Pay Per Click Ads vs. Organic
SEO Advantages:
- Quality Traffic - more searchers prefer to click on “organic” search engine results considering them to be a reliable source of information. So if your site is listed in the top 10, it will get more visitors than sites listed in a pay-per-click area.
- Less expensive - you get more traffic for much less money. This is simple math: Pay-per-click campaigns on average cost $2.00 or more per click. For example, 100 unique visitors per day will cost you $200.00 per day or $6,000.00 per month!!
- Perfect solution for long-term advertising - once your site is optimized you can enjoy the benefits of natural, organic traffic and not have to worry about going broke on sponsored link bills.
SEO Disadvantages:
Time is the most important factor - it can take 2 to 6 month of SEO work to see your website listed in top 10 search results. For seasonal or short-term sales goals, this might not be the best solution. However, if you don’t have strict deadlines, natural, organic optimization is certainly worth the wait.
Pay-Per-Click Advantages:
- Immediate - you can get your site up on Google, Yahoo, or MSN listings in several hours, or days.
- Flexible - perfect for one-time promotions or seasonal advertising. You can turn off your keywords any time.
- Accessible – any site is suitable for pay-per-click advertising, even websites not amenable to search engine optimization; for example, flash sites or sites with a lot of pictures and graphics.
- Easy to maintain - you have complete control over your headlines, targeted keywords and key phrases, geographical area, and time.
Pay-Per-Click Disadvantages:
- Generally expensive
- Risk of click fraud, or invalid clicks
- Low click-through rates
- Potential modest return-on-investment (ROI)
