Pay Per Click vs. Organic Search Results

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Pay Per Click is exactly what it sounds like.  You pay every time someone clicks on one of your ads.  It can be very useful if used correctly.  There are a couple of problems with PPC including:

• Once you stop paying you stop showing up
• Many search engine users ignore PPC because they know they are ads
• Click fraud is real and can not be completely avoided

Paying for clicks is like renting instead of owning a home.  You get all of the benefits while you're renting but as soon as you don't build up any equity.  A well built website builds up value that will continue to pay you back over time.  $1,000 spent on PPC will last only a certain amount of clicks.  $1,000 spent on SEOing your website will be there indefinitely.

If someone always uses Google to do their searching, they are doing so because they like Google's search results.   They are not going there because they have better Pay Per Click ads.  Searchers trust that the websites that Google puts on their first page are credible businesses.  PPC is often just seen as advertisements.

Click fraud is when someone clicks on your ad with no intent to view your website or investigate your product or service.  They may be a competitor or just someone who has it out for you.  The search engines have gotten much better at guarding against it but, it can't be completely stopped.

Posted by {Omnipresent SEO} Tuesday, February 16, 2010 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink