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PPC vs SEO – Which one makes grown men cry?

By   /  September 2, 2014  /  No Comments

What do Scrooge McDuck, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have in common?

They don’t have to choose between PPC and SEO for their online campaigns.

Sorry if you were hoping for a joke, you’re just going to have to fill in your own.  Extra points if it involves swimming in money.  While both PPC and SEO benefit from far lower costs than standard print and media marketing, for a lot of businesses, it is not cost or time effective to pour enormous amounts of effort into both.

In this post, we’ll talk about the major differences between the two, which should help you determine which advertising method to choose or if you need to redirect your current efforts.

SEO Pros

SEO Cons

Fewer upfront costs Very time consuming
Enormous number of free tools Results take lots of time
Rules tend to be easier to understand Rules changes frequently and often without warning
 The nightmare that is backlinking

Search Engine Optimization seems like the cheaper way to go because there are few to any upfront costs if you’re handling your own campaigns.  However, doing so is a time consuming process, especially if you’re not familiar with the rules, which tend to change without warning.  Google sometimes will notify webmasters of an SEO update after it happens.  Further, you could be waiting months for results, which may be dismal depending on a variety of issues, including rules changes and competition.

On the other hand, if you have little money and lots of time, SEO can be the less expensive way to go.  The overall idea behind the process can be fairly easy to grasp (with the major exception of backlinking, which has been known to make grown men and women cry).  Additionally, there are a ton of free tools that help you handle SEO, including a slew of WordPress plugins.

PPC Pros

PPC Cons

Immediate results Upfront cost tends to be higher
Rules change fairly infrequently and are much clearer and are planned out in advance Large number of options may be difficult to wade through (EG Ad extensions)
If something isn’t working, you can make immediate and effective changes Fewer options with new accounts and lower Quality Scores.
 Variety of automated tools and options that make PPC easier to manage

We’re fairly biased towards PPC, and the major advantage is you can get results immediately.  Like, today.  Granted, you’ll pay for those results, good and bad, but you have control over what you spend through budgeting.  Additionally, unlike SEO, you can tell within days if something is not working and make changes; you’re not stuck waiting weeks or months for results and then waiting more weeks or months to see if your fix did.

Newer accounts and those with poor quality scores won’t have access to some of the better features like Ad Extensions, but that can eventually work in your favor if you get your Quality Scores in shape.

Additionally, and this is where things get really interesting, you can combine the two… Start with PPC to figure out which keywords actually deliver you customers on a plate, then use optimize your rankings for those keywords in SEO.

  • Published: 10 years ago on September 2, 2014
  • By:
  • Last Modified: September 2, 2014 @ 10:19 am
  • Filed Under: Google, SEO

About the author

I'm an avid reader of stuff and devour information of all kind. For the past four years, I've been pursuing my passion for writing. When I'm not reading or writing, you'll find me knitting. Follow me on twitter: @MarilynMaupinTS

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