Organic or Pay-Per- Click?

There is much discussion about which is better: organic rankings in the search engines or pay-per-click advertisements. My answer: “What are you trying to accomplish?” Like most things, it depends.

Although they are harder to get and will cost more time and money, organic search rankings do offer distinct advantages over pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements and will always be better in the long run.

I recently read an article that compared organic rankings to PPC advertisement rankings. Here are some of the results:

• Searchers are up to six times more likely to click on the first few organic results than any of the PPC ads
• 14% of searchers trust PPC ads (meaning 86% of searchers may not)
• 29% of searchers are annoyed by PPC ads
• Conversion rates are 17% higher for organic results

With stats like that, why would you ever use PPC? Here are a couple reasons:

• Time. PPC can be instantaneous and can jumpstart your website traffic. Organic campaigns can take 3 months (and sometimes longer depending on your competition). So if you have a short amount of time or a seasonal business, PPC might be better suited for your goals.
• Cost. If you are working on a tight budget, then PPC will always cost less. PPC allows you to limit your campaign to as much or as little as you want to spend. And by limiting your keyword and keyword phrases to those that bring the most qualified traffic, you can operate your campaign on a smaller budget.
• Testing. PPC is a great way to test headlines and keywords to see what pulls better for your niche and your market. You cannot do this with organic SEO. By setting up different ads with different headlines, in a day you can easily see which resonates more with visitors and which drives more traffic to your site.

So, it really does depend what you’re looking for. For long-term appeal, organic is the way to go. For short, quick tests, PPC is a better option.

If you’re looking for some resources for finding your keywords to help develop PPC campaigns here are a couple: Google’s FREE tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal; or Bran Callen’s Keyword Elite ($176 – well worth it!): http://www.keywordelite.com.

Known as the “Online Celebrity Agent,” Lindsay Glass helps her clients tell their stories in the online world. Being brought up around a family of marketers, but a product of Generation Y, Lindsay naturally gravitated to the new world of online marketing. Lindsay began freelance writing in 2000 and soon after launched her own PR firm that thrived by offering an in-your-face “Guaranteed PR” that was one of the first of its type in the nation.

At an early age, Lindsay learned from her father, and business partner, that “people buy people.” Today, Lindsay takes that concept and builds upon it by working with her clients to create Celebrity status for them in their industries. Lindsay’s clientele span the entire business map and range from doctors and small business owners to Inc 500 CEOs.

Lindsay is a graduate of the University of Florida with a Bachelors Degree in Marketing. She is a co-founder of Dicks Nanton & Glass’ Celebrity Branding Agency’s Online Division and was instrumental in the development of the Online Celebrity Platform™ the company’s flagship online offering which builds on traditional media with a slight twist. “The biggest mistake people make online is believing that their web site is just an extension of their business cards and brochures. That approach is not only old fashion, today it’s a waste of time and money. Your web site has to be dynamic, grab attention, tell a compelling story and ultimately convert visitors into prospects and finally into customers. If not, that traffic that you’ve worked so hard to get to your website will move on within 10 seconds, never to be seen again. We help our clients avoid that pitfall to grow their business and their revenue streams.”

Lindsay has also been selected as one of America’s PremierExperts™ and has been seen on ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox as well as featured in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Newsweek.

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