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As many of you know, PPC stands for “Pay-Per-Click.”
With PPC, you can get good rankings by bidding on keywords
and phrases using Overture
or Google AdWords.
(Rather than actually optimizing your site with SEO.)
And every time someone clicks on one of your keywords via
a search engine listing that you secured via PPC, you’re
charged the amount you bid. PPC can run anywhere from 10
cents to $10 per keyword phrase.
At a recent Internet marketing seminar, speaker Tom Antion,
quipped this ditty: “PPC is a lot like a personal relationship—when
the money disappears, so do you—unfortunately.”
(Rimshot, please… :-)
Tom has a point. I’ve heard it described as the difference
between leasing traffic (PPC) and buying traffic (SEO).
SEO: a better ROI than PPC
PPC can be an expensive endeavor and doesn’t offer
nearly the ROI that SEO does. Unlike SEO, which often can
return good rankings for un-optimized keywords, with PPC,
you only get rankings on the words you bid high enough on.
Additionally, with PPC, you’re really at the mercy
of the PPC search engine. They set the bid prices, the terms,
and what it takes to “pay to play.” At least with
SEO, once you have obtained good rankings and are on a maintenance
program, your monthly investment is considerably less.
Now let me be clear: I’m not advocating an either/or
scenario. In fact there are several reasons to utilize PPC—either
as part of your overall SEO strategy—or exclusively
under certain circumstances.
SEVEN REASONS TO STRONGLY
CONSIDER PPC
- You need results NOW. Often, your
results will show up in a matter of hours.
- Your keywords are VERY competitive.
Of course, be prepared to pay handsomely for
each clickthrough.
- To supplement, not replace your SEO efforts.
This can help fill in the gaps or add additional
keywords that are difficult for you to optimize.
- Your site is difficult to optimize.
Sites built dynamically, in Flash, database-driven
applications or in frames are difficult for
search engines to index.
- It’s a better option than learning
SEO by yourself. You’ve decided that:
a) you don’t want to hire an optimizer
and, b) you don’t want to learn SEO.
- You discover a keyword bonanza! Keywords
are priced by the traffic they generate. Every
so often you’ll find good keywords that
get great traffic at really good prices. But
it does take some research and monitoring
time.
- You get a major adrenaline rush from
bidding on keywords. Keep in mind that
for your keywords to be visible to multiple
search engines or high on the page, you’ll
need to bid more. Sometimes a LOT more.
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SEO Insider's take:
First, decide if you want a firm like SearchEnginePatrol
to manage your PPC program or you’d rather do-it-yourself.
Next, set yourself a “not to exceed” monthly budget
and stick with it. We recommend monitoring your bids with
some of the bid tracking tools available to you today—either
online or via software that your purchase.
Important: check your web stats so you know where
your traffic is coming from and you can prove conclusively
that you PPC investment is producing results.
Finally, consider weaning yourself away from PPC as more
of your SEO efforts begin bearing fruit. In the long-term,
ROI-wise, SEO beats PPC nine times out of ten.
Marc Harty is the owner of SearchEnginePatrol.com. His
firm has obtained hundreds of top 10 search engine rankings
for a diverse list of clients, including those in the financial,
legal, human resources, educational and manufacturing sectors.
Marc regularly leads Internet marketing seminars and is
an authority on guerilla-style e-marketing.
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