Organic SEO vs Pay Per Click

John Scott · 05-03-2004, 06:50 AM

Thoughts on organic SEO vs pay per click?

I'm thinking that for some campaigns, organic SEO might just be too expensive. Like, to get ranking on gambling related terms.

Thoughts?

RonHollingsworth · 05-03-2004, 12:12 PM

I can see how organic SEO could be expensive. If you go that route then you have to wait until the fruits of your labor pay off thus loosing or missing the opportunity of sales. PPC brings that in right away. I would suggest doing both if you can at the same time. Get the ball rolling with PPC and optimize for organic rankings. I did this with my e-commerce site and when I came up to the top for the keywords I targeted, I cut my PPC. The result was more $$ in my pocket with less traffic to the site. I saved on PPC. I am ranked #1,2,2,and 3 for my top 4 KP's.

burgi82 · 05-04-2004, 06:24 AM

I agree that organic SEO takes a long time until it pays of. But, for some keywords, PPC is just way to expensive, like gambling, so the only way to make money in that industry is really doing organic SEO and being patient.
In general, I do try out a PPC campaign with some cash for my newer sites. Then, I see if I can make money with it, and if I'm making money using PPC, I keep the PPC running, while doing organic SEO. If I can't make money with PPC, I cut the PPC ads, and just do organic SEO.

Eggs&Hammy · 05-04-2004, 07:13 AM

My industry (not my sig link stuff) clicks are upwards of $6 per click right now....quite expensive.

John Scott · 05-04-2004, 07:18 AM

I think a few people really make great use of PPC by just bidding the min. bid on hundreds or even thousands of keywords. May not get the best search terms that way, but the net effect is similar.

bobking · 05-04-2004, 07:20 AM

#1. Our experience indicates a conversion rate not only with searches to click thrus, but with clicks to sales as well, nearly triple organic over PPC.

#2.ROI is all that matters and we are seeing a definite better ROI for organic.

#3. There is EXTREME value in top spots across multiple sources. Being in both places, PPC AND organic, has proven to be VERY lucrative for our clients.

#4. There is a certain perstige associated with top organic positions under industry dominating keywords that does not exist with PPC. That has some value.

#5. Using multiple revenue streams, you have more control over budgeting and cost of sales with organic. You never know from one day to the next who will riase your cost in bids. If you establish from the outset a budget sufficient to cover the creation and placement of those multiple streams, you have a much better chance of retaining organic traffic at a fixed cost even considering the volatility of the engines themselves. While it's true engines change, our experience has been they don't change nearly as quickly as the PPC bids.

#6. Organic gives you "theme" keywords without having to budget for each term. PPC, you pay for casino AND online casino. Organic, you can place top 5 for literally hundreds of words and phrases all related to the casino "theme". Using content management programs and referrer tracking, PPC can not compete with organic in terms of displaying the right content for the right search at a fixed cost and THAT may be the #1 reason that for competitive keywords and phrases, organic may never be too costly to make it not worth it to at least some clients.

That said, organic is not a game for the faint of heart. It takes some resources and large cahonies don't hurt.

RonHollingsworth · 05-04-2004, 07:59 AM

Yeah I like the bidding for 100s of keywords idea. We did this with about 200 keywords and it worked quite well. Although most keywords only brought in a hit or two a day, some more, it really added up to some good, cheap, highly targeted traffic.

thebassman · 05-04-2004, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RonHollingsworth

Yeah I like the bidding for 100s of keywords idea. We did this with about 200 keywords and it worked quite well. Although most keywords only brought in a hit or two a day, some more, it really added up to some good, cheap, highly targeted traffic.

That's what I'll be experimenting with when MemoriesBox launches... a lot of the keywords that I will be targeting are not going to bring a lot of traffic, but each person that searched for that key phrase will be a highly targeted visitor...

sem4u · 05-05-2004, 12:39 AM

I would opt for both John. However, I am sure that Overture is pulling all gambling ads and AdWords may be the same too.