Some of the best debates during our lifetime are Backstreet Boys vs. NSYNC, Coke vs. Pepsi, Twizzlers vs. Red Vines, Star Trek vs. Star Wars, Britney vs. Christina, West Coast vs. East Coast, and could Jack fit on the door with Rose in the movie Titanic.

If anyone cares, my answers are respectively: NSYNC, Coke, Red Vines, Star Wars, Team Christina, West Coast, and YES!!

However, when it comes to marketing on the internet I don’t think there is a greater debate than Search Engine Optimization vs. Pay Per Click Marketing. I went to Google campus and they had a jovial team debate (with song and skits) about which technique is better and there was no clear cut winner. You will hear many different answers but I will tell you definitively what the answer is…………………BOTH (with also some social media marketing) but if you have to choose one, the answer is, IT DEPENDS. This isn’t a cop out but the truth and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I could write a short novel on the many reasons why I have that answer but let me hit some main points and keep this short and sweet.

Here are a few questions you should know the answer before deciding which one to do for your business:

· What is your budget?

· What are your specific goals for your website and brand (don’t say make money)?

· How is your brand, product, or service fit into a searcher’s buyer journey?

· How long do you plan to be in business?

· Is immediate impact more important than the long term gain?

PPC will get you ranked fast. Every time someone clicks on your ad you must pay Google the cost of that click. For example, if you are selling t-shirts for $10 each, a click is $2.30 - $4.00, and you get 100 clicks a month then you can see how that can add up quickly ($230 - $400/mo.). You will have to sell at least 23 shirts (depending on your net ROI) to break even. With a well optimized account most PPC campaigns show a positive ROI. Most business owners don’t have time to learn the intricacies of Google Adwords and as a result won’t have a well optimized account and will pay the higher cost per click. You can hire an agency (like Ibi Marketing) to get you a positive cash flow.

Every website needs on page and off page optimization and that is part of the SEO process. SEO takes time!! It’s not instantaneous and doesn’t even get great results over the course of several months for most web domains. I hear “SEO Professionals” set unrealistic expectations by stating such to a client and it’s slightly disturbing. However, A study published by Conductor in 2014 shows that organic search is responsible for about 64 percent of all site traffic, while paid search generates only 6 percent. This means that SEO will generate more traffic over time than PPC and it’s free. Google and other similar search engines are changing algorithms daily with major changes happening at least every quarter. If you don’t have the time to keep up with all the changes then you must pay an expert in order to maximize your efforts.

AS OF TODAY THIS IS WHAT I BELIEVE but please remember my answers are general in nature but contact us for a detailed consultation before making a decision. I recommend doing PPC, SEO, and SMM at the same time if you have the budget. If you have a small budget, plan on being in business for a long time, and don’t need immediate results then SEO is your answer. If you have a budget, need specific targeted leads, and immediate results, then PPC is your path. Remember that every website is eventually going to need SEO to be consistently compliant with all the algorithm updates. These were generic answers and every situation is different but a good start is to have answers to some of the questions I asked earlier in this blog.