A Fight About PPC And SEO

[GoGetRealEstate]

This started out to be a choice between SEO or PPC and has evolved into a choice of traditional methods or Internet. I'm thinking "all of the above" is the answer. PPC helps when your site is new. SEO/SEM should be ongoing. Encourage your loyal fans to refer new clients to your website. Traditional marketing can continue but include your easy-to-remember domain name. Include enough detail in your traditional methods to inform those without Internet access.

I still collect the best and worst agent direct mail pieces for reference. Occasionally I get postcards with very little info that rely on my visiting the website to learn more. They missed those folks without Internet access. Or I get a card that doesn't have a web address so they're not taking advantage of the Internet-savvy customers. I think good agents will survive and thrive no matter if they choose one of the other, but a combination of methods would be the best solution. I don't think this is either/or.

[waynelong]

Well said Sharon! Wayne

[Oaklandhomespecialist]

I think Wayne is right on when he says different things work for different people. For me, networking isnt my strong point so I need other ways of consistently getting leads. This is one of the reasons why Im on this forum and building a REW site.

In my office, the top producers do the majority of their business by referral. Not to mention their SOI tends to be a little older in age, so those people are more likely to own property and have more friends that own property. I think the bottom line is, what works for you works for you.

Being a newer agent who's in the "echo boomer" generation, I'm hoping to make my website the backbone of my business. If it ends up not working out that way I'll have to look toward other methods.

[fruit-engine]

I find it's best if you use both. SEO's effects takes a long time to kick in but they're more long term than PPC. PPC on the other hand, takes only a few days to set up and its benefits can be felt quickly too, but its effects are really wuite just short term.

I suggest optimizaing your site then signing up for a PPC campaign while waiting for the effects of search engine optimization to kick in.

[Ted S]

The two marketing methods are not mutual exclusive at any point -- long or short. PPC is something you can always produce volume with regardless of engine fluctuations, it's quick to setup, near instant to change and highly traceable but it comes at a cost. SEO is highly volatile especially over the long haul, it can't be relied on but the "no-cost" benefit is significant.

Just because you get good rankings organically or with paid listings does not mean you should ignore the other channel. Users click around differently and while any heat map will tell you that the typical term drives most traffic to the first 2 or 3 organic listings, that's not always the case and most traffic is not all. Let's say you have a #1 paid spot on a term -- you may still be missing 60 or 70% of the audience to organic. Conversely, having a #1 organic listing may miss out on 30-40% to paid. Either way you slice it, you're going to lose if you're only on one part of the screen.

The best way to maximize your SEM efforts is by testing. PPC is quick so turn on a campaign and look at the results it brings in minus any loss (or gain) from your organic listings. As your organic listings improve, you can try removing PPC and monitoring the actual drop in traffic and ROI. But keep in mind, if the algorithm changes and you lose your spot, you're out on the street if you don't have other marketing in place. The more you rely on one channel, the more you are going to be effected by swings, price increases or whatever else the market throws at you.

I've held #1 organic spots for brand keywords and still found PPC traffic to pay out for the same term. I've also watched the loss of an organic ranking hit my PPC performance hard. The bottom line is it's about what you can prove works -- and if you can't prove it, that's your real issue.

[RonnieG]

Using both PPC and organic results to generate leads is especially important during major SE algo changes and resulting SERP fluctuations, when you could be really hurting if the organic results you depend on too heavily tank for any length of time. I believe that the ROI of PPC can be significant enough on its own, that is should be used as an incremental business builder, and also as a backup plan, even if/when your organic results start generating good leads, ... if they ever do ...

If you have ever tried PPC in the past, and have not had much success at it, there are lots of things that can be done to improve lead production and ROI of your PPC campaigns. Many of those techniques are right here in this sub-forum. All you need to do is dig for them, and put them into practice!

[JennSellsFast]

PPC while you are in the sandbox is a "must". Untill you rank high for certain words, PPC will be your sites life-line. I know a lot of agents who brag about there site and probably only get 5-10 hits a day. It's usually the sites that are 3 years old and have 6 Yahoo inlinks.

[waynelong]

I agree the ROI for natural search is greater but the ROI for PPC is great until you can rank in the top 5 on Google. Even then if you don't have enough traffic to keep your machine going - you can open up the spiggot on PPC.

[JennSellsFast]

Very true Wayne, I still use PPC for words and phrases I feel I will never rank for. I also never [] my words so I get picked up for some PPC longtails. I do have a list of negatives though a mile long....

[Lydia]

I would think even older sites that rank very well would have at least a little SEM going. To Ronnie's point, it smooths the hits during algo updates. Also not all searchers are going to look through the second or third pages on searches, much less clicking on you when you are in the 6-10 spots.