SEO vs. PPC – Decide the best marketing tactic for your company

Benefits of SEO, PPC, and other Digital Marketing Techniques

Much has been written & discussed about Search Engine Optimization and industries across all sectors have benefited for many years. SEO has generated huge online traffic and increased sales by ranking them on the first page of Google Search Results. A different method of driving sales is Pay Per Click (Advertisements). Companies with low budgets are often confused on which marketing strategy to use. This blog discusses the merits of both SEO & PPC and the best way to go forward in the effectiveness of SEO vs. PPC.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Before we get into the details of SEO vs. PPC, lets have a little explanation about SEO. People use search engines daily for any type of query whether they are looking for products, services or some knowledge in general. These search engines provide results based on their own algorithms and rank websites as per relevance to the search query. The top websites in the results are the most visited websites and provide traffic and sales to those companies.

SEO’s work is to improve the rankings in the search engine results pages. Although Google, a major search engine has modified & updated its algorithms, still SEO is very much in effect and helping companies improve their rankings & business image.

Read how SEO has changed in the past years and evolved with evolving search engines by reading the interesting blog Traditional SEO is dead- there is an all-new species now.

What is Pay Per Click

In the confusion of SEO vs. PPC, many people still prefer PPC, as they are most comfortable with the traditional advertising method of marketing, which shows immediate results instead of SEO.

PPC or Pay Per Click is online advertisement where you have to pay for every click. In simple words, your ad is shown on different websites and if visitors click your ad then you have to pay for that click.

Google Adwords is the most prominent advertising platform where advertisers can use different Google’s platforms or websites that participate in Adwords program to publish their ads.

SEO vs. PPC

Now you all know what SEO & PPC is, let us discuss the best way to market your products SEO or PPC.

Both SEO & PPC are parts of Digital Marketing tactics. There are several parameters and on their basis, we have decided to discuss the merits or one or the other form of digital marketing techniques.

• Visibility – Visibility is the most defining factor that makes the basis for companies’ decision to go for SEO or PPC. The results of PPC are immediate and quantifiable whereas SEO results are often realized after a minimum period of 3-4 months of dedicated SEO techniques. If you are new in market and want to gain quick results, PPC is better way to start your marketing campaign.
• Cost – SEO packages vary from company to company and its expertise while in PPC you can decide the daily budget & market your ads accordingly. PPC depends on various factors such as keyword popularity, related websites etc.

If you have SEO knowledge and have a high quality website then you can do SEO for yourself for free rather to get on first page of Google without paying for Adwords.

• Potential Customers – At the end of the day, more potential customers matter irrespective of the method SEO or PPC. SEO increases your web image and builds up your brand thereby pulling customers from different fields whereas PPC targets only potential customers.

While conversion rate is higher in PPC as only those who are interested in the product, click the ad to know more, SEO tactics, majorly through smart content, focuses on building up traffic, generating need, interest in the product and providing solutions through the product.

• Ease of Use – If you are a start-up owner, obviously the first question will be which one is easy to use SEO or PPC? Neither one is easy if you are new to all this and thereby you have to hire Internet Marketing experts. Otherwise, you would end up losing lots of money on online advertising before you get the hang of it.