As a Cheshire based web-design agency, we are often asked by clients about which is the best possible Search Engine Result Performance Strategy (Also known as SERPS) for their business. Should they consider pay-per-clicks (PPC) or put their efforts into organic SEO?

In all honesty, both strategies have both their merits and downfalls so it is more of a question of which strategy is best for your local search engine needs… Inside our blog, we will provide a nice easy introduction into both pay-per-click and organic SEO strategies along with some advantages and disadvantages so you have a much better understanding.

Pay-Per-Click: The Introduction

PPC is an internet advertising strategy used to influence traffic to websites. Advertisers using this strategy will typically pay search-engines by bidding / buying on keyword phrases that are relevant to their target market. Once the ad is created, advertisers will then only pay the search engine publishers directly once the ad is clicked on.

Set your own budget

One of the cool things about PPC is that you can define exactly how much you want to spend, right down to the last penny! Using Adwords as an example, you can research how much your desired keywords will be per click. Once your set daily budget has been reached, your ads will drop off the page and will no longer appear for the rest of the day.

Instant Results

With any new website, it can take weeks, months or even years to rank for competitive target keywords. With PPC strategies, if you are prepared to pay the price, your website will automatically be placed at the very top of the search engine for specific keyword results.

Target specific keywords and locations

As previously mentioned, any PPC campaign can target any keyword but remember, the more generic the more expensive! However with Adwords, Bing Ads and other similar PPC platforms, you can actually display your ads to a specific county, city or country location. Perfect is you want to try and target local businesses with your service.

Pay-Per-Click Disadvantages

Short Life Span

PPC campaigns are all well and good as long as you continue to pay for them. Once you stop paying for your campaign, you simply disappear from the first page and have to rely on organic SEO.

User’s Trust

Statistics don’t lie! According to statistics provided by Beanstalk, paid advertising are far less trusted and ignored over organic search. 85% of searchers completely ignore the search listing with a further 66% proving to distrust the links because they are not relevant to their search.

Bidding Wars

If you have a set daily budget, the last thing you want to get into is a bidding war. Let’s say you want to create a campaign based around “Cheshire web design” chances are you are likely to be competing against similar companies which could easily become expensive.

Organic SEO: The Introduction

SEO, also known as Search Engine Optimisation, is the name given to the activity that attempts to improve the search engine rankings completely free. The purpose of organic SEO is to ensure a website can be found in search engines for words and / or phrases that are relevant to what your website is offering by being authoritative and knowledge.

Better lead conversion rate

According to statistics by Search Engine Journal, organic SEO leads have an average of 14.6% close rate, a significantly higher number than any email campaign which will generate 1.7%. In the same survey, 79% of users are far more likely to click on natural search results because they are more likely to have content related to their search enquiry.

Brand Credibility

As previously mentioned, users tend to trust the first page listings in Google as a reputable company. Because search engines have matched your website with keyword related searches, your business automatically gains brand credibility.

Better Return on Investment

A click from a search engine is much more available to any business than from an ad. If you think about it, users are actually actively searching from your product as opposed to a blanket search which may cover part of what you were searching for. If you are writing SEO content in house, it’s costing far less than hiring an advertising campaign so you are getting much more bang for your buck.

Organic SEO Disadvantages

Time & Resource

Whilst organic SEO has so many positives, it can become very time consuming, especially if you are looking to blog on a weekly or even daily basis! Resource can also become a factor, especially if you don’t want to write the blogs yourself.

Hopefully you will now have a better understanding of both Pay-Per-Click and Organic SEO strategies. If you would like to discuss which is more suitable for you, why not get in touch with your local Cheshire web-design agency? We are always happy to chat things through so give us a call on 01565 653616 or send us an email at tom@untitledtm.com