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Slide 1: yellowseven Organic SEO or PPC? white paper BOTH! Most, if not all, businesses will eventually have to ask themselves the question: “Should I invest in an Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy or in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising?” How do you know which one will provide the best Return on Investment (R.O.I.)? The short answer: Both! Purchasing “clicks” is known as PPC advertising. With PPC advertising you bid (pay) for keywords on the various search engines ( usually Google and Yahoo! ) and when that keyword is searched, and depending on your bid amount, your advertisement is served up for the searcher to see, and hopefully, click. You are competing with other advertisers for the same keywords and depending on your bid amount compared to your competition determines who’s ad shows up first. Organic or Natural SEO consists of optimizing your website pages to make your site more relevant for a given keyword or set of keywords so that the website shows up within the organic/natural/non-paid listing area. Organic SEO is the process of making sure the search engine spiders can crawl and understand your website pages. Organic SEO gets the spider to not only understand it, but like it more than the other website pages with the same or similar content. PPC is a strategy to employ when you need to ring the cash register fast. “He who pays the most wins!” Organic SEO is a more long-term strategy. A strategy that paints with a broader brush and allows you to target a larger set of keywords than most PPC budgets would support. Who clicks where? On Google, 72% surveyed felt organic results were more relevant, with only 28% preferring paid listings for search results. In addition, conversion rates are slightly higher for unpaid search results than the rate for paid ( 4.2% vs. 3.6% ). With 30% of search engine users clicking on paid listings, that leaves 70% who are clicking on the organic or natural search engine listing results. 72% Click Organic Listings 28% Click Paid Listings www.yellow7.com | 972-731-6720
Slide 2: yellowseven Case Study #1 Client: Major RV Dealership with national reach Advertising Strategy: PPC, SEO, Traditional Monthly Traffic: 84,000 Visits Average Time on Site: 7:42 Average Pages per Visit: 7.81 white paper cont. Using the knowledge that 72% of searchers click the organic listings and 28% click the paid listings, you can develop an online marketing strategy that encompasses both advertising opportunities. Failure to adopt either PPC or SEO means you are leaving a substantial amount of traffic on the table for your competition. Below are some real-world, actual client case studies showing their traffic breakdowns by PPC and Natural SEO. Visits from Organic Listing 91% Traffic Breakdown 63% Search Engine 20% Direct Traffic 16% Referring Sites Total Traffic from Search Engines: 53,137 Traffic from organic listings: 48,473 (91%) Traffic from PPC with $5000 monthly budget: 4,664 (9%) 9% Visits from Paid Listing Case Study #2 Client: Plastic Surgeon with local reach only Advertising Strategy: PPC, SEO, Traditional Monthly Traffic: 6,400 Visits Average Time on Site: 4:27 Average Pages per Visit: 4.28 63% Visits from Organic Listing Traffic Breakdown 44% Search Engine 11% Direct Traffic 45% Referring Sites Total Traffic from Search Engines: 2,881 Traffic from organic listings: 1,794 (63%) Traffic from PPC with $7000 monthly budget: 1,087 (37%) 37% Visits from Paid Listing www.yellow7.com | 972-731-6720
Slide 3: yellowseven ADVANTAGES OF PPC Immediate results - Need to get the cash register ringing right away? You can setup a PPC account and get site visitors by the end of the day. white paper cont. As with any marketing strategy, there are pros and cons associated with each. Below are the advantages and disadvantages of both PPC and SEO marketing strategies. Use the information to decide for yourself. DISADVANTAGES OF PPC Conversions are lower - Data provided by Google suggests conversions are slightly higher for unpaid search results than for paid (4.2% vs. 3.6%). Easy to calculate R.O.I. - You can quickly calculate daily R.O.I. How much did you sell today? vs. How much did you spend today? Keyword testing for SEO - With PPC you can test specific keywords and get realtime data on your best performing keywords giving you a roadmap illustrating the best keywords to target with SEO. Less visits per keyword - Roughly 30% of search engine visitors click PPC listings, leaving 70% clicking organic results. Budget limitations - Paying for traffic as a sole marketing strategy means traffic comes quickly and can leave quickly once a budget is exhausted. Daily budgets are exceeded, in most cases, long before daily searches. ADVANTAGES OF SEO Increased searches - 70% of search engine visitors use the organic listings when searching for goods and services. DISADVANTAGES OF SEO Slower results - Unlike PPC, SEO takes a more long-term commitment. Natural rankings take time to prove their worth within the search engines for a given keyword(s). Target more keywords - With SEO you can target an expanded set of keywords which are not tied directly to daily budgets like PPC campaigns are. Long-term marketing presence - As you build up popularity for a given keyword, your rank within the search engines for that keyword(s) improves giving you “more bang for your buck” for as long as you are listed in that position. Comparing this keyword to the cost per click associated with it in PPC advertising gives you a clear R.O.I. picture. Algorithm changes - Search engines routinely change the algorithm used to determine how sites should rank. A good SEO company can identify these changes and adjust efforts accordingly. Customer expectations - SEO is a longterm commitment. As a SEO client you must have realistic expectations and realize you are investing present day dollars for future gains Gains which have proven to exceed PPC R.O.I. over time. www.yellow7.com | 972-731-6720
Slide 4: yellowseven How do you calculate the value of organic search traffic? white paper cont. Organic search traffic accounts for anywhere between 65% and 80% of all search traffic to a website. Yet, most online marketing budgets allocate less than 15% to SEO giving PPC, which receives 15% - 30% of all search traffic, 80%+ of online marketing budgets. Showing up in the organic listings for a given set of keywords can boost traffic dramatically. The below chart illustrates the cost-per-click for SEO compared to PPC for the case studies previously discussed. Case Study #1 PPC Monthly Budget $5000 Visitors = 4,664 Cost Per Visitor SEO Monthly Budget $5000 Visitors = 53,137 Cost Per Visitor Case Study #2 PPC Monthly Budget $7000 Visitors = 4,664 Cost Per Visitor SEO Monthly Budget $3000 Visitors = 1,794 Cost Per Visitor $1.07 $0.09 $6.43 $1.67 If SEO is so great, why even recommend PPC? Simple. PPC is immediate and results in targeted clicks. PPC traffic flows as long as you have the budget to support it. Even though most traffic flows from organic listings, it would be foolish to completely ignore the 15% - 30% of search engine traffic that follows paid listings. This PPC traffic is usually ‘on-target’. The only way they found your site is by first searching for the specific keyword or keyword phrase you bought with PPC. For example, if the search is for “Used Motorhome For Sale” you have a pretty good indication the person is indeed looking for a used motorhome for sale. Best of both worlds. By developing an online strategy that utilizes both organic SEO and PPC you can take advantage of short-term conversions while building long-term search engine saturations that will pay out dividends long into the future - decreasing your cost-per-visit and increasing R.O.I. www.yellow7.com | 972-731-6720