SEO vs. AdWords: The winner is not that obvious.

We’ve heard it on numerous occasions; we know it well: a space on the first page of a popular Google search is the Christmas gift of choice for 99.8% of corporate websites. The other 0.2% already happily appears among the top ten, and is not very willing to move down. If you are the owner of a website that wants to be in the top ten for its keywords, your options come down to search engine optimization and AdWords. While both of them have the potential to let your web page reach its goal search engine position, there are distinct differences between them that lead some people to be “SEOers” and others to be “AdWorders.”

To many, the benefits of SEO are rather obvious. However, investment in search engine optimization is yet to become wide-spread:

• Better brand credibility. While SEO makes it possible for the website owner to deliberately get on the first search page, customers still perceive “natural” page promotion as more trustworthy than sponsored links.
• Offline services. It is slightly more importat to avoid pay-per-click in the first place if your customer will at one point or another interact with your firm outside of the Internet, be it a straightforward phone conversation or a full-fledged visit to your office.
• Long-run cost effectiveness. Once SEO gets your page onto the top, maintenance costs are practically absent. In the long term, investing in SEO brings enormous return on investment and thus makes a lot of sense.

On the other hand, some say that AdWords contradicts the nature of search engine marketing. They thus ignore pay-per-click as an option in the first place, to which I say that AdWords are not all that straightforward:

• Instant results. With a paid advertisement, you can generate immediate traffic to your webpage. AdWords is a relatively simple technology, the biggest prerequisite of which is your willingness to pay per visitor’s click.
• Ease. Showing up among the first ten for competitive keywords is a lot easier with a pay-per-click campaign than through search engine optimization. Again, one should only be willing to make a monetary investment into the program.
• No search algorithm changes. With pay-per-click, the need to spend time keeping up with changes in Google’s search algorithm evaporates because Google administers AdWords itself.
• Online services. Promoted searched are generally more appropriate for online services that do not require the customer to interact with your company anywhere outside the net.
• Only monetary investment. Finally, unlike SEO, AdWords does not require you to hire a specialist or study any literature. Like I mentioned, its technology is rather simple and anyone familiar with the Internet should be able to conquer it. Furthermore, by choosing to learn SEO, you give up the time that would have otherwise gone into improving the quality of your firm’s offerings, or making follow-up calls. Opportunity costs are looming.

It’s up to you whether you choose the one, the other, or both. Your choice should largely depend on the nature of your business. However, internet marketing is also a matter of personal choice that reflects your professional personality.

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