Comparing Pay Per Click (PPC) and SEO - why the right groundwork is essential

Google AdWords can be a great online advertising tool for your business, but it can also be a huge waste of money! The difficulty is knowing the difference and understanding why Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is important even if you plan on attracting most of your business through sponsored advertising.

Both are effective search marketing tools that work to the same end - to generate more traffic for your website. Here are some important reasons you should consider SEO and your website usability before blowing a big budget on an AdWords campaign.

Comparing SEO and PPC

SEO is best thought of as a steady diet and regular exercise, where PPC is more like a sudden boost of caffeine and energy. Sure, an AdWords campaign is quick and easy to setup once you've chosen your keywords, but the ongoing costs make it difficult to sustain long-term.

Just imagine how much better off your business would be if you received  the same number of clicks without paying a penny for each click! Like a steady diet, the best results can take time.

The Best Chance of Making That Sale

An over reliance on PPC can hide vital factors that would otherwise ensure your website is a true success - not just a flash in the pan. Part of the essential on-page groundwork for SEO involves making careful tweaks to the website layout, appearance and structure to give the best chances of making that sale.

But surely these are things we want to do for all visitors - especially those who found you through paid search? This is where getting the SEO right will also complement any sponsored advertising you do.

Boosting Quality Score With Relevant Content

Consider a user searching for: "Sony HDR-TD10E camcorder" - it would be pointless presenting them with a complete list of all your camcorders (tempting though this may be!) - they searched for a very specific product. Chances are, they are pricing up the various options and retailers for this item.

What will hold their interest, is some detailed product information, advice and tips or any purchase options. This is where you might buik up your product page to be something of a landing page for both SEO and AdWords.  This would even give you a window of opportunity for presenting similar products, or links to similar items they might like in the same price range. All of this will not only keep people on your site longer and gives your site a better chance of converting, but will also keep people coming back to you for their next purchase as a reliable source of information and choice.

This will affect your AdWords campaign through quality score - a metric Google use to assess the relevance and usefulness of the information on the page you are using in your sponsored advertising campaign.  Quality score in turn will affect the average cost you pay per click, along with all the same on-page factors mentioned above.

It is possible to setup an AdWords campaign and link to a page that has little to do with the searchers intentions, and this will cost you money and could potentially annoy people!  For these reasons, it is important to consider these on-page factors before going ahead with an AdWords campaign.  A perfect way to do this is to begin with the SEO groundwork.

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