Aug.
17
2006
Top 10 Reasons PPC is better than SEO
There is always a huge debate about which is better: Pay Per Click or Search Engine Optimization. To help fuel the fires, here’s the top 10 reasons PPC is better than SEO.
1. You optimize a page for conversions, not search engines.
2. You don’t fear ‘The Dance’.
3. You determine the point of entry for your website.
4. You can easily change positions on a search results page.
5. You only pay for visitors.
6. You can easily test multiple offers.
7. Search engines offer support to help your ads rank and preform better.
8. You can use entirely flash websites (but only if you really want to).
9. Search engines treat you as partners, not infiltrators.
10. Great Swag.
Im not so sure I agree with points 1 & 2. They certainly used to be the case but with the introduction of more quality related variables by Google I think this is no longer the case for a fair few advertisers. You certainly concentrate on conversions but now you have additional factors to consider such as perceived relevance when working with Google. Many wont have yet but I expect this to continue on a wider scale in future.
Have to agree with Dan – you’re going to have to optimise for relevance – good ol seo
nice list Brad, and especially #10. I never got a google fridge from Cutts and co.
How about easier to forecast? For large-ish companies this can be really important. Forecasting SEO changes and the extent of gain from SEO projects tends to be quite a bit more difficult than PPC.
Regarding the Fridge – what’s required to receive one is this:
Single account: 1 million clicks
MCC: 3 million clicks
Regarding points 1 & 2 — most people don’t fear the PPC dance. I looked through over 500 accounts under management and not a single one was touched by the quality score update.
However, they were all for legit businesses.
I did see some accounts which were hit hard, hence the AdWords Case Study writeup: https://bgtheory.com/blog/google-adwords-case-study-improving-landing-page-quality/ which targeted a lead gen site.
Darren –
That’s a great point, should have made the list. Especially with Y Panama launching a forecasting tool; it will be easier to forecast just via APIs.
The benefits are endless. The only downside is the fact that you do pay considerably more in the long run. I have a site ranked #1 for a large term that I used to pay between $400-800 a month to rank well and now I get twice as much traffic for about $200 a month (link development). I still agree that PPC is better than SEO in the long and short run.