Both pay-per-click advertising and search engine optimization measures can cost companies a great deal in terms of their spending for online marketing. Throughout 2013, it seems that many companies began to opt for PPC advertising over site optimization due to the fact that some feel that the possibilities of SEO techniques are decreasing.
Budgeting for the New Year
With the new year almost here, companies are scrambling to establish their marketing budgets. This involves predicting what will be most likely to garner profits in the unforeseeable commercial atmosphere of the coming months. Although enormous amounts of money can be made by grasping the potentials of marketing techniques such as SEO and content marketing, it is not uncommon that an effective technique will soon be rendered ineffective by subtle changes to online atmosphere.
Naturally, this makes it complicated at the very least for companies to determine where they should be allocating their online marketing funds even in the very near future. In any industry, SEO and PPC can potentially be big money makers- whether it be finance, retail, fashion, design, or luxury real estate. Suspicious is still running rampant that SEO is gradually dying, but companies are still managing to have some success with it even months after the latest algorithm update- “Hummingbird”- has gone into effect. Despite SEO being deemphasized by many marketers, PPC has continued to remain strong, and many businesses have stated that they are planning to put additional funds into PPC spending in 2014.
Google Analytics Limitations
The decision by Google to limit analytics information has in part incited a de-emphasis on SEO. Analytics information that had previously been highly valuable to SEO specialists is not available to the same extent as it was previously. While this factor hinders SEO specialists attempting to raise a page’s ranking in organic search engine results, it does not have any negative effects over the success of PPC advertising. Although Google Analytics has been limited by recent changes, those who use paid advertisements based on certain keywords still have access to AdWords resources that assist them in gauging the success of their PPC advertising campaigns.
Time and Money
PPC and SEO differ greatly in terms of the investments of time and money that they require. While PPC will begin working immediately, it can be quite expenses for businesses to afford. While those who use PPC advertising only pay when someone visits their websites, it is of course important to note that a website visit does not necessarily result in a sale. On the other hand, SEO techniqiues take a great deal of time to begin working while providing the advantage of not involving any fees paid over to the search engines that provide publicity to sites that rank well. Yet many predict that these aspects of PPC and SEO will also push the emphasis towards PPC as the economy continues to recover and businesses become more willing to spend money on online marketing efforts rather than save money but have to wait for SEO techniques to go into effect.
