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Search Engine Optimization(SEO) Or Pay Per Click(PPC) - Which Gets More Traffic?

The two most popular internet marketing strategies are Search engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click advertising. The main aim of people is the same: how to acquire more people to visit the website. To achieve this, one has to be more visible to those who form the target audience for the online marketer. The best way to do that is to be in the top 10 organic listing or the number one sponsored link position.


To know whether Search Engine Optimization(SEO) or Pay Per Click(PPC) generates more traffic, it is advisable to learn what each has to offer in terms of online marketing. SEO is all about traffic, it focuses on driving traffic to the site. Strategic SEO, including link building, will generate permanent, one-way links from relevant, related websites. That will help with traffic. PPC on the other hand will give links as long as the online marketer is willing to pay while bidding for those top search terms. When there is a stoppage of payment to be top bidder, there is a drop down on the sponsored ads links; this stops the pay-per-click campaign altogether and those links go away. No links, no traffic.


It is not necessary that the SEO is better than the PPC. Pay per click does have value when used in concurrence with other SEO tactics. First of all, the results are much more immediate. Pay today and see results tomorrow. Second, one has complete control over which keywords are ranked for because the bidding is on specific keyword phrase. Third, one can also change the results. The results are immediate.


However if there has to be a point where one has to decide Between SEO and PPC, then one has to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of both the methods and then make a decision.


To cite the advantages and disadvantages of PPC advertising, here are a few points;

PPC Advantages

  • After a PPC campaign is set, the ads will often start showing within about ten minutes.
  • The focus on the keywords that bring in the traffic is easy to monitor.
  • It’s a powerful money making tool since it is well optimised

PPC DisAdvantages

  • Every Visitor Costs Money, some remember the website and come back but not all. However if the online marketer stops paying, the visitors stop coming.
  • A good PPC campaign can drive lots of targeted traffic to the site, but if the site doesn’t convince those visitors to convert, it’s all wasted money. A good web marketing company will help to optimize the site to convert.
  • The amount of competition for those top 10 ad spots is growing every day. This can only drive the cost per click up over time.

Advantages of SEO

  • Visitors that find the online marketer’s website is totally free. So there is a very high ROI.
  • More searchers click in the Search engines than the PPC ads, so a top rank in SEO will bring more targeted traffic than paying for a top rank placement via PPC.
  • Most searchers trust Google, and when they see that Google considers the online marketer’s site the top rank authority for their search term, and then it is easier to convert those visitors into customers.
  • The initial investment in SEO campaign depends greatly on the competitiveness in the industry. It’s important to think of it as a long term investment.

Disadvantages of SEO

  • Ranking Takes Time.
  • In SEO, one will need to build up a site full of good content that is useful to the visitors and portrays the company as the authority on the topic.

The best marketing strategy is usually a nice balance of both PPC and organic search. The online marketer can start driving traffic to the site through pay-per-click while gradually building SEO rankings. As the site starts to rank highly for certain keywords in organic search, one can take a call and decide to stop bidding on those keywords on the PPC side.

Therefore no single advertising method is perfect for everyone. So with this, one can infer that Pay-Per-Click advertising is useful for getting traffic immediately. It’s important to have a website that effectively turns visitors into customers in order to make more money than one actually spend. It all depends on the investment, the long term goals and the time the ad has to be on the site.