What is better?
There is debate in the industry about the benefits of using pay-per-click (PPC) advertising instead of search engine optimization (SEO) as your main source of website traffic. While I feel there are many benefits of search engine optimization for me as a business owner, PPC can be rewarding in many ways over SEO.
Here are some interesting points to note that I read the other day…
- PPC traffic converts at 2.03% vs. 1.26% for natural traffic
- PPC visitors spend around 10% more money on your site than naturally found visitors
- PPC visitors stay on your site 29% longer than naturally found website visitors
Here are my thoughts on why these stats are the way they are:
With PPC you control which phrases you want to appear on Google for; with natural search (SEO) you don’t have the same control over these search queries. In some rare cases, your site can be found with search phrases that are not related to your business at all, but search engines have tagged your website as relevant content for this.
For example, you can indicate in PPC that you want to display a phrase that relates directly to your product, for example “dog collars” and then when someone types “looking for dog collars” your site will appear at the top of Google . ready for that person to click, visit, and then buy.
The reason I think PPC visitors stay longer on your site is that they know what they have is what they’ve been looking for and now they want to know more about your website before they commit to buying from you. They’re just looking at you more before spending their money on you…
The reason people spend more than you is interesting, is because the PPC visitor is a more serious buyer and therefore has more to spend than the naturally found website visitor.
My final words, PPC gives you more control over who sees your business online and where your business is and is not displayed. It usually gives your business an instant traffic boost due to the fact that you can get featured on Google today, tomorrow, and the day after, as long as you’re willing to pay for the traffic you get. PPC also gives you the ability to test product prices, gather feedback, and gather information really fast because of the ability to drive a huge amount of traffic to your site through PPC advertising. It’s all good food for thought.