I constantly stumble across people debating the benefits of SEO versus the benefits of an effective PPC campaign. Many PPC agencies will slag off SEO agencies and vice-versa, but the truth is that each of these strategies are good in the their own right and should almost not even be compared to one another because they are effectively different things; the difference being that organic SEO traffic is technically free and PPC traffic is well, pay per click.

I have decided to do a 3 part blog focusing on the Benefits of SEO, the Benefits of PPC and the Benefit of using both in cahoots with one another in order to form a well balanced, all-round online marketing strategy.

Today’s post takes a look at the benefits of SEO when compared to PPC. Next week we will take a look at PPC and conclude the week after that. I hope you’ll find it as interesting to read as I have found it interesting to write.

The Benefits of SEO – Search Engine Optimization – Organic Search:

Organic search refers to traffic that has entered your site via free organic search results in search engines, whereby a search result appears because of its relevance to the search terms that were entered by the user and in no way affected by sponsored or paid advertising. This type of traffic is free and is based on the relevant search engine’s impression of your website and its available content.

As mentioned above, organic search clicks through to your website are technically free, but believe me, getting your website to a point where you are ranking on page one of all major SERPs and thereby achieving significant traffic volumes, is no easy task and requires a lot of skill and time. Skilled time = money.

So… if SEO costs money and takes so much time, skill and effort to get to page one of the SERPS before you can start experiencing any significant traffic volumes, then why do people bother with SEO? Let’s take a look…

1. SEO is long term

Probably the greatest benefit of an effective and ethical SEO company strategy is that it results in long term benefits. Unlike PPC campaigns that literally stop driving traffic to your site the moment you cease a campaign, SEO continues to deliver results as long as a site maintains a good level of relevance and authority which, if an SEO campaign is delivered effectively, almost takes care of itself after certain amount of time.

2. Larger Audience

Research has shown that the majority of search engine users view and click organic search results rather than paid search results down the right hand side of the page. The general perception amongst industry professionals is that a standard search engine results page (one that excludes images, map listings, videos etc.) will attract a 70% to 30% split between organic search clicks and paid search clicks.  This means you have a significantly larger audience that is likely to click through to you website, especially if you are ranking towards the top of the SERPs for the searched keyword.

3. An even LARGER audience

In addition to the point above, another factor that allows you to reach a much larger audience via an effective SEO strategy is that generally your site will perform well across all search engines rather than just those on which you are paying to advertise your services. With the rise in popularity of bing and the sustained popularity of Yahoo and similar search engines, this can add up to a fairly large number clicks through to your website each month.

4. Increase the value of your website

SEO is effectively an investment of sorts; one that if it is carefully managed, can result in a website of increased value due to increased traffic volumes and therefore increased revenue. A website that is already achieving a good bottom line is very much like any other business that is doing well – it is a sought after asset and can be sold to the highest bidder. Because of the long term effectiveness of a well SEO’d site, it is a lot easier to sell a website that is achieving excellent rankings and traffic from constant organic sources, rather than one that is relying on paid advertising.

All in all, SEO is an essential and integral part of any worthy online business’ marketing strategy. Whereas a new company might want to focus a large amount of budget on PPC for immediate results, one would be silly not to start with an effective SEO campaign as soon as possible. And in this regard, read my earlier blog post which discusses the importance of a hiring an SEO company to do your work for you, as opposed to doing it yourself.

There you have it – 4 key benefits that SEO has over PPC. It doesn’t stop here though. Check back in next week to see how an effectively managed PPC campaign can help your online business and start earning ROI in no time at all.

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