SEO vs PPC for ROI in clicks?

[xyz]

I'm starting up a freemium niche market classifieds, US & Canada wide. Not a particular city or state. Keywords for my niche are not all that competitive, but still some competition. My goal is to land on front page of google for 2-3 terms. If I do seo, I'm definitely going to have to hire it out, so it definitely won't be free.

My question: Which will get me the best ROI in term of clicks per investment dollar? That's it, which one will get me the most clicks per dollar spent.

I'm willing to wait for seo if it proves cheaper in long term.

[Doodled]

PPC is often used as a route to getting high organic rankings like this:

You create a PPC campaign that targets "keyword X". Users who see your ad often click through and then do positive things (they stay vs backing out, etc.) Google concludes your site is relivant to users who search "keyword X".

In some cases a couple of months of PPC is all it takes to get your site onto the front page for organic searches.

However remember that everything is relative - if visitors to other sites do more "positive things" than they do on yours (better CTR, bounce rate, sharing, bookmarking, etc) then you won't make the front page.

[Efeyes]

I think SEO would be cheaper and more beneficial in the long run. In respect of your goal to rank highly in google, this would be very helpful to you.
http://fiverr.com/bestfives/reveal-a-sec...eb-traffic

[zhang]

Just as savvy investors see opportunity in down markets, internet marketers and SEO experts do the same when they notice a disproportion in spending on PPC (pay-per-click) advertising compared to SEO. The often referenced "Google Heat Map" indicates that the lion-share of clicks for search results are within the organic listings. That said, recent reports show PPC spending is over ten times the amount invested in SEO and organic search. So what does this mean? PPC is an expensive band-aid. While it may drive traffic to your site, the chances of false positives resulting in no sales conversion is much higher than if organic search results bring traffic to your site based on proper SEO and good site content. Since so many folks are focusing on the easy PPC fix and not concentrating on what really matters in the long run, they will lose their ability to compete effectively as other website become more SEO-aware. In these uncertain economic times, it is critically important for businesses to invest in proper SEO in order to ensure their ability to be competive in the search engine space both today and tomorrow.

[Nahid Hasan]

I will go with SEO, and this is why

-Yes it is true, in SEO you will get nothing at the initial stages even you are investing a lot, but when it will reach the top position you will get everything in return. (unless you have selected wrong keywords)

-A lot of people avoid to click on adwords result in SERP. (psychological)

-When you will stop paying at PPC you will lost all of your traffic, but in SEO if you can create or promote yourself as a brand you can get the advantages for lifetime. (unless you lost reputation).

-In SEO if you rank well for one page , you have chance to get some ranking advantages for other relevant pages as well.

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Most of the brand use both PPC and Oraganic SEO, but i just answered on the basis of your question. It also depends on niche, types of business and keywords as well.

At last want to say like Neil: The things work fine for me is not necessarily true that it will work same for you too.

[upasana]

SEO give long run benefit and would be cheeper. Initially for instant result you go for PPC and side by side SEO so that in long run you need not to depend on only PPC.

[Karthikeyan]

Definitely there are few companies providing cheap SEO services. If you want more information about SEO service I suggest you to visit http://www.frequenweb.com

[Tony]

if you are looking for Cheaper in long term then SEO is the best option because PPC will works until you spend money but SEO will work all time with very affordable price.