Which Is The Best: Organic SEO or PPC?

68 percent of onlin e activities start on Google or another type of search engine. If you’re looking for a way to boost traffic to your website or increase awareness of one of your products, prominent placement on a search engine is the way to go. But how do you do that?

Organic SEO and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns are two different marketing strategies you can employ. Trying to determine which is best for your business can be tricky.

This guide will go over SEO and PPC, providing you with information about both tactics so you can apply them to your overall marketing campaign.

What Is Organic SEO?

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of increasing your website’s visibility by gaining SEO organic traffic from search engine inquires. As you optimize your website with certain keywords and phrases, your website will start to rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

When a potential customer searches for something related to your business, you want to appear on the first page of results. The higher you rank, the more prominent your website is. As a result, the organic traffic to your website will increase.

Some additional organic SEO techniques include:

Competitive analysis
Keyword research
Technical SEO
Content production
Content audits

All of these tactics work in conjunction to improve traffic to your website.

Pros and Cons of SEO

One of the great thi ngs about SEO is that it’s more or less free. It does take time and effort to develop the visibility of your business. However, there isn’t a charge for each click or impression you get.

You’ll also improve your website’s credibility by appearing in SEO organic searches. A lot of potential consumers skip past the ads that appear at the top of their search engine results. There’s sometimes more trust put into organic results.

With SEO, you can also target customers at various stages in their buying journey or sales funnel. At the top of the funnel, some consumers are getting to know your brand. The people at the bottom of the funnel are ready to make a purchase.

You can create various content types that appeal to people at all stages. You can make case studies, guides, or blog posts that meet your target audience exactly where they’re at.

What Is PPC?

Pay-per-click advertising is a search engine marketing tactic where an advertiser or business pays a publisher, like Facebook or Google, every time a user clicks on their ad. This enables advertisers to only pay when a person interacts with their ads. This means you attract consumers that are interested in your offer and likely ready to purchase your product.

This method is typically associated with Google and other search engines because advertisers will bid on certain keywords. These keywords are relevant to their product and target market.

Have you searched for something like “women’s shoes” and noticed the ads section at the top of the page before the organic results? Those are PPC ads.

PPC ads are a great way for your business to remain competitive, especially in a competitive market. You’re able to get in front of your target consumers easily, which is great if you aren’t ranking high in the SERPs without it.

Pros And Cons Of PPC

What’s great about PPC is you get results immediately. SEO can take months to build up whereas you can begin to see results from your PPC campaign within a few hours.

Additionally, your ads will appear at the very top of search engine results pages above the organic results. While some people may automatically scroll past them, you’ll still be noticed first by a lot of potential consumers.

PPC campaigns also let you target specific people with your ads. You can target consumers from a certain geographic area or those of a certain age. Only the people that will benefit from your product will see it.

Unfortunately, PPC campaigns can get expensive. Once you run out of budget, your campaign will shut down as well. If you’re in a competitive industry like insurance or legal, the price per click can get costly.

Like we mentioned before, some people have “ban ner blindness.” This refers to them completely ignoring advertisements. It can be hard to plan out a PPC campaign knowing that some people won’t pay attention to your ads.

Which Is Better — Organic SEO Or PPC?

Determining whether SEO or PPC is better for your business depends entirely upon your unique goals. A local business that doesn’t have a lot of competition and only needs a couple of leads per week could potentially increase their visibility really quickly with SEO. A brand new ecommerce store that’s competing with the likes of eBay and Amazon is going to struggle with organic SEO.

Ask yourself the following questions when determining what strategy is best for you:

Do I need new leads immediately or long-term?
Does my website have authority already?
What kind of competition do I have?
What’s the cost-per-click in a paid search campaign?

Developing long and short-term goals in conjunction with a marketing strategy will assist you in making a PPC vs SEO decision. One route you can take is incorporating aspects of both methods into your digital marketing strategy. Integrating both strategies will help your business see more impactful results than if you tried just one of them on its own.

Understanding the pros and cons of each will help you leverage SEO and PPC for your business, creating the best mix that’ll you accomplish your goals.

Connect With A Qualified Digital Marketing Agency

Trying to navigate the ins and outs of organic SEO and PPC campaigns can be daunting, especially if it’s something you’re not experienced with. Partnering with an experienced digital marketing agency like Underdogg Marketing will help grow your business and increase your customer base.

Which Is The Best: Organic SEO or PPC?