How does PPC and SEO compare and which one is best to use?

In my opinion, there is no right or wrong answer here. It entirely depends on your circumstances, your budget and your industry.

I think we would all pretty much agree that to have organic listings at the top of the search engines instead of forking out on PPC advertising would be a far more preferable means of internet marketing don’t you? (maybe not, everyone has there own opinion!)

So if the vast majority think that this is the ideal and optimal means of internet marketing in London, then why do people still use PPC and not just opt for SEO?

Many people have there own explanation and I would like to share mine. Its by no means new but if you are reading this after reading several conflicting or maybe even contradictory articles then maybe it will open your mind a little to why there seems to be such confusion.

Picture a company that’s been trading from a high street shop for 10 years with no major problems, making a good living but decides to enter the world of e-commerce. Lets say “occasion gifts” (birthdays xmas etc) are the products and the company opts to use a local website developer who puts together a standard out of the box e-commerce website like magento etc. These are fantastic platforms with regular updates to keep the platform at the cutting edge of the Internets fast moving and often-complex changes. The website is designed well and is functional. They have it set up for 3-6 months and realise that they are only receiving maybe a few hundred visitors per month. This is when they call the developer up to ask why they are not getting visitors! The developer will then explain that they can or cannot provide marketing services like organic SEO or PPC (mailer services are often used) anyway you get the picture! After researching several keywords that they would like page one listings for, the shop decides to get a quote for SEO and also how much PPC will cost. Often, an initial organic SEO campaign can be a strain on resources as the cost can range dramatically depending on the competition for the keywords! They say get a quote for £450 per month for SEO and are told it could be months before any of the keywords are well ranked in Google. This will often leave the client feeling that no value for money is being offered because how do they know that the keywords are even going to bring enough converting traffic to make ROI! (Return on investment) So they ask about PPC and realise that a budget of £100 per month may immediately bring converting traffic to the site with the luxury of being able to monitor the keywords performance. In this case, the shop may decide to choose the adwords campaign over the organic SEO as it’s a safer option not to mention cheaper. They then spend several months isolating the good converting keywords in the ppc campaign and are then armed with the keywords the would like to use for a possible organic SEO campaign. Makes sense right?

This would be a good explanation as to why using a PPC campaign initially is a better choice than organic SEO in London.

Ok, so we now know that SEO is the better long-term solution as a second stage marketing strategy but can SEO be an optimal first choice?

Most of the time unfortunately the answer is simply “no!”

But “why?” I hear you ask.

The answer is because if the shop had chosen the organic SEO first, the would have probably spent £2,500 - £3,000 for a 3-6 month campaign with ongoing payments of between £450 -£1,000 pcm

That’s about £12,000 for the year. And what would they get at the end of it? They will probably get about 10 - 20 page 1 listings in the search engines for keywords (phrases) that don’t carry much traffic. I have lost count of the amount of clients that used this kind of SEO service only to be left scratching their heads wondering where the return on investment is!

But why? The reason is its easier for the SEO marketing company to choose several keywords that are easier to get page 1 listings for, don’t get me wrong, the use of long tail phrases ofeten leads to better conversion rates but 5% of 100 is not as good as 1% of 1000!

So here is how the shop can use organic SEO instead of PPC. Firstly the keyword research has to be more than just an important first step, it has to be an MI6 style intelligence operation! (Maybe not quite) but lets go into it a little shall we?

Most clients have a pre conception as to what keywords or phrases will bring paying customers to their website in the thousands! But I have yet to come across a client even with a fair knowledge of SEO who gets even close to which keywords are appropriate for their project (budget wise) They often have 5 or so obvious T1 keywords like “toys” or “gifts” that will quite obviously be expensive not to mention time consuming to optimise for (if the budget allows then that’s fine).

Leaving the SEO to come up with a list by them selves is not recommended because they will almost definitely choose ones that will be easy to optimise for. What needs to happen is the SEO Company needs to perform an in-depth competitor analysis report that will highlight your online competitors keywords that are being used in PPC campaigns. This will allow you to see exactly which keywords are optimal and more importantly, how much the competitors are investing! The adds sales copy will also spark some ideas as they will have probably spent many months optimising them selves. We don’t encourage clients to copy competitors exactly, just be armed with there position in the market. Think of it like a game of chess, imagine playing without being able to see where your opponent’s pieces are! The shop client can then sit down at a table with the SEO with the competitor analysis reports and discuss different keywords that are being used, time scales and of course the budget! By this point a good SEO will have researched the competitors keywords from their ppc campaign and should have estimated monthly visits for the client to base the final decision on. Ok so the gift shop decides on 20 keywords for a budget of £450 - £1000 per month and goes straight ahead with organic SEO along with cutting out several months of a painstaking and expensive learning curve! For more information visit our SEO London page and find out how ROI tracking and conversion optimisation can help keep your SEO campaign on track without deviating into a financial loss!