The basics of SEO Vs. PPC
Posted on | January 31, 2009 | Comments Off
So I find myself explaining this concept so much, that even though it may seem really basic to some, I decided to do a post about it.
Let’s say I want to know more about cat food for senior cats before I go to the grocery store. I’ll probably go to Google and search for “senior cat food.” Here are my results:
senior cat food google search
The top listing and the listings on the right are marked as Sponsored Links, and you’ll notice that all of these results are from companies that are selling senior cat food. On the left side, below the first link, we have a set of links that seem a little bit more informational: There’s a cat food FAQ, a metafilter post about affordable cat food, and a link to “cat care 101.”
The Sponsored links (sometimes call paid search results, Pay-per-click, (or PPC)) are paid advertising. Iambs and Petco are bidding on the term “senior cat food” (and more than a few other terms, I would imagine) to have their link show up first. You’ve probably heard about Google’s Algorithm, and you should know that Google has another Algorithm for paid search, based on the relevancy of the ad to the term, the popularity of the ad (determined by clicks) for that term, and the amount that the advertiser is bidding on the term. There’s a whole behind-the-scenes workshop called Google Adwords where advertisers are constantly refining their set of keywords to bid on, the bidding prices, and the ad text. Some companies, including mine, turn a profit just by managing these campaigns for thier clients. Currently, I know of no school program or teaching group that will train you on managing the campaign, but Google does have an extensive learning center with lectures and quizzes set up so that, after taking an exam administered by Google, you could become an adwords professional. In this tough economy, I think people with degrees in accounting could find this another useful skill set.
But let’s dig in more into the process: Here I am, still looking for my cat food, and let’s say I click on the top link, which takes us to a landing page in Iams.com (it’s called a landing page because I landed on it.) Iams now has to pay Google the price that they bid on that term, which I would imagine to be about $1.50-$2.30 (I’d check, but I’m lazy).
Let’s quickly look at this landing page because I think it’s pretty good:
iams landing page
First thing I like: I’ve earned a coupon! They know I may be shopping for a good deal more than anything else. Small problem moving forward with their offer though: looks like there’s some confusion on the bargain of the coupon in the title tags. But we’re on the right track, Iams! The also have some health information about cats and why Iams products are healthy for them – I especially like the guidelines for switching cats to a new cat food. Clicking on the product takes me to the product page with a form to find Iams at a store near me. It doesn’t look like I can buy it online, but if I get the coupon they will know all my information and my cat’s information. If I only use the form to find the food at the store, they will know what product I’m looking for and where I’m looking for it (That’s some good information too!) If I do nothing, they will know that someone in the Chicago area clicked on the ad for the term “senior cat food” at 12:31 on Saturday, January 31st, looked a few pages, but didn’t do anything. So as you can see, even if you don’t get a sale from PPC, there’s a lot of value in running the campaign. Terms that are highly successful in PPC can also be successful in SEO.
So what about SEO? On the left side, which is called “organic” or “natural,” We can see that iams is not ranking in this section for senior cat food at all, and that could be for a number of different reasons. Google’s goal is serve informational results on the organic side and promotional results on the paid side, so the winner for this term is an ecommerce site with extensive information on caring for senior cats. Good work, Drs. Foster and Smith! You’ve made it to the top just for this term even though your page rank is pretty low. They will never pay Google a cent if I click on them, but they got there by telling Google that they were absolutely the best resource available to someone searching for this term. This is the Algorithm that Google guards like the Knox list, because if web masters knew how to cheat the system, Google wouldn’t be able to serve the very best results. SEO engineers are constantly testing content, key terms, navigation, organization, outside links, domain structure, and every other aspect of internet that you can think of, to see if it will make them rank higher for the terms they want on Google (and Yahoo, and MSN, and Ask.com). Google in turn is tweaking the algorithm to serve better content and keep the spam out of your search results.
So to recap: Sponsored links = pay up! Organic search results = good content, and SEO
If you do have a budget and you want to rank organically, simply contact your local SEO agency. Some are better than others, some have differing philosophies of what works, and some are just plain-old snake oil salesmen. How do you tell the difference? Call up a company that is ranking well (perhaps in a different vertical than your own) and ask if they are using outside consultants or agencies and if you can get a referral. You want to find someone who will partner with you, as SEO is an ongoing strategy. Or look at the list of Google Analytics Authorized Consultants – SEO’s have to be rock stars at analysing traffic, which is how many of them were selected to be G.A.A.C’s. My boss describes it thus: “If we were in charge of walking the dog, Google Analytics is like watering the plants, too, because you’re already in the house.”
I know that was probably a lot to take in for one post, but do you have any (non-specific) questions?
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