Tag Categories - 24 views
Hey Dale, I added that for you. If anyone else really thinks a new "tag" (category) is needed, post here to the forum. Don't forget to use these tags and make sure that they are spelled the same...
Paid (PPC) Search versus SEO
August 9, 2007 ::: Increasingly I read and
hear about people in the Internet marketing business arguing over whether paid
search (pay per click ads) is more valuable than organic SEO, and vice versa.
While there are some fascinating and relevant arguments on either side, research
shows that
marketers are quite satisfied with both.
A report from the SEMPO
State of the Market Survey from about 18 months ago shows that 83% of
respondents were using PPC compared to only 11% using SEO. Other reports show
that the value of SEO is rising as user sophistication increases (according to
Chris Boggs in the Spring 2007 edition of
Search
Marketing Standard).
Marketing Sherpa's
2005 report showed SEO conversion rates overtook PPC rates at 4.2% versus 3.6%.
That's quite the opposite of what had been found the year before.
The Direct Marketing
Association reported in 2005 on a list of "online marketing strategies that
produce the best ROI that PPC and SEO were rated equally according to US
retailers, behind only "having a website" and "using email marketing". A more
recent study by Marketing Sherpa, though, showed SEO ahead of email marketing,
with PPC a close third.
One thing seems to be true: if a given web site shows up in both the organic
search engine listings and the PPC ads, that seems to super-validate it as a
good choice, which increases the likelihood of a searcher clicking on one of
those listings.