Why pay for traffic when you can get it free via google?

[astoller]

Why would I want to pay overture for traffic when I can get free traffic from google?

[makemetop]

Because not every shopper uses Google, basically. And on the sites which Google supply, some list Overture results 1st.

[seth_wilde]

Because if you can achieve a good ROI on overture you can still rank well on google and get considerably more business than with google alone..

[Shakil]

The 2 offer different things.

Overture gives you a hell of a lot of control, market reach in a very short space of time.

Google actually requires you to do some hard work, and requires a bit of knowledge.

as for free, NO way.

price up all the hours getting quality content, backlinks etc, and you will see what I mean.

(thats unless you have a way for getting FREE traffic from Google by doing NO work)

Shak

[korkus2000]

You don't want to be completely dependent on google. Free today pay tomorrow. It has happened so much in the past that you can never be sure. Its great today, but history tells us to not put all our eggs in one basket.

[martinibuster]

Because some search terms are sooooo general that the results are full of .gov and .org results.

PPC allows you to target those general terms that (because of laziness or ignorance) surfers continue to use.

And if your competitors are gaining market share because you don't want to pay 25 cents for a $100-600 sale...

With all due respect, that's not a sound business strategy.

[Terrier]

Could not agree with you more Korkus 2000 a belt and braces approach. I do belive that in todays market with this huge reliance on google it is important to be familiar and use a combination of ppc and optimised traffic. In the final assesment it all comes down to ROI and carefully managed campaigns.

[astoller]

Shakil

But once you've done the google work, you dont pay any more after that.
(Let's say you are optimising on a low to medium competetive term)

Makemetop
Goggle delivers 50% of all net traffic.
(Taking in AOL & Netscape)
Surely that's a superb amount of traffic

[Shakil]

the REAL work at Google BEGINS when you rank very highly.

staying in that position is way HARDER than achieving it.

trust me on this one.

(i can see fellow members with smiles on their face reading this).

Shak

[Macguru]

To add to every good answers provided above, I use PPC *even on Google* as a temporary program for clients in need for immedidate results. Google and other few free SE, usually takes months to give satisfaction without PPC.

[DrCool]

Lets say that you get "free" traffic from Google. You make a 50 sales per month and your profit is $50 per sale. That is $2500 in your pocket. Not bad.

Now lets say you decide you want more. You decide to pay for some traffic from the PPC engines. You end up paying $10 in clicks to get a sale. Off of this traffic you make another 50 sales. Since you "only" are making $40 per sale now that is an extra $2000 per month.

Basically as long as you make more money off the traffic than you are paying to get that traffic there is no reason not to go for it.

[Mike_Mackin]

>But once you've done the google work, you dont pay any more after that.

Have you read any "HELP PR0" threads?

[Terrier]

The very term PR0 puts PPC in a whole new light.
I am aware of some companies in my industry that only use PPC it may be strange but I find it comforting to see them still around a year later.

[hannamyluv]

I suppose there would be no work for the moment once your at the top of Google but one little algo change and *BAM*, you end up on page 20 of the search results.

I prefer to pay and know I am getting traffic. The free stuff is a bonus and I am not biting my nails when google asks me to dance.

[webdiversity]

I had a site with 985 pages indexed by Google.

Maybe it was the cleaner needed the plug that my host had the server plugged into or something, but the site went down for a little while, enough time for Googlebot to visit to check in on the site..... but it was gone.

Fortunately, I had a few pages on fresh content runs so ended up with just 5 pages.

Without PPC underpinning the site the client could have taken the month off for all the real benefit he was going to get from Google.

This is why I am trying real hard to get the percentage on sites down to around 50%, not because I don't like Google, but because it can become an unhealthy dependancy if it all goes wrong, which it will, either through no fault of your own, or because you get caught with your pants down metaphorically.

[Bigrich]

I love being ranked #1 when the word Galant is used for a search in Google. I'm not sure how it happened but it did. How do sites move up in the ranks anyway?

[profitpuppy]

Basically think about it this way ... if someone offered you $1000 would you take it?

If you are advertising on overture effectively then you are spending $500 to make $1000 or something similar. This is additional to any money you are making from listings in google. So, I say, the more money you make the better.

If your advertising in Overture is not making you money, or is losing you money, then you should stop it ...

[Dante_Maure]

I love being ranked #1 when the word Galant is used for a search in Google. I'm not sure how it happened but it did.

Welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com] Bigrich. :)

Question that is probably best asked and answered in the Google forum but...

The fact that the word appears in your domain, twice in your title, multiple times on your page, and most importantly, in every link pointing to your site certainly contributed to your success.

How do sites move up in the ranks anyway?

These threads should prove enlightening...

Brett's Quick Rank [webmasterworld.com]
100 variables [webmasterworld.com]
How to succeed in the search engines in just 4 months. [webmasterworld.com]

[Bigrich]

Thanks Dante.