SEO for organic traffic vs. PPC

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efeezy

efeezy

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Oct 5, 2007
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What are your thoughts on paying for traffic exclusively versus busting ass and trying to build organic traffic via SEO? It seems dangerous to put all your marketing eggs in either basket, because both fluctuate frequently and randomly.

In the past I thought that just paying for the clicks was the fast, easy way to go, and that taking the time to get organic traffic wasn't worth it because SERP's change on a whim...but I'm starting to think that with Google's kneejerk changes to their PPC program, that trying to do good SEO and get sites to rank is a safer method. I guess it also depends on what you're trying to convert. Do you really want to try and rank for your Acai or Payday loan flog? Is it worth trying? Anymore I'm just not sold 100% on either method. It's difficult to know which way to go. Any ideas?
 


Well, my experience so far is that SEO is hard and takes a long time, but has the advantage of making money for a long time. PPC is, supposedly, much faster, and if you have the budget, you can scale it really big really fast -- whereas SEO doesn't do anything really fast.

Of course, my experience is colored by the fact that I have made money in SEO, but lost it in PPC. :) But I keep trying at PPC, as I do have the money to scale, and, well, who doesn't want a lot of money really fast?

Also, at least so far, I find that PPC benefits most from marketing/selling skills, while SEO benefits from technical skills. Both require both, of course, but the value is different. Which do you have?
 
volume is much greater with PPC/CPM which can mean more $. this should be in the n00b section.
 
jenzkc said:
volume is much greater with PPC/CPM which can mean more $. this should be in the n00b section.
Click to expand...

It wasn't meant to be a n00b question. I know that when it's working properly, that you can practically buy as much traffic as your credit card will allow. What I'm wanting to get from people is do you think either method is a better, more efficient & effective way to get traffic, and make money from on the long run. I'm more concerned with Google specifically and how difficult they seem to be making it for affiliates to buy traffic via ppc.
 
On a short term I would say PPC. However I think like you said don't put all your eggs in one basket.

If you can manage your time well and get into a decent system. SEO for a site should take you less than 1-2 hours a week.

I think honestly PPC takes up more time on your end than SEO. You have to watch your shit like a hawk. Make sure things are running. Optimize campaigns almost every 2 hours.

People like fast cash though. SEO won't see shit in the longrun.

Honestly I think the best approach is doing some PPC for your SEO. It should help improve it. Tweaking your site will do well for both. Google PPC crap fiesta at least to me seems to evolve around the same metrics they look at a site for in SEO.
 
efeezy said:
It wasn't meant to be a n00b question. I know that when it's working properly, that you can practically buy as much traffic as your credit card will allow. What I'm wanting to get from people is do you think either method is a better, more efficient & effective way to get traffic, and make money from on the long run. I'm more concerned with Google specifically and how difficult they seem to be making it for affiliates to buy traffic via ppc.
Click to expand...
That kinda agrees with my point. If you make a content rich site geared towards SEO. Adwords will look at you as a site and not an affiliate.
 
AdExhibitJason said:
Honestly I think the best approach is doing some PPC for your SEO. It should help improve it. Tweaking your site will do well for both. Google PPC crap fiesta at least to me seems to evolve around the same metrics they look at a site for in SEO.
Click to expand...

What he said...

I think logically anysite that can rank well organically is going to hold its own in Adwords too.
 
PPC is only "short term" if you are doing mostly CPA and not sales, if you are just going for sales with established affiliate companies you can create very long term & profitable PPC campaigns.
 
^^

I do sales as well, and on my sales sites I mainly focus on SEO. SEO can be quite beneficial if you know what you're doing (meaning you're not #1 one day and #100 the next). SEO has the benefit of you being able to focus on other things, when your site is already properly SEO'ed and set up
 
SEO is your own shop, PPC is a rented one. Depends on your situation what you want and what resources you have.
 
Some experience with PPC makes a huge difference to your success with SEO.

If you've established a successful PPC campaign, you've got a selection of keywords that you know people are using to buy product x.

You can then go and build a site for natural SEO using the keywords that are gonna produce results.

As opposed to, say, building a site, optimizing it for a few solid months - and only then realizing that you've been targeting the wrong keywords. Back to square one.

I'm a PPC guy in terms of where I make the most money. But the second I find a campaign that converts well, my focus shifts to where I can buy a ready-made site that drives quality traffic without the continuous PPC costs.
 
I like both equally - as they should almost always go together.

The best advice I can give is that if you intend to put any time or effort into strictly SEO - As a general rule, DON'T DO IT ON REBILLS.

They come and go every other fucking day. You might find some temporary success... but it will almost always be just that... temporary. Unless you can find a rebill advertiser that doesn't burn a merchant account like kindling every few days.
 
You pretty much answered your own question. Try to branch out. Do both. And then do other stuff if you can.

Spread those eggs.
 
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