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Organic Search VS Pay Per Click

Posted November 7th, 2007 by Jeremy Schoemaker

I recently was interviewed by Web Pro News about both organic (SEO) and pay per click advertising.

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50 comments. What say you?

  1. Good Comment?
    Dana Todd

    Dude, I’m 42… but thanks, I appreciate you noticing my appearance more than my intellect. That’s what I strive for, ya know. All those years of college and industry cred-building are FAR less important than my face.
    It’s always a joy to work in a male-dominated industry :-)

    Funny how no one disses the dudes in SEO for their looks, just the women. Hm…I wonder…threatened much?

  2. Good Comment?
    Reverse Funnel System Blog

    ..Especiall all the time.. ^^
    Biggest difference is that SEO is free.

  3. Good Comment?
    amazonday

    Its nice info, thank you.

  4. Good Comment?
    Interwebhunt

    I’d have to vote for seo as well

  5. Good Comment?
    WideScreen Wallpapers

    I have to agree with a few others, SEO is the best unless your doing strictly affiliate sites or stores.

  6. Good Comment?
    scamfreemoneytalks

    it we know how to play with ppc that it would be a great idea. since it is a fierce competition market it got to take lot of work to challenge the already ppc master. if you don’t do it right so long internet world.

  7. Good Comment?
    Steven Finch

    Organic is always the best! but a combination will have good results and it is just about getting people on your site!

  8. Good Comment?
    Conversionable

    Id say eventually there will be no other choice but to rely heavily on PPC. Its only a matter of time before all the top ranking are dominated by high authority sites or Google owned properties.

  9. Good Comment?
    Gecko Tales

    It’s not an either or. It’s a both if you have the money. If not, you have to do good SEO. I saw a study a couple of years ago showing that if you have both paid and strong organic rankings you increase your chances of getting picked by 60% (or some other high number).
    Also – if you do your organic work correctly you can dramatically cut your PPC costs. If for no other reason alone do quality SEO work for savings.

  10. Good Comment?
    tonyinabox

    I thought Web Pro News is a spam organization. lol

  11. Good Comment?
    Neon

    probably depends on shoe’s goal. his goal is to increase subscribers.
    using ppc to get interested people into this site have high chance to convert into subscribers… then monetize from these subscriber in the long term :D

  12. Good Comment?
    Tony Smith

    Very cool interview and USEFUL!

  13. Good Comment?
    Joeychgo

    Great interview Shoe!

  14. Good Comment?
    Myspace Layouts

    Good interview and Im loving the black turtle neck, it makes you look like Dr. Evil!

  15. Good Comment?
    ChunJae

    PPC would be targeted if longtail keywords are used, Organic SEO is free, but it would take a long time to build…

  16. Good Comment?
    Harshad

    The video gave up on me when last 3 mins were left. :(

  17. Good Comment?
    lyricsreg

    My guess is this site would not make as much as it does now if it were to use PPC. I have nothing to substantiate this, but I am confident I’m right :)

  18. Good Comment?
    lyricsreg

    I do believe you are repeating yourself

  19. Good Comment?
    serge

    question: if a popular site, like this one, were to use PPC, would it not make you more money? I know the main goal of this site isn’t to make money, but it does, so how much more could be made with PPC?

  20. Good Comment?
    Dave Oliver

    This is a good basic piece that really sums up and gives some good arguments for PPC and SEO work. Of course it’s basic stuff and experience marketers already know this stuff, but new folks are coming online everyday, and really have no clue. This report puts things in a very clear, well-rounded perspective. Really like how Shoe simplifies the explanation of the quality score.

  21. Good Comment?
    賃貸 大阪

    I thought the same thing…webmaster 101. But webpronews does have slick videos…I am always amazed on their quality and bandwidth.

  22. Good Comment?
    LeadCritic

    Good job Jeremy and nice hair Dana.
    However this is such a trivial question. They thought of this piece because they couldn’t think of anything better to talk about.

  23. Good Comment?
    chetan

    Man but she talks really well..
    And the anchor is good too!!!

  24. Good Comment?
    Neon

    given choice i really would like to have SEO.
    you can setup ppc campaign much more easier and successful then SEO.
    After working for months, SEO might not reach your expected result.

  25. Good Comment?
    Neon

    even though PPC is recommended to use to gather data, to reduce the cost, we still need to work on a little seo.

  26. Good Comment?
    MyGoodFinds

    Thanks for sharing the video, is really helpful for me as a SEO -expert-wanna-be.

  27. Good Comment?
    King Jacob

    Dont you basically have to do both to take full advantage of either?

  28. Good Comment?
    John M Weaver

    agreed. PPC is great…IF you have the budget! That is the problem with many sites or owners is that they need PPC to survive, but their budget is not high enough to pay the ridiculous new account bid limits that Google usually implies. Jeremy you make a really good point about blogs using SEO and ecomerce using PPC. I personally think a good combination is usually the winning recipe! PPC if you can afford to get it started and optimize your site right for SEO and you are good!

  29. Good Comment?
    Backlink Checker

    PPC wins but SEO traffic is cheap. :p

  30. Good Comment?
    concertFreak

    It’s a good newbie video to SEO vs PPC. The real winner here is Shoe for the additional links and buzz this will cause for him and his site in true SEO style.

  31. Good Comment?
    Domtan

    Organic SEO all the way, out of the two. Less disappointment, compared to your PPC campaign crash landing.

  32. Good Comment?
    San Diego SEO

    I don’t think any one is better per say and both have their draw backs but it really comes down to your market, resources and time allowed. If you need results instantly then yea put some money in PPC but for long term traffic invest in SEO. A good marketer would find ways to leverage both even with a small budget.

  33. Good Comment?
    jbwebs

    cmon dude….

  34. Good Comment?
    Jim

    Very cool… But some PPC these days isn’t the highest quality traffic vs that coming from search results.

  35. Good Comment?
    Vizion

    saw this yesterday when it came across the email – i kept waiting for a live interview…oh well. I guess that PPC is best when you actually have a live product – not information so-to-speak.

  36. Good Comment?
    Regin

    You only need to watch the first 30 sec of this… SEO can be cheaper than PPC – but what gives you butter on the bread probably will be both!

  37. Good Comment?
    Michael Woo

    Great stuff :)

  38. Good Comment?
    Blog Contests

    Organic is always, but takes more time and skill IMO.

  39. Good Comment?
    Israel

    didnt really learn anything from the vid.

  40. Good Comment?
    A Blog about Nothing

    Too bad I don’t actually have a product to sell. If I did I’d definitely buy some PPC advertising to get that initial surge of traffic like Jeremy suggested.

  41. Good Comment?
    Tim

    I recently tried PPC, Google said no to my ads after a few days. Apparently a user of my site is advertising their referral link already so they don’t want duplicate ads for the same site. I’m fine with that =P

  42. Good Comment?
    Amit Bhawani Patel

    Excellent video there, just checked out. :) PPC is always a sucess!

  43. Good Comment?
    chetan

    Nice discussion there between Dana Todd and Jeremy :)

  44. Good Comment?
    Money from Surveys

    great stuff, as soon as I finish a post there is another to view

  45. Good Comment?
    pictpicture.com

    Great video, and an important topic. PPC really confuses a lot of people, especially many that aren’t sure when they should be investing in it, and if its worth it.

  46. Good Comment?
    Money from Surveys

    Great stuff – I can’t keep up with your posts, by the time I finish reading the last one a new one appears!

  47. Good Comment?
    Ventrilo

    I couldn’t agree more about data from PPC campaigns

  48. Good Comment?
    JoeTech.com

    Great information from you and the others. You’re dead on about blogs and 1%.

  49. Good Comment?
    $1000 Dollar Project

    great interview and good arguments, i think if you have the budget and are starting a new site pay per click is a must if you want success

  50. Good Comment?
    Mubin

    Love that stock photo!

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