Which is better: Pay Per Click (PPC) or Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? The answer — it depends! Looked at from both points of view here are the Top 10 Reasons SEO is better than PPC and the Top 10 Reasons PPC is better than SEO.
Top 10 Reasons SEO is better than PPC
1. Relevancy, relevancy, relevancy. People trust organic results to be more relevant than PPC. They look there first!
2. Economy. You won’t “break the bank” or “bust your budget” bidding for your main keywords because they’re free. There is no cost-per-click.
3. Visibility. SEO results get more visibility than PPC, in some categories the difference is vast - 70% SEO visibility compared to 30% PPC visibility. In others less so, 60% SEO visibility compared to 40% PPC. So SEO gets more attention.
4. Local Infuence. Location addresses in organic copy have bearing on SEO for Google and Yahoo! local results as well as “Near Me” results in MSN.
5. Specificity. The “longtail principle” of coralling the bijillion highly specialized search terms (instead of just the most popular keywords) is built-in to Organic so specialty terms and phrases get referred.
6. Community. When optimizing for SEO, link-building creates community interest, and those links continue to perpetuate ongoing traffic and referrals into the future.
7. User-Friendly. Organic is generally heavy on information, lighter on marketing. This is often considered more user-friendly when consumers are researching a pre-purchase decision.
8. 24/7/365. Organic results won’t dim or disappear when a budget runs low or is spread over various dayparts. A well optimized page/site is a day-long, year-round performer.
9. Quality. Google and Yahoo’s new measure of quality, the Quality Score, for evaluating Web pages reflects proper SEO techniques.
10. Economical. Why rent when you can buy?
and on the flip side…
Top 10 Reasons PPC is better than SEO
1. Sales. You optimize the page for sales conversions, not search engines.
2. Dependability. You don’t fear fluctuations in Google re-indexes.
3. Control. You determine the point of entry for your website.
4. Flexibility. You can easily change positions on a search results page just by changing your bid.
5. Performance-based. You only pay for actual site visitors.
6. Testing. You can easily test multiple offers, creative versions and landing pages.
7. Support. Search engines typically offer staff support to help your ads rank and preform better.
8. Multimedia. You can use Flash, audio, video or multimedia on your landing page without fear of missing the content value.
9. Suspicion-free. Search engines treat you as partners, not infiltrators.
10. Trade shows. Great swag and parties given by the search engines at trade shows.
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