When to use SEO and when to opt for PPC?

Introduction

In online marketing you really have to pick your battles. Its often hard to figure out which SEM strategy is likely to work best. Ideally you should be implementing both strategies, but often times resource restrictions limit you to only one. If that's the case, then the FAQ below should help get you started.

What is SEO and PPC?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) optimizes your website for higher organic rankings on search engines (Google, Yahoo or Bing.) Pay-per-click (PPC) go through Google Adwords,Microsoft Adcenter or Yahoo Search Marketing platforms as banner/text ads.

How much effort is required?
For a typical SME a SEO strategy can be resource intensive task. PPC on the other hand is not as labor intensive (unless you are selling multiple products to B2C).

How quick are the results?
SEO listings can take a few months to fully mature whereas PPC takes a few days. 

How granular can I target my audience?
SEO can be optimized for keywords, but you have little control on granular targeting such as geographic, demographic, time of day results. PPC gives you more control over such metrics. But you've to pay a premium for it.

How much does it cost?
SEO can be more expensive to setup (especially for an enterprise that has large web-content) but has lower maintenance/running costs than PPC. Typical SEO costs for a SEM can be 15,000 USD with 10% monthly running costs. PPC setup costs can be 5,000 USD with 50% to 200% monthly running costs.

What are the steps involved?

SEO can be a labor intensive project that involves your marketing team working with your web-team. Some of the project steps are:  

• Design a SEO game plan.
• Migrate your site to a CMS (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal).
• Submit sitemap to various search engines.
• Train marketing Staff and implement changes together.
• Improve your rankings

PPC is not as labor intensive and can be managed by a small marketing team. Some of the PPC steps are:

• Research keywords
• Establish advertising accounts
• Set up ad campaigns.
• Apply conversion codes to track performance.
• Track and update ad campaigns.

Summary:

SEO is a good overall lead-generation tool. It CAN NOT be used for a specific campaign. SEO takes longer to trickle through, but the investment pays off with a stronger brand. Visitors trust organic searches more than paid listings. And if they find your website in organic searches for the right keywords, then obviously they will trust your brand even more.

On the other hand PPC is great for specific campaigns that have set time. You CAN NOT build a brand using search advertising. It will just be too expensive and eventually break your bank. PPC advertising has a life span of your budget. Turn off the budget, you lose your ad traffic.

Depending on your budget, goals and your time-restrictions, one strategy can make more sense over another. Often most marketing campaigns involve building on both. I would suggest using PPC to kick start your online campaign, so that you can find low-hanging keywords that result in qualified traffic. Then optimizing your site content for those keywords to provide sustainable SEO traffic in the long run. To get you started, start reading on SEO marketing stratigies.