SEO VS PPC: Which Should You Use?
Search engine marketing comes down to two things: paid search and search engine optimisation. Paid search, also known is PPC advertising, allows your webpage to appear at the top of the SERP on a pay per click model. Whereas search engine optimisation, or SEO, is a long-term strategy based on tweaking and optimising your website to gradually rank at the top of the search engine without paying for clicks.
But which suits your business and website better: SEO or PPC? In this blog, I will help to outline the differences and how each can suit you better depending on various factors in your business.
Duration
One of the big differences between pay per click and search engine optimisation is how long you are willing to wait to see results. PPC is immediate and allows you the opportunity to get your website in front of the keywords you choose, for the right people and at the right time. SEO is a much more long-term and constant strategy and can take months before you see any sort of initial results from your SEO marketing. In the end, you will be able to rank higher for your keywords, with your website constantly showing up for your keywords, related keywords, for anyone at any time.
Long-term results: SEO
Short-term results: PPC
Budget
Another factor that has an impact is your budget. SEO is generally a lot more expensive in the short-term, it may feel even more expensive when it takes months to see the first results of your SEO marketing efforts. That is by no means to say that PPC is cheaper. The budget required for both methods of advertising will depend on how competitive your chosen keywords are. With PPC, the more traffic you want to drive the more money you will be spending. Once you stop spending in PPC, your adverts stop and your website will stop showing in the top spots. Since SEO is a long-term strategy to build up authority and trust within search engines, you can stop paying for SEO once you reach the top positions and you can see your website remain in these positions for a good length of time, depending on how competitive the keywords are. However, it is generally recommended not to completely cut your SEO just because you’ve reached your goals: your competitors are actively optimising to take your positions, so even when you’re at the top you need to stay on your game or you’ll find yourself falling down the page.
Cheaper in the long run: SEO
Cheaper in the short-term: PPC
Target
Is your marketing set to target specific people, such as business owners, married couples etc? Your target audience and preference is also a factor which can split SEO and PPC. GoogleAds allow for a fantastic level of targeting, to ensure your adverts are only seen by the people you want them to be seen by. As well as specific search terms, targeting can also include location down to a postcode, age, gender, marital status, employment status, interests and more. With SEO, you can target by location two methods: locational keywords (such as web design Liverpool to target people searching for a web design service in the area of Liverpool) or local SEO to promote your Google Map listing for people who are searching in your local vicinity.
Small, specific audience: PPC
Larger, generic audience: SEO
Product
Are people actually searching for your product? With SEO, having your content relevant to the keywords are very important for good rankings. However, if you have a very innovative and perhaps branded products – chances are there are very little people searching for these keywords. With PPC, you can promote your product for keywords that aren’t quite as relevant to your content – such as competitor keywords eg competitor brands, generic product categories etc. The idea is to get your product in front of people who don’t know about it, but need it.
Innovative, yet unknown product: PPC
Generic, already popular product: SEO
Conclusion
There are many different factors and opinions which can sway whether you invest money into SEO or PPC. If you would like to discuss your options for digital marketing, feel free to give our team a call on 01925 552050 for further information on what we can do for you.