In online marketing you really have to pick your battles. It's 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.

Considerations

What is SEO and PPC?

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

How much effort is required?
For a typical SME, an SEO strategy can be a 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 have to pay a premium for it.

How much does it cost?
SEO can be more expensive to setup (especially for an enterprise that has vast web content), but has lower maintenance/running costs than PPC. Typical SEO costs can be $10,000 for an enterprise with 10 percent monthly running costs. For an enterprise, PPC setup costs $5,000 with 50 percent to 200 percent 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.

Conclusion

So to summarize, SEO is a good overall lead-generation tool. It cannot be used for a specific campaign. SEO takes longer to trickle through, but the investment pays off with a brand image. Visitors trust organic searches more than paid listings.

On the other hand, PPC is great for specific campaigns that have set time. You cannot build a brand using search advertising. It will just be too expensive and eventually break your bank. PPC advertising has a lifespan 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, but using PPC to kick-start the campaign, in which you can find the low-hanging keywords that result in qualified traffic. Then optimize your site content for those keywords that will provide sustainable traffic in the long run.

Disclosures and References

Zaki Usman is owner shoutEx, online marketing outfit. You can read more of Zaki's blog articles on web marketing.

Comment on this Focus Brief

Clint Wilson

CxO and Project Architect, Cazoomi

Posted on July 25, 2010

Recommended by:
A Muller

Very good synopsis of PPC & SEO for start-ups in the business with limited marketing dollars to throw around.

We finally partnered with a key partner & online marketing guru, PierryInteractive.com, to gain more leverage in the space using our tried and true shared revenue model with our partners for leads generated from the SEO work on our Cazoomi.com site.

~Clint
@cazoomi

Nick Panayi

Director, Global Brand & Digital Marketing, CSC

Posted on July 26, 2010

Recommended by:
A Muller

Great piece. Well thought out and clear.

My view is that SEO and SEM (or PPC) are complimentary tools and should not really be pinned "against" each other. SEO is frankly not optional for anyone with a website who would like to get a few visitors now and then. SEO (at it's most basic) is simply the practice of using the right words and phrases to describe your business so that when someone is looking for you, they can find you on search engines.

If you can also afford to do an SEM/PPC campaign (and you should), then that's even better, as you'll get to "nudge" the people searching for the type of products/services you offer with "premium" placement on the search engine results page.

I think you need both if web traffic is important for your business.

nazrul islam

Posted on Dec. 16, 2011

Recommended by:
Corey Ford

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:

http://www.techyv.com/article/website-promotion-through-search-engine-optimiz...