PPC VS SEO

I'd say in lieu of the recent Google "hummingbird" search algorithm thing, SEO is probably becoming more difficult. Having said that, I know that PPC has always been a tough game.

In my mind, if you can master SEO, you're generating value beyond what you could pay for (hence PPC).

Just my thoughts.

Cheers,
Ben

I think the choice is more often PPC+SEO versus just SEO.

PPC+SEO obviously has a bigger reach, but it comes down to investment cash.

There's no clear-cut answer to this. If you have the time, you might find SEO very worthwhile. If you have the money, your time is probably better spent on PPC.

Personally I only do PPC now because once you get a bankroll going and some experience, it can be very fast to lauch a new site/campaign. However, it is also hard to find programs that work well for PPC and proper products that stay within your ethical limits.

I did SEO 5 years ago because I had more time then and the results were also great, but I must admit that I finally thought it is too much of a chore when Google decides to do major changes to the algorithm.

I would go for SEO if you are low in budget and want long term relations with SERP and if you want result in hurry then invest on PPC.

I'll say ,in long term SEO but in short team PPC

PPC should be a short term strategy (unless you have a lot of money to spend) and can increase the awareness of your site fast.
SEO is a long term strategy which takes time for you to show up in the natural rankings, it either takes a lot of effort from you or forces you to go into a long term relationship with a SEO agency.

PPC- By doing PPC you can get quicker result for some period of time.
Once your investment is stopped in PPC, your improvement will also stopped.
SEO- On SEO, you can get gradual process of improvement. But it takes some more time for the effective result, you can see the benefit even your investment is stopped.

All of the previous responses make sense. I would also say that it can depend on the industry you're in. My previous business was low margin high volume. We did a some PPC and some SEO. In the long run we decided to sell the business but knew that PPC was not a viable option because the margins just weren't there. I agree that SEO is getting harder. So maybe the whole industry is shot along with others that depend on SEO.

PPC takes money to do, but if done right your ROI(Return In Investment) should be good. Both take hard work to perfect and dedication. Whichever one you choose you will need to be dedicated and keep on top of it.

People have to realize that the things in life that are worth having, aren't easy to achieve. IF everything was easy, than everyone would have it and it wouldn't be worth having.

Determination and dedication is the key not only to being successful in PPC or SEO but everything else in life.

There are guys here who make a living doing SEO and there are guys who do PPC for a living here as well. Those who know what they are doing in SEO, will always be on top and those who don't know what the hell they're doing will always fail. Same for PPC, if you know what you are doing, the sky is the limit.

I personally think, people should do both at one point and then stick to the one they see more results with.

PPC for quick wins and testing landing pages/product ideas etc

SEO for long term stability once you done enough testing (not that that should ever stop) .

Their are many ways to promote a website. They are all effective when done right. Some are fast others are tediously slow. Best bet is to concentrate on a few areas but not too many. You need multiple streams of visitors from various sources. A little free and a little paid. Make sure that you can afford to lose whatever you invest though as it can be a long lean learning curve. Also make sure to allocate enough time regularly to follow up and update all of your chosen streams.

It depends on you budget if you want to take the cheap way then SEO and wait if you want a jumpstart then PPC.

You guys did not understood the difference between SEO and SEM.

SEO is in the core just what it said - search engine optimization.
SEO did the things which will let you rank and it tries to rank you good as possible by give the SE the right signals - much as possible, thats the optimization part.

Thats all. You do not make any money at that point. You can rank #1 for alot keys and you will never make any money or even get traffic. It has NOTHING to do with customers, visitors and anything you try to do with the site.

All the other things ARE NOT SEO.

They are SEM and other methodes.

Come on guys, how can you expect to have any success in this business if you even don't know how to name the things?

Its all there - wikipedia: Search engine marketing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What you mean is, that you can do SEM and other marketing methodes just by doing some SEO and let then do Google all the rest - means google will send you customers for free who makes you tons of money.

Question: Is it normal that others do things for you for free which makes you money for free?
No? Then why you think google should do it?

paid traffic/even offline (shocker)

S.E.O.I gave up.

They both can be valuable. In fact, many of the top-ranking companies whose websites already are on the front pages of Google are also heavily investing in PPC. What does this mean? It proves traffic does not come from organic ranks alone. Although SEO can be a long-term solution to increasing page views and overall traffic shares of websites, but PPC too has a lot of potentials to send customers to your website. SEO is very difficult, and sometimes you may need services of the experts and top companies.

do SEO and then PPC - SEO is for long term. if you build on that you can truly forget PPC with time. But until you are there you might just want to set up PPC if you can

I did a post on my blog that is relevant to people interested in this discussion. Here’s a part of it…

Every year for at least 20 years now more money has been spent online in every business category than the year before as people worldwide turn to the Internet for their wants, needs and interests. Consider these eye-opening research facts:

61% of global Internet users research products online. (source: Interconnected World: Shopping and Personal Finance, 2012)
44% of online shoppers begin by using a search engine. (Interconnected World: Shopping and Personal Finance, 2012)
60% of all organic clicks go to the top three organic search results. (MarketingSherpa, February 2007)
75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results. (MarketShareHitsLink.com, October 2010)

However, all this also means there’s a swamp of competition in almost every niche or industry online. Worse, the SEO rules seem to change every month, contradicting last month’s best practices. These are the core reasons why almost all online businesses seek effective search engine optimization for their websites, yet struggle to achieve meaningful results.

If you learn how to achieve it, consistently high rankings for the right keywords will steadily drive large numbers of interested visitors to your website or those of your clients every month. And if you play it right, you can also build a “herd”, as The Millionaire Maker Dan Kennedy calls it, of loyal repeat customers from this quality traffic.

An information overload of SEO tools and courses have come out lately, all claiming to teach how to search engine optimize for 2013 effectively – or even swearing to do it all for you work-free. How can we identify a genuinely top quality SEO system out of the sea of posers before us? Read the rest of this article to find out here: Proven SEO Success Strategies - SEO Success Strategies for 2013 Courtesy of SEO Omega…

PPC is only a short term fix to a traffic problem. The real solution is to perform SEO and increase the value of your site. I personally believe in doing both SEO and PPC, but I lean more towards SEO because of the value it provides, even with Google updates. At the end of the day as long as your site provides values to users, know matter what updates Google makes you will end out on top.

i guess SEO , it takes v basic things in consideration

I just have one note of concern

Did you take your meds this morning? or is today just a rainy day in Ireland and it has you upset?

Nope..Judging by your sig link you are not. The majority hates email marketing

Whats inherently "decent' about getting people's email address and slamming their inbox with crappy offer after crappy offer. Search results don't use personal information to slam peoples email. They did not come online for that either and email marketing is deliberately intrusive.

Incidentally - I have always wondered - how in the world can email marketers and list builders complain EVER about crappy sites when they create the crappiest sites ever calling them "Squeeze pages"? They are even worse than MFAs

Like someone above said, it depends on your budget. If you can, do both. If not, do SEO atleast. SEO also mean having good content apart from keyword research, backlinking and all that good stuff.