When it comes to your digital marketing budget, you may be undecided about whether SEO or PPC is the best option. You can use a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign to get to the top of search engines, or you can use search engine optimization to develop a more natural search engine marketing plan (SEO).
Is there a correct or incorrect response? Is it possible that it’s both? Before you make a decision, you must first grasp the benefits and drawbacks of both SEO and PPC. The SEO Chick offers competitive strategies to get your business noticed in the search engines with local SEO Services.
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
When individuals talk about SEO, or search engine optimization, they’re referring to the process of improving the ranking of your web pages in search engine results. Organic SEO happens when your website ranks higher than others. This will, in turn, create more traffic and clicks as more people will be on the site seeing what you have to offer. If you are ranking high but are not getting the clicks, then you will want to look at your user experience or UX.
While Google’s algorithms may change from time to time, potentially affecting your results, SEO always boils down to having a website that clearly defines what the company does and delivers useful information for both human visitors and Google search crawlers. This can include ensuring that the website is in good working order by using clean codes and search engine-friendly content that appeals to both humans and spiders.
Inbound links from other websites can influence your “link authority” and help you rank higher. You might also wish to add:
- Blogging
- Marketing on Social Media
- Videos on the internet
- All of them are viable options for obtaining high-quality links.
What are the Benefits of Organic Search Engine Optimization?
When compared to a PPC campaign, organic SEO is very cost-effective. When done properly, SEO should be significantly less expensive than launching and managing a PPC campaign.
Long after a PPC campaign has been turned off, a properly optimized site can maintain a high ranking in the search results. That’s why Organic SEO is the better option. It will continue to fill your lead funnel without having to continue to pay per click. Eventually, it will be less costly than pay per click with far better results.
PPC ad places fluctuate based on your competitors’ bidding strategies. However, Search engine rankings are typically steady. Because there isn’t anything but money stopping you from ranking number one with PPC with your keyword, there isn’t a barrier to entry. This means that any and everyone can use this sort of platform to get leads. This doesn’t necessarily mean that those advertisements are the best fit.
Advantages of SEO over PPC
Even if you have to take a month off from your site, a well-optimized site with solid link authority and outstanding content will hold up well in the search engine ranking for a couple of months without issues. This is why seasonal businesses can do well with SEO. During the peak season you can get your website modified and ready to go and continue to build authority. However, if you need to take a few months off in the off-season, it will be there to be picked up when you come back. Just don’t take off too much time or it will eventually fall.
This waiting time isn’t for every website, some competition will continue year-round and you will need to as well. The SEO Chick can help you figure this out and determine what would be the best approach. This recommendation will be backed up with statistical information that has been pulled to determine the best approach, don’t just take our word for it.
Credibility and trust are built through organic SEO. Because some consumers ignore advertisements, having your site appear in organic search results boosts your trust with a target demographic that is looking for your services.
Organic SEO frequently leads to a higher click-through rate. In most cases, a well-placed organic listing will produce more clicks than a costly ad.
What are the disadvantages of SEO?
When compared to PPC, SEO is a relatively slow process. It can take months to see results once you improve your site, whereas PPC will start bringing you prospects right away.
SEO is a continuous procedure. Your site will never be completely “optimized,” but as you put more effort into it, it will get more so. The good news is that your rankings will improve in the future, and you will hopefully realize the benefits of your SEO investment.
If you are looking at SEO, you will want to hire a professional as you can spend more time losing clients while you try to figure it out on your own. In the end, this will be a costly mistake that you want to avoid.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising
What exactly is PPC?
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising entails effectively purchasing visits to your website. Advertisers are charged a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. Swiftly harness search engine traffic using PPC or basically by bidding or paying for keywords linked to your product or service.
Benefits of Pay-Per-Click (PPC):
PPC yields immediate results. As soon as your PPC campaign is live, you should observe an increase in traffic, clicks, and conversions.
It can take months for your website to go up the search engine results page using SEO alone.
You have control over your PPC account. You’ve set your budget and have a good notion of how many leads you’ll receive. This aids you in determining an adequate digital marketing budget. If the industry or area you want to rank for is very competitive, SEO may take longer or cost more.
You won’t have to worry about a search engine’s algorithm affecting your position if you use PPC. Because you’re bidding for the top slots, your organic rank won’t matter. You must ensure that you are optimizing your site according to Google’s best practices, or you risk losing rank or being punished for certain approaches.
You can use PPC to narrowly target potential clients. Search phrases, geography, and different times of the day and week can all be used to target adverts. You may not be able to target the exact demographic you require with organic traffic.
You can use visual product adverts in PPC campaigns. Because it provides functionality that organic search does not, this can assist a user see what they will be clicking on and enhance the click-through rate.
PPC’s drawbacks include:
To get good results, you must pay, and the more you pay, the better the outcomes. Keyword competition has never been so fierce. This could mean that you’ll have to pay more in the future for the same results.
It takes a long time to research and choose effective keywords to bid on. Managing your keyword spending, calculating returns, modifying your budget, and playing the PPC game properly is essentially a full-time job. Either you’ll have to spend time doing it yourself or employ an experienced PPC professional to handle your campaigns properly for you.
PPC is like to a faucet in that if you turn it off, it stops delivering leads. Can you live with the leads you’re obtaining naturally if you have to divert your PPC spending to anything else? SEO lasts a long time, and it’s like a snowball that never stops rolling. It takes a while to get started, and it may slow down at times, but once it gets going, it’s impossible to stop.
Click fraud is also something to consider. “Click Fraud” is still a problem, since some businesses rely on manual clicks or malicious software that imitates human clicks from various IP addresses all over the world. Your competitors can quickly eat into your click fees. Some of this fraud can be detected by Google, but there are ways to get around it.
Which is better: SEO or PPC? or PPC and SEO?
Is it better to go with SEO or PPC? The answer is entirely up to you. If you have the funds and need to see results quickly, a PPC campaign will deliver the most instant results. However, finding the appropriate advertising that converts without overpaying for results might take time and trial and error.
If you have a longer time frame in mind and aren’t looking for rapid results, SEO efforts can yield some of the best outcomes and yield a higher return over time. You won’t have to pay for website traffic and new adverts on a regular basis to attract more people.
The ideal situation incorporates both efforts. This usually results in the best overall result. Consider the following benefits of employing SEO and PPC:
- From PPC to SEO, you can leverage keyword and conversion data.
- You may remarket with tailored messaging after initial contact via organic search to stay top of mind.
- Before utilizing a keyword strategy in long-term SEO tactics, you can test it in PPC.
PPC is usually used in the short term while the SEO is building. However, this can be costly and some companies choose to forgo that and simply jump into SEO. It is completely up to you and we at The SEO Chick are certainly happy to help you make an informed decision. Call today.