This is indeed the million dollar question…Should you be using PPC advertising (Pay-Per-Click) or SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy for your business? Well, in a nutshell, that depends. Both SEO and PPC advertising offer profitable results. However, there are many notable differences between the two and choosing the right one for your campaign is vital.
In order to choose what’s best you need to first understand what they are and why they are different.
SEO VS PPC ANALYSIS
SEO is not only about optimizing your website and content to rank higher in organic search results for targeted keywords on the most impactful search engines; it’s also about being an authority on the problem at hand and the solution you can provide. The major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing look at how people interact with your site, if they come back and if other sites are linking to your website pages (along with a few hundred other secret factors).
PPC on the other hand, is all about paying for advertising space for specific targeted keywords on search results pages. But make no mistake, there is a great deal of search engine optimization when creating a paid ad campaign.
Why Choose SEO?
SEO targets organic search engine results. Before choosing to market your business using SEO, here are a few things to factor into your decision:
• It’s free
• 80% of website traffic comes from search engines
• Getting to the first page of search engines means sustained traffic
• Statistically speaking, SEO brings you higher quality traffic leads
Why Choose PPC?
• To use PPC, you’ll need to be willing to financially invest in your marketing to get results.
• Unlike SEO that depends on consistently posting new content, PPC is a method that will get your website on the first page of a search engine through a process called bidding.
Here are a couple handy things you need to know about choosing PPC.
• You need to bid a certain amount for your ads to appear in the “sponsored results” section of search engines.
• You pay a predetermined set cost for every person who clicks on your promoted campaign, whether they become a customer or not.
Examples of PPC tools include Google AdWords, Yahoo Advertising, and Facebook Promotions.
So, back to the big question! SEO or PPC???
In response to my original question of “Should I be using PPC or SEO for my business?”, the answer is still the same: It depends.
PPC is a great way to create immediate results and traffic, while SEO is very important in its own right and does take some time to build page authority and be indexed for the right search terms. Also, count on many fluctuations in your rankings, especially if you are in a highly competitive market. You never know when one of your competitors is going to step up their game and become an authority in your industry.
If you decide to go the way of improving your SEO, do not be discouraged! A long term SEO strategy has been proven to generate the most qualified leads. Additionally, your SEO efforts (improving page content, backlinking, titles, meta descriptions, etc.) will directly help your PPC results as well.
When done correctly, both PPC and organic SEO can get you on the front page of the search engines for targeted terms. However, each has its respective benefits and costs associated.
All the best!