As a business owner, you have to acknowledge the power of the internet. Its popularity is undeniable. Embracing channels such as PPC, SEO, content marketing and email marketing can assist your company in acquiring new customers and driving growth online.
When it comes to digital advertising, PPC and SEO turn out to be the primary choices. However, deciding on one of these can be arduous if you don’t understand their underlying characteristics. PPC takes a pay per click approach for showcasing your ads to users, whereas SEO focuses on optimizing your website to rank organically on Google and other search engines. This article will discuss in detail which one out of these should be the best fit for your business so that you can take the plunge accordingly.
What is PPC?
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PPC stands for pay per click and has become one of the most widely used digital marketing strategies in the world. As the name suggests, you have to pay the advertising platform whenever someone clicks your advert. Many popular platforms offer this advertisement model including Facebook, Instagram, and Google.
Broadly speaking, PPC is a super fast way to drive targeted traffic to your website with the intention of raising brand awareness, generating leads or sales.
Additionally, if you’re planning to get associated with a PPC Management Agency, like SEO Montreal, you have to be mindful of certain aspects. Read their reviews and/or case studies that prove their ability to deliver your business goals. Compare and contrast new vendors. After all, there are thousands of agencies to choose from and you don’t want to get lumbered with an ‘average joe’ or ‘rookie’ PPC agency.
What is SEO?
SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization. This is the process followed by webmasters and marketers alike in the pursuit of ranking a website well on search engines. The process involves many on-page and off-page factors including website structure, content distribution, website speed and backlinks to name but a few.
It is widely accepted that Google’s algorithm considers over 200 signals when running websites on the internet. Naturally, some of these factors will carry less weight than others, such as meta descriptions or breadcrumbs. The key consideration behind SEO is to ensure you provide the best possible experience to users who reach your website.
There’s no doubt SEO is an effective method to raise your business profile and drive organic traffic. However, it takes time to rank a website competitively on search engines. Whilst there are shortcuts (aka blackhat techniques), these should be avoided at all costs as you are likely to be penalised by Google at some point.
SEO can seem like a minefield but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you’re struggling to crack the nut, there are many options available to you such as seeking help from SEO freelancers or digital agencies, who can help you navigate through the world of SEO.
Difference between PPC and SEO
There’s a clear distinction in the approaches used between SEO & PPC:
PPC | SEO |
Pay for each click | No cost for traffic |
Fast & immediate results | Can take longer to yield results |
Can be expensive (market dependant) | Sustainable way to generate new customers |
Full control over targeting consumers | Drives long-term success |
Measurable way to drive traffic | Cost-effective way to grow your business |
Which platform is better?
All the fingers don’t have the same size; similarly, one model doesn’t fit all. We left the “one option fits all” ideology back in the 70s. So, whatever you decide to choose depends on multiple variables, including company requirements, target market, competitive landscape etc.
Using a combination of both
If you try to look at the bigger picture, you might notice that PPC and SEO can be most beneficial when they’re used together. One can overcome the shortcomings of the other.
Creating and managing an SEO strategy can be a tedious task but certainly worthwhile in the long-run. For PPC to flourish, you need a good budget to work with as it can be very saturated and expensive in many market segments.
PPC and SEO exist to be used together. This is when they’re most effective and can deliver the strongest impact for your brand. So, if the budget permits, focus on developing a well considered SEO strategy to deliver long-term traffic to your website, in addition to creating PPC campaigns to deliver immediate leads and sales.
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