Search Engine Optimization VS Pay Per Click: Which suits your business better?

As Phil Frost says, “Successful SEO is not about tricking Google. It’s about PARTNERING with Google to provide the best search results for Google’s users.”

“Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes, it’s an ad.” – Howard Gossage talking about Pay per click (PPC)

You might have heard of the terms SEO and PPC being referred to by people and wondered what they were and how they work in digital marketing.

SEO or Search Engine optimization is the strategic use of keywords in your content to make your piece rise to the top of the Google ranking. A high rank on Google creates more visibility for your brand/content.

On the other hand, PPC or Pay per click is the insertion of strategic ads where the advertiser pays each time a user clicks on an ad.

Both methods have their pros and cons. Based on your needs, you can use a mix of the two approaches for your business depending on your marketing budget.

PPC or Pay by click is where you place your ad in search engine results, social media and linked websites and pay for every user who clicks on it. It is the directly paid promotion of your product/service and can give you leads/ conversions in quick time. The only drawback is that it is expensive while the benefits stop as soon as you withdraw the PPC. You can compare PPC to a rented house where you can enjoy the benefits as long as you pay the rent.

Google offers PPC services. You would have noticed the PPC ads which occupy the top slots when you search for any term on google. These are the Pay per click ads.

PPC is useful for small businesses as it helps them reach a wider audience. You can pick keywords specific to your location so that your brand pops up during local searches for the product/service you offer.

PPC have better lead conversion rates because of their strategic placement. The perfect placement of correct keywords used by potential customers may result in users clicking and actually buying the product or service.

To successfully implement PPC, you will need to bid for the high-volume keywords having a higher rate of conversion. If the keywords are perfect, you may get a great return on your ad spend. However, it will take some time to perfect this approach. 

You can opt for general ads which get people to visit your website for the first time. It would use simple keywords relevant to your product and focus on attracting the target audience. When someone visits your website, and checks but exits before buying, you can retarget them to revisit your site and close the deal. It can yield good results as these visitors have clearly shown interest in your offerings.

Running a successful PPC campaign would involve –

• Picking the right high-volume keyword with a low competition score can yield great results.
• Combine it with a good copy as you have a small window of opportunity to make a great first impression
• Get people to sign up for free for some service. Once they make it to your mail list, you can interest them to pay for a subscription.
• Always track your metrics to see if the campaign is working or if you need some tweaks.

Let’s take a look at Search Engine Optimization or SEO. The objective of Search Engine Optimization is to rank as high as possible in Google search results. To achieve this, you should know why people are most likely to search for the keywords and what keywords related to your product or service are likely to be searched. Once you have this figured out, you can create content populated with the relevant keywords.

Search engine optimization is like buying a house; you plan to reside there for a very long time. It is a long-term investment that will yield results over some time. You cannot expect it to deliver overnight. 

If you have noticed, people rarely move beyond the first page on Google for their search results. Getting to the first page and preferably to the top 3 rankings is a long-term goal of SEO.

You can create brand-related content through blogs on your website with a call to action. You can use Meta description and optimize your links. You can also write guest posts on other websites with an agreement to a link back to your website. It will give you visibility to new audiences.

It takes a lot of sustained effort to optimize the SEO; however, it is well worth it as it produces organic results. It works out cheaper compared to PPC but is a long haul.

To Wrap up

You can opt for SEO or PPC or a combination of the two to achieve the desired business outcomes. You will need to have your objectives in place, and create a strategy that delivers the planned results. To know more about these digital marketing tools that can give your business a lift, you can visit us at https://teampumpkin.com/. We will be glad to guide you.