|
How it Works
|
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Your website appears: in the organic section by maintaining, optimizing & promoting according to best SEO practices. picture
Pricing: A click to your website does not cost you anything. Setup and management fees vary by company.
|
Sponsored Search / Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Your website appears: In the sponsored area of the search engine result page for keywords that you choose. picture
Pricing: You are charged a small fee for each click. Plus any fees the company managing your campaign charges. |
| Top Rankings Achieved in: |
Weeks to Months. |
A Few Hours. |
| Stopping Efforts Will: |
Depend on industry. Rankings could remain for weeks - years. |
Cause immediate rankings loss in the sponsored area. |
| Tracking |
Keyword and traffic performance can be tracked with an analytics program.
Rankings can be used to track performance, but as personalized search grows, this will be an increasingly unreliable statistic.
|
A diverse range of tracking available depending on who runs your campaign. Track email addresses, record calls received from clicks, ROI per click, A/B split test different landing pages, and many more.
If running SEO and PPC simultaneously, use PPC feedback to optimize SEO performance.
|
|
Searcher's Impression of Website
(*)
|
More clicks than sponsored listings on same page.
Higher trust in results.
|
Fewer clicks than organic listings on same page.
Less trust of results.
|
| Number of Searches you May appear for |
Will depend on how each search engine's algorithm views your website and the size of your website.
|
Infinite – as many as you set up. |
|
Conversion Rate(*)
|
About Equal
Organic listings receive more clicks, but searchers are not as commercially motivated to purchase.
Higher probability that they are in the research phase of their search.
|
About Equal
Users don't click sponsored results as much, but when they do, they are more likely to have an intent to purchase.
High probability that they are in the purchase phase of their search.
|
| Upfront Investment |
Do It Yourself: Cash, Low. Opportunity Cost, High. Can be a DIY project, but high rankings will take even longer to obtain due to a substantial learning curve.
Hire an Expert: Medium – High. Depends on who you hire, what your general marketing budget is, how big and in what shape your website is in.
|
Low – High.
Decide on your monthly budget. Budget amount will depend on the competitiveness of your online industry.
|
| Short Term ROI |
Opportunity Cost: Medium. Ahead of your competitors who haven't started SEO efforts, but behind those who already have.
Cash:Low - Medium. Make an investment, results could take weeks - months depending on the competitiveness of your industry.
|
Opportunity Cost: Low. Make an investment, get immediate results.
Cash: Low - High. Depends on how competitive your industry is and what your profit margin is.
|
| Long Term ROI |
High. Rankings can last for some time and you aren't paying for every click. |
Low - High. Depends on Industry and your profit margin. |
| Ability to Target Local Customers |
Medium. Target local customers by optimizing for keywords plus geographic keyword modifiers.
|
High. Target local customers for any keyword phrase within virtually any geographic area you choose from specific cities to a radius around a certain city, to entire states or countries. |
| Level of Control |
Medium. Pages can be optimized for certain keywords, but the management of the conversion process is slightly less customizable because a variety of keywords bring people with different goals to the same page.
|
High. Highly customizable marketing message. You manage the entire marketing message from title and URL appearing in the ad, to the landing page people arrive on to the specific call to action you want visitors to take. |