It’s a battle that will rage for years to come between online marketers – PPC vs. SEO – which is better?

The truth is they’re both trying to accomplish the same goal. They’re both trying to drive traffic to your site. The key is to determine which is best for you. So let’s take a look at the advantages of each:

SEO

• Less costly

While an upfront cost to get your SEO started may be pricey, the cost after that is very minimal (or non-existent if you DIY). On the other hand, every time a visitors clicks on your ad, you pay. If your PPC keyword is popular, then your cost per click will be high (because you will be bidding against your competitors for the most popular keyword).

• Long term value

While a PPC campaign can provide instant results, the long term value of SEO is much higher. The traffic growth on a good SEO campaign is exponential, and growth for a PPC campaign (if any) is usually linear.

• Reliable listings

A lot of website owners make the mistake of investing in PPC before they know enough to get any kind of return out of it. Don’t make that mistake! Use your SEO campaign to test PPC ideas. Search engine optimization listings are considered to be more appropriate and reliable.

PPC

• Faster results

PPC ads can be set up in a matter of minutes. Whereas the effect of SEO can take a few weeks or months to produce results.

• Easy set-up

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to set up a PPC campaign. On the other hand, SEO can be quite complicated and time consuming.

• Control of traffic

PPC gives you the ability to have complete control over your search traffic. With PPC programs you select the keywords and write the listings. You control where you’re listed and what the listing says. You decide what your budget is and can adjust your spend rate based on results or events (e.g. announcements, promotions).

What got me thinking of this subject was a video recently produced by Danny Dover at SEOmoz. He outlines the pros and cons of PPC and SEO. It’s definitely worth checking out, so I have shared it below.

So which is the winner? I can’t answer that for you, but here is a final thought – If you need to improve the quality and quantity of your website leads quickly then PPC is your answer. If you want to insure that you have the highest ROI, enhance your branding and get an optimized conversion rate then SEO is for you. Good luck deciding!

Related posts:

• Pay-Per-Click Mistakes: Bidding on ‘Keyword’
• SEOVideo: What Kind of Links Do You Need?
• SEMVideo: How Accurate Are Results from ‘site:domain.com’ Queries?
• SEMVideo: Will SEO Still Exist in 5 Years?
• SEM Video: Future-Proofing Your SEO with Rand Fishkin