Script:

- Nick -

Welcome to this weeks SEO video blog, you often see articles and companies asking this simple question, what returns the better investment, organic search engine optimisation or pay per click advertisements?

- James -

It can be a difficult question to answer and we think that it is individual to each company trying to market on the internet, however we also think that a correctly organized organic campaign can be more effective in the long run in terms of cost.

- Nick -

When we first thought about answering this question, user behavior came to mind, so we found this eye tracking report from enquiro. This shows a very nice visual representation of where an average Google user looks once they have performed a search query.

- James -

You can see from the image that the user naturally looks towards the top left hand side of the results and in particular the first Pay Per Click result and top 2 organic listings. This suggests that if you want to gain the full benefit from your campaign then you need to be in the top 3 positions.

What this means is if you are going pay for your listings with Google Adwords then you really have to be the highest bidder in order to be the first listing.

- Nick -

With this in mind we thought we would use the information that the external keyword tool provides to estimate the cost of optimising for a couple of phrases, organic vs PPC.

You can see we have taken the average search volume for the phrases ‘air conditioning’ and ‘web design’, then the click through rate or CTR based on 3%. 3 -5 % is pretty average for CTR (Click through rate), but it can vary with each campaign. We have then multiplied the CTR with the CPC or cost per click to get a monthly cost.

So as you can see for ‘air conditioning’ it would cost on average £1200 per month to be in position 1-3 on Google Adwords, to be position one constantly it would it would undoubtedly cost most. Organically Creare would charge somewhere in the region of £500 per month for this phrase.

The other phrase we analyzed ‘web design’ would cost Creare over £5000 per month to be in position 1-3 on Google’s sponsored listings, so our organic listing provides us a much more profitable return on investment.

- James -

Of course you do have to remember that with Pay Per Click the results are instant, but with organic SEO there are a large amount of factors which contribute to a site performing in a search engine organically. What this means is that an organic campaign has a time scale attached to it. Going back to what we said at the start, organic will provide a better ROI, but you have to patient and expect to see a fluctuation in results until the domain reaches the required authority to list in the top 3 positions.

- Nick -

There is no reason of course that you cannot run Pay Per Click campaigns along side your organic strategy in order to reap the benefits of both. Thanks for watching if you have any question or comments please leave them on You tube or the supporting blog post.

Enquiro eye tracking report on Google

If you work in the SEO industry, no doubt you have heard the phrase ‘We have a special relationship with Google’. This is massively frustrating from an organic optimisation company point of view, basically companies are essentially using Google Adwords and misinforming customers about services they offer, often trying to take clients away from honest SEO companies.

So what do they say ?

• We as a company have a special relationship with Google or we are part of Google. WRONG! Google Adwords does not make you a Google affiliate.
• We can get you page 1 position 1 for your phrases and they will remain their forever. WRONG! PPC obviously only stays their for your set budget.
• Go on click your advert a thousand times, it won’t disappear! WRONG! If you click the same advert from one machine it only counts as one click, this is designed so that competitors can’t sit their clicking your listing all day. (if you think you may be involved with such a company, then ask 10 friends to click your listing and see if it remains)

So what do they do ?

• Target cheap uncompetitive key phrases on PPC (making them cheap to buy)
• Take a huge payment for the set up fee.
• Take a monthly budget, then put a set amount on Adwords, while they pocket the rest.
• Never send you reports of traffic, click through rate etc.

In essence this type of sales approach doesn’t say much for the integrity of the company saying and doing these things. It kind of like a solicitors saying that they have an affiliation or special relationship with the courts and that they can ensure that you win every case.

We had a client went with such a company and they took nearly £300 PCM for the single phrase ‘Leicester Locksmith’, can you image what the profit margin was on this campaign? I just logged into my Adwords account to get an estimate of cost and traffic. Check out the figures:

Estimated Avergare Cost Per Click - £0.00 - £2.05
Clicks per day - 0

The cost of 0 (Zero) clicks times by the average cost (lets take the upper bracket) £2.05 equals 0 (Zero).

0 x 2.05 = 0

Not a great ROI (return on investment) for the client and with no reports or communication how was he supposed to know what was going on? In the end we helped him as much as possible and he came to us with and continued his organic optimisation campaign.

I also read something on the same subject, which can be found here: http://www.oldwelshguy.co.uk/web-marketing/the-special-relationship-with-google-a-new-approach-to-selling-top-listings .

After an intensive training programme into internal and external search engine optimisation, research led me to the question that continues to intrigue SEO consultants, when is it viable to include a “pay per click” campaign into a failing organic site? In many ways it would be quite easy to spend customers money to achieve this goal.  However, there lies the quandary, is PPC the best way to improve traffic ratings or is it just a ‘quick fix’ or ‘patch’ to failing ‘Organic’ campaign?
I have recently read reports from various resources that inform potential on-line businesses the ‘Opportunity’ of using “pay per click” services provided by many search engines and directories such as Google and Yahoo. They guarantee to achieve the highest desired position on the front pages of many of the major search engines. Many might say ‘a lively marketplace, the higher you bid, the higher your advertisement will be displayed in the list’. There lies another important question at what cost is this achievable and who truly benefits from this route, is it the customer, or is the providers, or is the ‘cake’ big enough for all. I do believe that the way forward for SEO will be a combination of both ‘PPC’ and ‘Organic’ routes as long as the campaign has solid foundations with sound SEO basics.

Organic SEO campaigns can take months to develop, keeping your sites strength building with links and content honest is a time consuming process. My thought is…. If given the choice would i use organic SEO or PPC to try and promote Xmas offers. Following my previous post on search engine optimisation trends i was thinking more about the Xmas period and what we can do for our clients to boost traffic at a competitive time of year.

PPC - The downside of using PPC to promote Xmas offers is that the cost per click will increase with demand, the upside is that you are guaranteed results. With more and more people turning to the internet to grab Xmas bargains, i know we will start to see customers demand for listings expand seasonly.

Organic SEO - Well this all depends on the product, competitiveness of the phrase and how specific your target market is… With niche key phrases that are name specific i think that you can successfully optimise organically in a short time period. Organic SEO would work out cheaper in the long run.

In conclusion to see a good return on your investment you would need to calculate the time scales, phrases and cost on each method. To do this a good consultant is vital. If you are interested in search engine optimisation this Xmas please contact Creare.