What makes for a better (ROI)? Paying for clicks, or, utilising sound SEO techniques?

I’m talking about the long term here. I know (PPC) can bring instant traffic to your site, which is fine if you’re trying to capitalise on a new niche affiliate programme, but bidding for the right keywords can be really expensive.

I am developing an affiliate network site and this time I’m determined not to send half my budget into Google’s coffers.

I believe sound SEO can produce more pre-qualified traffic to a site than (PPC) or other paid for marketing programmes.

I'll conduct the experiment and keep you posted. I would be interested in hearing about your experience and findings.

 

If you make any ROI from AdWords then you may as well keep using it. If you paid $100 for 100 clicks and you made $200 from that traffic it would be worth doing.

Of course good SEO is going to benefit you greatly in the future since you will be generating good traffic for free.

Regards,
Jack

 

Sound SEO doesn't generate more traffic, per se. It improves your standings in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). True enough, you could say that if your traffic improves as a result of being higher up in the SERP for your keywords....then the increased traffic is an effect where the SEO was the cause. But not directly so, as in PPC ads.

That being said, for the long term - ROI is probably much greater with organic sound SEO. But then again, we don't know what you're optimizing for and the keyword competition you're looking at.

 

I think you should focus on both; SEO for constant traffic and PPC/Adwords for smart conversions.

But pay more attention on SEO as the traffic on your site (from SEO point of view) has a lot of potential to be converted.

Good luck,

 

PPC allows for a carefully calculated ROI - you invest 100, and get back 200, your ROI is 100% - by using google adwords, analytics, and conversion optimizer you can really maximize your ROI this way.

As for SEO, lets say you invest 100 in outsourcing SEO work, can you monitor your out sourcer? Can you discern that his/her work is generating profit? If so perhaps you can calculate an ROI here. Generally, if you have money, I'd recommend doing PPC, if you're broke like me, then you do seo for 8 hours a day in your mom's basement. Cheers!

Take a look at this article for more info on SEO ROI http://internetbusinessmakemoney.org/a-quick-note-on-roi/

 

In some sense, you are probably asking the wrong question. SEO and PPC both have their place, and thoughtful practicioners can make the case for both.

What's usually overlooked is, what percentage of that traffic converts into leads or sales? It may not sound like much, but going from converting 1% of your visitors into customers, to 1.3% is a 30% increase in your business. Optimizing your site for conversion routinely produces 30% to 300% increases.

The folks who have already commented are quite correct about the point they are making. Yes, you can invest $100 to get $200 and make 100%. People who invest in improving their conversion rates, pay a few hundred dollars one time and take in thousands over the life of the changes.. You are investing pennies to get dollars.

Most small websites struggle with miserable conversion rates. Oftentimes they are converting less than 1% of their traffic into sales. Can you ignore optimizing your site for conversion? Absolutely. It's called 'money left on the table'.

Delivering traffic to your website is half the battle. What good is a ton of traffic that doesn't convert? Maybe a lot of traffic is good for bragging rights. "Look here, I got 3,000 visitors and made 1 sale. I want to put the other 2,999 in my bank account". Right.

Optimizing your website for conversion isn't expensive. Leaving money on the table is.

All the best . . . Carl