Search Engine Optimization vs Pay-Per-Click

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is the method of including content to your website which helps in increasing its visibility potential on search engines. It helps in improving sites interaction with users as well as search engines. No cost is required to appear in Google’s search results if you indulge in best SEO practices.

Pros:

1. Free of Cost: SEO is completely free, its results depend on how much time you spend in creating quality content.
2. User Friendly: SEO practices lead you to create the best content for users and search engines. This helps you in finding potential customers.
3. Excellent Site: Good SEO ensures that your site is responsive and mobile-friendly, has good speed and contains no latency for small device users.
4. Targeted Traffic: SEO is an inbound marketing strategy thus it is customer-centric. It drives potential customers to your site.
5. Long Term Strategy: Once you invest in SEO practices, it helps you stay at the top for a longer duration, given your efforts are consistent.

Cons:

1. Difficult to achieve: SEO is not easy. If you have a website, you are likely to have hundreds of other websites competing to do the same thing. Reaching top rank requires immense SEO efforts.
2. Volatile: Once you reach first at Google’s search result, it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be there the next day.
3. Changes: SEO guidelines change very frequently, so you’ve to stay on your top game always.
4. Late Results: Your website might be updated often, is responsive and uses best SEO practices, but you may not see any results for a long time. There are no promised results in SEO.
5. Slow ROI: Return on investment do not show up early either.

What is PPC?

Pay-per-click, or as it’s more informally known as, PPC, is an internet marketing strategy where advertisers pay a fee to publishers (such as Google) each time their ad is clicked. These types of search results are typically tagged with an “Ad” mark. This model allows advertisers to pay only when a user interacts with their website. The cost of PPC usually depends on a combination of search volume of a targeted keywords, advertising strategy and keyword competition.

Pros:

1. Instant Traffic: Paid advertisement appears on the top page of search engine results and increases the chances of being viewed by the users.
2. Easy to achieve: Ads can be created easily and can be put up in no time. It is one of the best benefits of PPC advertising.
3. Measurable and Trackable: PPC advertisements run through Google Ads and thus are easy to track and measure.
4. Ideal Customer Traffic: Through keyword research, you can target the customers who are more likely to become your customers. In PPC advertising, you can bid on keywords and get your ad to your potential customers.
5. Brand Recognition: PPC shows your brand more often, leading to more people recognising your brand.

Cons:

1. Expensive: If you do not optimise your advertising campaign then it can rack up your expenses.
2. Junk Traffic: Sometimes your competitor business clicks on your site to deliberately increase your expenses.
3. Not always successful: PPC advertising does not guarantee potential customers. Sometimes the users neglect the sites with the “Ads” marker tagged to them. Not every click leads to sales.
4. Time Consuming: Just setting up PPC won’t lead to success; It needs optimising and tweaking based on changing trends.
5. Skills Required: The setting of PPC advertisements is not simple. Proper knowledge and skills are required to run a PPC ad campaign.

What is right for your business: SEO or PPC?

Finally, it comes to choosing the best strategy for your business. Ultimately it depends on the situation of your business as well as your budget. Evaluate the pros and cons of both approaches and choose what suits your business more. Many a being me, the best solution for several businesses is to create a synergy of SEO and PPC. Integrating both strategies can give you outstanding results.