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Every business owner deciding to start an online marketing strategy are faced with one monumental question, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Pay-Per-Click (PPC)? The answer is not as simple. Depending on your business, what conversion you are aiming to get and the competitiveness of your industry, you will benefit from each strategy differently.
In most situations to get the best results, it’s important to have a strong SEO strategy which is complimented by a PPC campaign. Unfortunately, due to the high costs, this just isn’t a viable option for many smaller businesses. To help differentiate between each strategy, I have split them up to explain how you can benefit from them individually.
Search Engine Optimisation
What search engines like Google aim to do is provide users with the most relevant and useful information matching the person’s search query. Search Engines don’t want users to visit sites that don’t match or are irrelevant to what they typed into the search bar. That’s why you need high-quality relevant information on your website.
Search engine optimisation is just that, optimising your website to ensure the best possible experience for people visiting your site. If Google notices that customers are getting the required information from your site, it will begin to increase your organic search ranking.
Although SEO takes some time to have a substantial effect, it will be more beneficial to your company from a long-term perspective. Through publishing high-quality articles with backlinks to your website, you can begin to increase how Search Engines view your site. Not only will your business become one of the market leaders in Google’s eyes, but customers will also see your contribution to the industry which gives you a higher credibility.
So Why SEO?
- Long-term driven strategy
- Increase website position in Googles’ organic ranking for many keywords
- Cheaper cost over the life of your online marketing campaign
- Content marketing increases your brand’s credibility in the industry
- Improved Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
- Organic traffic is more sustainable when investment is cut back.
Pay-Per-Click
PPC is a form of online marketing that allows you to nominate specific keywords or phrases to bid on to gain a higher position on Google’s first page. After a primary set-up, you can set a budget and duration to suit any business requirements.
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The largest benefit about a PPC strategy is that the results will happen almost instantaneously. As soon as your ads are approved, they will be displayed in Google’s search result pages and traffic will be drawn to your website.
Looking for some more information? Head over to Search Engine Land to learn more about Pay-Per-Click advertising.
So Why PPC?
- Great to build initial capital
- Perfect to market new products or product advancements
- Excel for short-term campaigns such as ‘limited time’ products
- Increase the visibility of your site/brand awareness
- Complement SEO for seasonal products
- Far greater control, it can be switched on and off at the click of a button
So, Which Is Better?
As you can see, both types of online marketing have great benefits. If you want the best results, you should invest in a strong SEO strategy and use PPC to complement performance. While SEO is cheaper in the long-term, it does take some time to start seeing great results. If you’re looking to see results straight away, invest in a PPC strategy while you are building up your SEO strategy.
Please note that this article is only intended as a guide. Your business and the industry it is in will change how effective particular online marketing strategies are.
