and more hard work) to produce results than AdWords. Search engine dominion online isn t a one-time event. It s a well-thought out online strategy designed to reach your audience and achieve your sales goals over time. AdWords, on the other hand, can start appearing on Google almost immediately after setting up a campaign. If you pay enough, you can be on page one instantly. Elite Search Engine Optimization Page 6

7 Cost To Get Site To The Top Of Search Results? Paying for Google AdWords can get pretty pricey. Every click to your website is a charge to your company whether that visitor purchases your products/services or not. Imagine having to pay every time some kid discovers the Internet (and your website) for the first time and clicks away! With organic search results, there s no cost per click. You pay nothing to Google for appearing in their organic search results. However, companies do charge for SEO services. But What About The Site s Search Results? While AdWords appear in Google much faster, producing immediate search results, their residual effect (long-term value after stopping) is very low. Organic results take more time to produce, but they have a far greater residual effect than AdWords. Organic search results are what attract the majority of traffic between 75-85% of Google searches, while less than 25% bother to click on paid advertising. It does take a longer time to rise to the top of Google s organic search crop, but the payoffs are much, much greater. As quickly as you can rise to the top with AdWords, you can also plummet to the bottom. Your competition may outbid you or you can reach your quote for the day, which means your ads aren t being seen. With AdWords, a number of different search phrases will trigger the ad s appearance. Likewise, a number of different ads can be triggered by the same keyword phrase. AdWords almost always guarantee that your business is displayed in search results. However, according to a new study by ebay, businesses may be wasting billions of dollars each year paying for keyword advertising on Google. According to the study, most customers would have clicked through to a particular site without being prompted by an ad. This implies that brand keyword advertising has neither persuasive nor informative value [and] suggests companies are wasting their money targeting ads at existing customers, according to the study. Overall, AdWords may seem a glamorous, fast results choice, but in the long run organic search success has much, much greater value. Source: Elite Search Engine Optimization Page 7