Diversity has proven be a contributing factor of success in most areas of business, and its no surprise to hear that its immensely important in terms of online search. Why put all your eggs in one basket? YELLOW7 has shown plenty of clients the benefits of utilizing both organic SEO and PPC campaigns together for the best result possible.

1. white paper
yellowseven
Organic SEO or PPC?
BOTH!
Most, if not all, businesses will eventually have to ask themselves the question: “Should I invest
in an Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy or in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertis-
ing?” How do you know which one will provide the best Return on Investment (R.O.I.)? The
short answer: Both!
Purchasing “clicks” is known as PPC advertising. With PPC advertising you bid (pay) for key-
words on the various search engines ( usually Google and Yahoo! ) and when that keyword is
searched, and depending on your bid amount, your advertisement is served up for the
searcher to see, and hopefully, click. You are competing with other advertisers for the same
keywords and depending on your bid amount compared to your competition determines
who’s ad shows up first.
Organic or Natural SEO consists of optimizing your website pages to make your site more
relevant for a given keyword or set of keywords so that the website shows up within the
organic/natural/non-paid listing area. Organic SEO is the process of making sure the search
engine spiders can crawl and understand your website pages. Organic SEO gets the spider to
not only understand it, but like it more than the other website pages with the same or similar
content.
PPC is a strategy to employ when you need to ring the cash register fast. “He who pays the
most wins!” Organic SEO is a more long-term strategy. A strategy that paints with a broader
brush and allows you to target a larger set of keywords than most PPC budgets
would support.
Who clicks where?
On Google, 72% surveyed felt organic results were
more relevant, with only 28% preferring paid listings
for search results. In addition, conversion rates are
72%Click
slightly higher for unpaid search results than the rate
for paid ( 4.2% vs. 3.6% ). With 30% of search engine
Organic
Listings 28%
Click
users clicking on paid listings, that leaves 70% who are Paid
clicking on the organic or natural search engine Listings
listing results.
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cont.
Using the knowledge that 72% of searchers click the organic listings and 28% click the paid list-
ings, you can develop an online marketing strategy that encompasses both advertising oppor-
tunities. Failure to adopt either PPC or SEO means you are leaving a substantial amount of
traffic on the table for your competition. Below are some real-world, actual client case studies
showing their traffic breakdowns by PPC and Natural SEO.
Case Study #1
Client: Major RV Dealership with national reach
Advertising Strategy: PPC, SEO, Traditional
Monthly Traffic: 84,000 Visits
Average Time on Site: 7:42
91%
Visits from Organic Listing
Average Pages per Visit: 7.81
Traffic Breakdown
63% Search Engine
20% Direct Traffic
16% Referring Sites
Total Traffic from Search Engines: 53,137
Traffic from organic listings: 48,473 (91%)
9%
Traffic from PPC with $5000 monthly budget: 4,664 (9%) Visits from Paid Listing
Case Study #2
Client: Plastic Surgeon with local reach only
Advertising Strategy: PPC, SEO, Traditional
Monthly Traffic: 6,400 Visits
Average Time on Site: 4:27
Average Pages per Visit: 4.28 63%
Visits from
Organic Listing
Traffic Breakdown
44% Search Engine
11% Direct Traffic
37%
Visits from
45% Referring Sites Paid Listing
Total Traffic from Search Engines: 2,881
Traffic from organic listings: 1,794 (63%)
Traffic from PPC with $7000 monthly budget: 1,087 (37%)
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yellowseven
cont.
As with any marketing strategy, there are pros and cons associated with each. Below are the
advantages and disadvantages of both PPC and SEO marketing strategies. Use the informa-
tion to decide for yourself.
ADVANTAGES OF PPC DISADVANTAGES OF PPC
Immediate results - Need to get the cash Conversions are lower - Data provided
register ringing right away? You can setup a by Google suggests conversions are slightly
PPC account and get site visitors by the end higher for unpaid search results than for paid
of the day. (4.2% vs. 3.6%).
Easy to calculate R.O.I. - You can quickly Less visits per keyword - Roughly 30%
calculate daily R.O.I. How much did you sell of search engine visitors click PPC listings,
today? vs. How much did you spend today? leaving 70% clicking organic results.
Keyword testing for SEO - With PPC Budget limitations - Paying for traffic as a
you can test specific keywords and get real- sole marketing strategy means traffic comes
time data on your best performing keywords quickly and can leave quickly once a budget is
giving you a roadmap illustrating the best exhausted. Daily budgets are exceeded, in
keywords to target with SEO. most cases, long before daily searches.
ADVANTAGES OF SEO DISADVANTAGES OF SEO
Increased searches - 70% of search Slower results - Unlike PPC, SEO takes a
engine visitors use the organic listings when more long-term commitment. Natural rank-
searching for goods and services. ings take time to prove their worth within the
search engines for a given keyword(s).
Target more keywords - With SEO you
can target an expanded set of keywords Algorithm changes - Search engines
which are not tied directly to daily budgets routinely change the algorithm used to deter-
like PPC campaigns are. mine how sites should rank. A good SEO com-
pany can identify these changes and adjust
Long-term marketing presence - As efforts accordingly.
you build up popularity for a given keyword,
your rank within the search engines for that Customer expectations - SEO is a long-
keyword(s) improves giving you “more bang term commitment. As a SEO client you must
for your buck” for as long as you are listed in have realistic expectations and realize you are
that position. Comparing this keyword to the investing present day dollars for future gains -
cost per click associated with it in PPC adver- Gains which have proven to exceed PPC R.O.I.
tising gives you a clear R.O.I. picture. over time.
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4. white paper
yellowseven
cont.
How do you calculate the value of organic search traffic?
Organic search traffic accounts for anywhere between 65% and 80% of all search traffic to a
website. Yet, most online marketing budgets allocate less than 15% to SEO giving PPC, which
receives 15% - 30% of all search traffic, 80%+ of online marketing budgets. Showing up in the
organic listings for a given set of keywords can boost traffic dramatically. The below chart
illustrates the cost-per-click for SEO compared to PPC for the case studies
previously discussed.
Case Study #1 Case Study #2
PPC Monthly Budget SEO Monthly Budget PPC Monthly Budget SEO Monthly Budget
$5000 $5000 $7000 $3000
Visitors = 4,664 Visitors = 53,137 Visitors = 4,664 Visitors = 1,794
Cost Per Visitor Cost Per Visitor Cost Per Visitor Cost Per Visitor
$1.07 $0.09 $6.43 $1.67
If SEO is so great, why even recommend PPC?
Simple. PPC is immediate and results in targeted clicks.
PPC traffic flows as long as you have the budget to support it. Even though most traffic flows
from organic listings, it would be foolish to completely ignore the 15% - 30% of search engine
traffic that follows paid listings. This PPC traffic is usually ‘on-target’. The only way they found
your site is by first searching for the specific keyword or keyword phrase you bought with
PPC. For example, if the search is for “Used Motorhome For Sale” you have a pretty good indi-
cation the person is indeed looking for a used motorhome for sale.
Best of both worlds.
By developing an online strategy that utilizes both organic SEO and PPC you can take advan-
tage of short-term conversions while building long-term search engine saturations that will
pay out dividends long into the future - decreasing your cost-per-visit and increasing R.O.I.
www.yellow7.com | 972-731-6720