SEO or PPC: Can Your Business Survive Only On Pay-Per-Click Advertising?
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Thursday, 26 of July , 2007 at 1:26 pm
Funny story. Google banned this guy for buying links so instead of owning up and asking for absolution he decides he doesn’t need Google. So he starts buying sponsored ads - paying for links! I’m anxious to see how he does.
But it does bring up an interesting question that the pilgrims have offered an answer for:
Most of the comments on Naylor’s blog and people I have discussed this post with seem to be of the opinion that the client should bow down and ask for forgiveness. Organic Google traffic is needed too much to survive without it. I completely disagree.
Do website owners really need Google? Many people believe so. Organic SEO, as a matter of fact, does deliver more traffic to websites than any other source. In fact, about 80% of all traffic on any given website comes from organic search listings. Ahhh, but here’s the rub, about 80% of all traffic on most websites bounce in and bounce out without sticking around too long. But is it the same 80%? Not likely.
Where is the other 20% coming from? Click-throughs from other websites, directories, blogs, article marketing, banner ads, and sponsored listings on SERPs and other content network websites. Most of that 20% is targeted traffic. Just about every one of those sources delivers targeted traffic, which is more likely to buy or take the desired action simply because they were looking for your stuff. Well, maybe not quite 20%, but most of that 20% any way. The question is, can a website survive financially from that 20%?
I see no reason why not. Click-throughs from articles, blogs, and directories are free. If you don’t pay too much for other forms of advertising then it is feasible that you can earn a profit from the traffic you get from those sources and not need the organic traffic. The bottom line for any business is ROI. You want to earn more than you spend. The reason most of us like organic traffic is because it is free. And if you do it right then it is targeted traffic. But there’s the hitch: It is hard to do it right. That’s why the SEO industry is such a hot item right now.
I think, personally, if you hire an SEO firm to push your website up in the organic rankings that you will probably spend more in the long run than you will if you run a pay-per-click campaign. If that is the case then would the money you spend on SEO be better utilized on PPC? It bears some consideration, don’t you think?
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Category: PPC
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Comment by michael Wilson
Made Thursday, 2 of August , 2007 at 10:56 am
I agree!
Comment by namecritic
Made Friday, 3 of August , 2007 at 3:13 am
Apples and oranges Nick. Both are important. You need to get good organic listings, but doing that ethically takes time. While you woirk on organic listings, ppc and other methods of getting people to your website are essential to your success.
Then, when you are on the front page of google AND also have the ppc ad on the right, you are optimized for traffic.
80% of people click on the organic listings rather than the ppc ads.
So if you only go organic, you ignore 20% of the traffic you could be getting.
If you only go ppc, you ignore 80% of the traffic you could be getting.
Ignoring either one is like me saying to you, “Here’s a dollar” and you replying, “No thanks, I already have one.”
