[^_^] Surfers Prefer Organic SEO 5 To 1 Over PPC Advertising

'Surfers Prefer Organic SEO 5 To 1 Over PPC Advertising'

It's a fact that surfers prefer organic search results, which are the result of
organic SEO methods, 5 to 1 over Paid Search engine advertising. I'm not saying
this because I'm a firm believer in the long term benefits of SEO over SEM (even
though I am), I'm saying it because it's true. PPC does have it's place in
online marketing, but before I get into that, let me expound on my previous
statement.Why do people go to the organic listings before they go to the sponsor
ads? It's very simple. People know that organic listings are more likely to have
what they're looking for. Sites that are shown as a result of a search have
creditability over paid listing sites. This is important to keep in mind, in
addition to the fact that if your site ranks well organically, you will spend
substantially less money on PPC and overall online marketing. I have a few
clients that receive thousands of hits a day based solely on organic searches.
These results, along with the ever-increasing cost of PPC advertising, make me
wonder why more companies don't utilize organic SEO methods.In regard to PPC,
it's certainly an effective way to drive traffic to your site quickly. PPC
campaigns are an excellent option for those waiting for a higher page rank or
companies that sell high dollar items or have large profit margins. If your
average sale is 5 dollars, you can't really afford to be paying much for an ad.
If one average order can pay for an entire day's or even week's PPC budget, it's
probably well worth the money. Unfortunately, a successful PPC campaign takes a
lot more than money.A successful PPC campaign is all about monitoring. Of the
many subpar PPC campaigns I have "inherited" from frustrated site owners,
roughly 80% were improperly monitored or tracked. Why is tracking so important?
For one thing, without any sort of tracking, how will you know how much you are
spending for a lead or a sale? Aside from not having tracking in place, many PPC
managers bid on bad keywords, allow poorly written ads and utilize improper
landing pages. Again, a successful PPC campaign takes a lot more than
money.Another thing many fail to realize when it comes to organic SEO and PPC is
that one can be used to the advantage of the other. PPC can be used to test
whether or not the keywords you are targeting are right for you. This works
especially well for a company that has a unique service or product. Sometimes,
traditional keywords or phrases are ineffective. PPC combined with tracking can
help you determine if the keywords you are bidding on are converting. If they
are, you can the create pages for the organic search which will hopefully
alleviate your need for future PPC spending or at least curtail it
significantly. There are also other ways to use PPC to "test" areas in which you
could benefit from organic SEO, though many SEM firms will not tell you this.
Why? Because they either don't know how to use PPC in this capacity or they want
you to remain dependent on PPC for the life of your business. Not all, but many
SEM firms view their clients much in the same way that high interest lenders
view borrowers with good credit. They want you to stay put and throw your money
out the window and will be more than happy to let you do so until you figure out
that you don't have to.The idea behind SEM is to help your ROI. Since I lean
more toward SEO than SEM, I tend to use PPC as a way to test the market and to
help new businesses bring in traffic. Ideally, organic SEO will help minimize
the cost of PPC. It's my opinion that companies who focus solely on PPC are
putting all their eggs in one basket and will always be dependent on their
marketing budget. As PPC prices soar, so will your PPC expenses.So, the next
time you search for an SEM firm, ask how they can help you save money and
achieve better results over the long term by incorporating organic SEO into your
overall marketing strategy. If a 5 to 1 preference isn't a good enough reason to
engage in organic SEO, then I don't know what is.About the Author: To submit
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