SEO v/s PPC – What’s right for you?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of improving or promoting web pages to increase their organic ranking in search engine result pages. SEO helps you get ‘free’ marketing without breaking the bank.
It costs more to set up and can take 2-4 months to take effect, but once your fundamentals are strong, you’re essentially home free, getting free organic traffic which you would have otherwise had to pay for month after month through a PPC platform like Google or Facebook.
PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising is a type of online advertising that allows businesses to bid on keywords in order to have their ads displayed when someone searches for those terms. PPC is a great way to get your business in front of potential customers quickly and easily.
Price comparison
Depending on the platform you use for PPC ads, the CPC (cost/ click) will vary. On Google, ad clicks can cost around $2.50, while PPC ads on Facebook can cost as little as 10 cents per click.
SEO costs nothing to implement and maintain if you do it yourself but can be quite life consuming. SEO also offers a better ROI (return on investment) than PPC because it costs less to acquire new customers through SEO than through PPC advertising over time.
How soon you see results
If you’re looking for quick results, PPC is the way to go with interested customers seeing your ads within minutes of going live.
Organic traffic on the other hand takes a while to build up as the site has to be indexed by the search engines and then move up the ranks in small increments as Google comares it to other pages. This can take months to achieve but as long as you follow good practice and build with the customer in mind, you’ll future proof your website against algorithm updates and see long term gains.
How long it takes
The time it takes to set up a SEO campaign is about two to four months, while a PPC campaign can be set up in minutes. The time it takes for SEO to show results varies depending on the competitiveness of the keywords, but PPC ads will start delivering results almost immediately. However, PPC campaigns are more expensive than SEO campaigns in the long run.
Effectiveness
Often times Organic traffic will convert better than PPC traffic and there is less of a chance that the user will ‘click away’ if they see your site in organic search results. PPC traffic can be useful for generating sales quickly, but SEO works better in the long term to build brand awareness and generate more revenue by casting a wider net.
Use together
Rather than choose between the two , businesses are often better off combining the two. You can use PPC to generate traffic quickly while optimising your site for long tail and long term organic traffic. PPC user engagement metrics will help Google index your site faster which in turn will help your SEO rankings.
PROTIP: Good SEO will reduce the cost / click on PPC networks like Google and Facebook. This is because the advertising algorithms look at your page’s code and content to decide who and where to display your ads.
Google has something called a Quality Score it assigns each ad after looking at things like the copy, the creative and most importantly, the landing page. If it is poorly optimised, you can expect to pay more / click, up to 40% more.
If you are looking for a way to make your business more efficient and effective, our SEO packages and PPC marketing might be the answer. Hopefully this article helped. If you’re still not sure about the best way forward, let us know! Our team of experts can work with you to create an actionable plan that will generate organic traffic while also driving sales through Paid Marketing strategies like ads on Google or Facebook ads. Contact us today so we can get started helping build up your business.
