There are several ways to divert web traffic to your site regarding your business’s digital marketing. However, two of the most commonly used forms are SEO and PPC. As a business owner, you may wonder, “SEO Vs. PPC; which is better?”.

 

Well, there is not a general answer to this question. It actually depends on your business objectives, current situation, and marketplace.

 

Generally, PPC costs you more, but it brings immediate results for your business. On the other hand, SEO can be less costly, but it usually takes more time to bring you winning results.

 

Putting it simply – SEO Vs. PPC – there is no right or wrong. However, your decision will become easier once you understand the factors you should consider for choosing your marketing strategy.

 

What is The Difference between PPC and SEO?

The main difference between PPC (Pay Per Click) and SEO (Search Engine Marketing) is that traffic coming to your website through SEO is organic, while for the one you generate through PPC, you have to pay an amount.

 

SEO

It is an extensive marketing method that requires a considerable amount of time. Moreover, you must complete various tasks to rank your website higher on the SERP (search engine result page). A higher rank on the SERP increases your site’s visibility, attracting more target audiences and ultimately increasing your bottom line.

 

Besides getting organic traffic, once your site starts ranking higher, your position on the SERP tends to stay on top unless a competitor starts working on his SEO to beat you.

 

PPC

If you want to improve web traffic immediately, you cannot ignore PPC. Usually, it takes only a few minutes to see traffic coming to your website once your PPC campaign is set up and running.

 

As the name suggests, the cost you need to pay while using PPC is calculated per your ad’s click. Sometimes, PPC is referred to as PSA (Paid Search Advertising).

 

What are the Pros of Doing SEO for Your Website?

 

SEO is important for improving your rankings on the SERP. It can significantly impact your business’s goals, such as increasing leads and boosting revenue.

 

The best thing about SEO is that it is helpful for everyone, no matter how small or big a business is. Instead of paying hefty amounts for traditional ads, investing time and effort in understanding SEO basics can add tremendous and long-term value for your company. Here are some reasons you should consider using SEO for your business.

 

Increase Awareness

SEO and brand awareness go hand in hand. Although an SEO strategy is mainly used to generate organic traffic for your website, it also increases your brand awareness.

 

You get targeted traffic to your business site when you dominate the search results. You get more customers, and when you provide them with the best user experience, people talk about your business in a good way. When people discuss your business consistently and favorably, it builds a name for your brand and increases awareness among your target audiences.

 

Helps in Branding

Branding with SEO is one of the most effective ways to build your brand online and increase your brand awareness. However, using SEO for branding doesn’t mean flooding a landing page with your brand’s name.

 

As a part of a good SEO strategy for improving your web traffic by branding, you need to make and follow a good road map with optimizing your title, H1 tags, links, etc.

 

Credibility and Trust

Credibility and trust are the two most important aspects of any business, whether online or offline. SEO helps you build trust and credibility in various ways, including but not limited to using targeted keywords, crafting informative and shareable content, etc.

 

The trust and credibility of your business let people come to your website for further information. Although it takes time, using good SEO practices can build trust and credibility in your business for long-term benefits.

 

Improve Website Traffic

SEO helps your website traffic by improving your ranking on the search engine result page. When people find your business on Google or other search engine results when looking for a business like yours, they click on the link to know more about your offers.

 

Ideally, your website should appear on the first page of the SERP because most people don’t go beyond that. Once you can improve your web traffic, you can do whatever you want to win your customers.

 

Return on Investment (ROI)

Besides being cost-effective, SEO is way long-lasting. You may not see immediate results with SEO, but it gives one of the best ROI compared to other digital marketing techniques.

 

Once you understand the ROI of SEO, you will appreciate the value of ranking your site in the first position, even though it would take a few months.

 

Cost Effective

Almost all marketers agree that SEO is one of the most cost-effective digital marketing techniques. One of the reasons is that by using SEO, you directly target people who are already looking for businesses like yours.

 

Sustainability

Undoubtedly, SEO is a prominent player in the digital marketing industry. It is not going anywhere any time soon. Whenever an algorithm update jolts the internet, critics start discussing the future of SEO. However, after all these years, SEO is still making businesses successful.

 

It is an affordable and highly effective digital marketing technique that helps increase web traffic, improve brand awareness, and boost sales.

 

Improve Click Through Rate (CTR)

CTR is considered an important ranking. What is CTR? Well, it is metric marketers use to measure the ratio of users who clicked on your link to those who saw it.

 

When you use SEO correctly, charges increase that your site appears in the searches of users who are already looking for you. It helps you improve your CTR, which ultimately has a good impact on your business.

 

Strategic Advantages

SEO brings a lot of strategic advantages to your business. Some of these advantages are:

 

• Brings targeted web traffic
• Improves brand visibility and awareness
• Affordable
• Trackable
• Creates credibility and trust

 

Cons of SEO

Now, you know why and how SEO can help you grow your business even if you are on a budget. However, there are some cons of SEO as well.

 

While talking about SEO Vs. PPC, it is important to know the negative side as well as it will help you make your decision. Some of the cons of using SEO are:

 

Fierce Competition

In SEO, your competitor is any business that appears on the SERP using your exact focus keywords. If you focus on a broad keyword, you must face tough competition. Sometimes, this competition is so tough that even after tons of effort, you cannot beat your competitor and get a higher position on the SERP.

 

SEO is Regular Changing

As people say, there is always room for improvement, and SEO is also regularly changing. Marketers experiment with different techniques to rank their sites per the known and anticipated algorithms of search engines.

 

Takes Time to Produce Results

Usually, SEO takes at least 3 – 6 months to show results. SEO wouldn’t be helpful if you want immediate results, and you need to use other digital marketing techniques. However, ignoring SEO altogether isn’t a good idea as well.

 

What are the Pros of Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertisements?

PPC advertising has proved itself as a good and reliable digital marketing form for B2B, B2C, non-profits, and other businesses seeking quick, targeted, and quality results.

 

Here are some pros of using PPC for your business.

 

Get a Position on the Page

A PPC campaign helps you get a good position on the page for your website to improve web traffic. Setting up an effective PPC campaign can attract targeted audiences who click on the link and visit your website/landing page.

 

Improved Ads

PPC is a competitive marketing channel where you must pay a certain amount to the publisher every time a user clicks on it. However, these ads are highly targeted; thus, you get an improved ROI with improved PPC ads.

 

Visual Product Ads

A picture speaks a thousand words. Visual or display ads are a powerful way to draw users’ attention in the advertising industry. Visual PPC ads from products and services allow you to share your story with users in an effective way without taking too much space.

 

Brand Visibility

PPC is a great way to increase your brand visibility by displaying ads on platforms where your target audience can see them. Using different ad variants, you can spread your brand across the internet to attract your customers effectively so that they can’t get you off their minds.

 

Accurate Targeting

Pay-per-click ads help you use ad variants to target your potential customer accurately. PPC ad publishers allow businesses to fine-tune their target profile to display ads only to users who are the best match. It allows you to attract more potential customers without wasting money on unrelated audiences.

 

Speed in Producing Results

Unlike SEO, where you need to wait long to enjoy results, PPC helps you get them quicker. If you want to start generating revenue immediately, keeping PPC as an active digital marketing strategy is inescapable.

 

Marketing Intelligence

In today’s competitive digital world, data is a gem. You receive data from your potential clients when you start running PPC ads. You can analyze and use this data to make essential decisions for optimizing your ads regarding opportunities, user behavior, trends, etc.

 

A/B Testing

A helpful technique in PPC marketing is A/B testing. In this technique, you design two or more variants of an ad to analyze more converting ads. It helps you constantly improve your conversion rate of PPC using collected data.

 

Stability

As mentioned earlier, SEO is an ever-changing technique. You won’t see any significant high-impact changes when it comes to PPC. Therefore, while designing and analyzing a PPC campaign, it is easier for you to judge and evaluate your current and future campaigns.

 

Cons of the PPC Approach

After going through the above part of the article, you must think that PPC is like a dream to build a successful business. Like any other platform, there are some cons to using the PPC approach. Let’s have a quick look at what these cons are:

 

PPC Ads are Expensive

PPC ads are way more expensive than SEO campaigns, where time and skills are the actual investment. While setting up a PPC campaign, you have to allocate a budget for your campaign, but that’s not the main issue. The issue may arise when you monitor and optimize your campaign to get better results for your business.

 

Lower Profit Margin

Although PPC can bring you instant results, the profit margin is not as good as it is in the case of SEO. The main reason for this is the amount you must pay for every click on your ad to the publisher.

 

PPC Ads Become Stale after a While

No matter how good an ad you have designed for a PPC campaign, it becomes stale after some time. People get tired of seeing the same content for the same product and can’t call it unreasonable.

 

Therefore, for running a successful PPC campaign for longer, you need to have several ad variants for which you would have to invest time and money.

 

Final Thoughts

SEO Vs. PPC – choosing one of them entirely depends on your business’s goals and current situation. Therefore, it is better to take your time and evaluate the pros and cons of both digital marketing strategies.

 

If you want results quickly, PPC could be your better choice. However, SEO has a lot to offer if you have a longer timeline and are not looking for immediate results.

 

Instead of deciding between the two, you can also integrate both strategies to reap outstanding benefits for your business.