SEO VS PPC - Which Strategy is Best for Your Campaign?

Ravi Kolhe | 7/09/2013 | | | | |
It's perfectly common to hear about a small business or web start-up that just can't seem to figure out how SEO or pay-per-click advertising are used by the pros. It's hard to get a clear picture of what's really going on when everything seems so complicated. The truth is that both SEO and PPC are simple, and anyone having trouble in this area is often a few nuggets of wisdom away from figuring out exactly which approach is right for their needs.

Search Engine Optimization: The Balanced Approach

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SEO is the universal equalizer in the world of Internet marketing. Traffic is highly predictable when it comes to a search engine. Here's how it looks: people make their search and then either click one of the first few results or abandon the search entirely. Pages two through two million may as well be nonexistent in the overwhelming majority of searches. The plus side of this is that getting to one of those precious few top spots is a great source of legitimate visitors. The amount will obviously vary, but the arrival of these people is a certainty.

To put it simply, search engine optimization is best suited for hard workers that are willing to inch their way closer to success on a daily basis. SEO requires research time, repetitive action and persistence. Even then, businesses can still outsource their SEO to high-quality companies for a nominal fee that's worth every penny when the job is done right.

Pay-Per-Click: The Skillful Art of Spending

PPC advertising was a silent millionaire maker for many years before it caught mainstream attention. Before most people realized the potential of PPC advertising, rogue advertisers were buying up cheap keywords by the thousands and making insane returns on their investment. Nowadays, pay-per-click advertising has been populated by hundreds of thousands of businesses, and the competition is a little tougher. However, there still plenty of cash to be made in every market.

PPC follows the same general principles of SEO: find great traffic sources and get exposure. Great marketing can turn this exposure into raw profit. However, PPC is complex in that it requires lots of value judgments, market analysis and keyword research. The money in PPC is and has always been in finding the right keywords, but with the influx of advertising that's come upon services like Adwords and Adcenter, PPC requires a little bit more time to find the right keywords.

Pay-per-click advertising is for the hunters that know how to use their money skillfully. Finding a profitable keyword is an adrenaline rush like no other: some of these keywords can literally be worth thousands of dollars per day with absolutely no modifications or upgrades to a landing page. What's more is that PPC is a skillful teacher; the art of the one percent increase in conversion rate has made plenty of millionaires in the last half of a decade, and much of the information that's freely available on the Internet today was made popular by the methods of these people. Their legacy still lives on in the nooks and crannies of the blogging industry, and there's a new Internet millionaire born every day because of their wisdom.

Let's take a quick moment to look back these two marketing strategies and compare them simply and briefly. SEO is all about climbing the ladder, day by day, until the peak has been reached. It is a long term strategy, and should never be seen as a quick- fix. The people that are willing to embrace the competition, challenge themselves and grow a little bit every day are perfect candidates for SEO. PPC on the other hand is all about understanding a simple system and then hunting down the most profitable keywords within that system. They might not always be easy to find, but with a little bit of number crunching and good old-fashioned marketing, they're easy money. Those that can take decisive action and capitalize on these rapidly growing markets will earn the privilege of seeing just how lucrative the Internet can really be.

About the Author:
Aubrey Phelps is a writer for Net Hosting. She has been in the SEO and Internet Marketing field for six years.

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