SEO Consult Blog
SEO and PPC, the age old argument.
Filed under: SEO vs PPC by Nick on April 17th, 2008 @ 3:44 pm
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Here we go again, another blog article written about the positives and negatives of Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click Marketing. At SEO Consult we have two specialised departments that deal with both industries, so it’s easy to give a balanced argument to which is more beneficial for a given website.
I will approach this bearing three aspects in mind; industry, content and budget. These factors are considered, otherwise it would turn into another rant about how expensive PPC is and how slow SEO is.
Firstly industry dependant, PPC can sometimes be substantially more cost-effective. If you’re product is high profit, you will be able to afford a relatively high cost per conversion and therefore intermittent advertising would be enough as any investment made would be recouped. SEO has long timeframes, and therefore requires continued investment so may not be as appropriate.
On the other hand if you have a niche product and need to make a lot of sales to make a profit, optimising your most important pages (home and main products) then SEO is far better and would be better for brand building, leading to more returning customers and thus making more sales.
If your website has little or no content then it will never succeed in the organic search results, with PPC as long as you have relevant landing pages it really doesn’t matter what you have or don’t have on the page. Even if you have just a one page site, theoretically you can still have a successful PPC program. This is again a short term measure, if your CPC (Cost per click) is continually rising, as we have seen with nearly all Google advertising, then SEO becomes more of a realistic option.
Finally budget. Ultimately, if you have a large or unlimited budget then you can afford to undertake both Pay Per Click and Search Engine Optimisation. Rationally this is not the case for 99% of UK businesses - you need to truly evaluate the long term strategy and estimations of your company. Search Engine Optimisation is an investment which done correctly will never be wasted, more importantly once you achieve top listings you won’t drop out if you can’t afford to continually pay for it. With PPC once you stop, you drop.
For a free SEO quote please complete our simple Free SEO Analysis form.
Related posts:
- Why have SEO?
If you own a website and only receive a trickle of visitors day to day, then Search Engine Optimisation is a route one method to... - SEO & PPC: Advantages of aligning your campaings
Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO for short is such a simple, yet effective form of Internet Marketing, yet so often misunderstood. Through effective SEO you... - Effective Marketing & SEO
People often ask, what is the most effective way to market your website with SEO in mind and secondly how to go about it? Lets... - How to create one way link an SEO guide
In the world of seo the most common question I always seem to get asked is how do you create one way links, well I... - Be Greedy With Your SEO Keywords and Give Them A PPC Cuddle
With Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), the best strategy is always to pick the most generic keywords with the highest traffic volumes and the most expensive...
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 3:44 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed.
Contact SEO Consult About Search Engine Optimisation
Responses to “SEO and PPC, the age old argument.”
Leave a Reply
Search Blogs
Highest Rated Articles




(5 out of 5)Multiple Domains for SEO?




(5 out of 5)Why One Keyword Won’t Do




(5 out of 5)Site Structure Will Affect Your Website Optimization Campaign




(5 out of 5)How The Googlebot Works In Relation To Your SEO Campaign




(5 out of 5)Recent Posts
5 Quick Wins To Build Page Rank
More Effort Less Reliance, The DIY Self-Made SEO Consultant
Don’t get the black tag of ‘Search Engine Spammer’
Are SEO Consultants - A Headache Or Help?
Blog Categories
Browser Software and Search Engine Optimisation
CMS and Admin Systems and SEO
eCommerce and Search Engine Optimisation
Ethical Search Engine Optimisation
Geo Targeting Search Engine Optimisation
Google and Search Engine Optimisation
Google PageRank
Google PR Update
Internet Marketing
Keyword Research and Search Engine Optimisation
Link Campaigns and Search Engine Optimisation
Press Releases
Search Engine Optimisation
Search Engine Optimisation Advice
Search Engine Optimisation Analysis
Search Engine Optimization Keywords
Search Engine Optimization Marketing
SEO Consult
SEO Experiment
SEO Management
SEO Strategy
SEO Submissions
SEO Tips
SEO vs PPC
Site Analysis and Search Engine Optimisation
Social Networking and Search Engine Optimization
Top SEO Tips
W3C and Search Engine Optimisation
Website Optimization
Yahoo! and Search Engine Optimisation
View All Categories
Blog Archives
| November 2008 | October 2008 |
| September 2008 | August 2008 |
| July 2008 | June 2008 |
| May 2008 | April 2008 |
| March 2008 | February 2008 |
| January 2008 | December 2007 |
| November 2007 |









[...] likely to lead a conversion or a sale. Indeed, there has been a lot of debate about what is better SEO or PPC, but the truth is they work better together instead of choosing one or the other. Two other [...]