Organic SEO vs. PPC

Good article today by Aaron Wall at SEOBOOK. He compares cultivating your organic SEO over the long haul vs. the quick hit possible with pay-per-click campaigns.

I was with Advertising.com when we invented PPC — though I guess early hires at ValueClick might dispute that claim. PPC was new, exciting and promised a level of reporting unheard of from standard broadcast advertising sold on a cost-per-thousand basis. Those were incredible days.

Today PPC remains very popular but there are drawbacks. One big one Aaron cites is having any successful strategy pounced on by so many others, making the success very shortlived. He compares this against the longer term but undeniable benefits of organic SEO, along with some insightful observations on human nature:

This is why I like SEO so much more than PPC. Most people are too lazy to spend years researching their topic, years building a brand, years building links, and years building social and customer relationships. We are afraid of failure, afraid of success, and afraid that we are investing too much in one place. But, if someone sees me ranking in the organic results they can’t just clone it unless they know SEO well, and are committed for the long haul. In many cases, knowing SEO well means having capital, time, passion, and a lot of marketing knowledge.

Here’s the full post