What is the Difference Between SEO and PPC Advertising?
With all the social media exposure and direct traffic that you may be receiving from your marketing campaigns, it is easy to forget that the secret to getting more sales doesn’t come from social media. It actually comes from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising.
SEO and PPC are both methods of advertising that allow you to gain traffic easily but are not as effective for increasing your amount of sales. This article will discuss them both along with their merits.
SEO vs PPC Advertising
The major difference between SEO and PPC is that SEO is free and PPC costs money. Because of this, your goals for the two campaigns should be different.
Search Engine Optimization is an ongoing campaign with the aim of establishing your brand as a trusted source for the keywords that are relevant to your business. That way, when a user searches for those keywords on Google, they’ll click on one of your pages because you rank highly in the list of results.
“Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first.” – Wendy Piersall
In contrast, PPC advertising has short-term goals. PPC enables you to bid on keywords/phrases so that when someone searches them, they’ll see an ad that directs them to one of your pages.
Since you are paying each time a user clicks on this ad, the goal is usually to get users onto a page where they can make a purchase or contact you in some way.
What is SEO?
SEO is the process of optimizing your website to get organic, or un-paid, traffic from the search engine results page. In other words, SEO involves making certain changes to your website design and content that makes your site more attractive to a search engine. You do this in the hope that the search engine will display your website as a top result on the search engine results page.
In order to have the best chance of showing up as a top result and getting clicked on, you’ll need to learn how to identify which keywords are most likely to help you boost traffic.
The process of choosing which keywords ideally should be done by an SEO expert who has experience in this area. It is s not simply a matter of choosing high volume keywords but also considering what terms are “search phrases” that people are actually looking for and typing into search engines.
Why Is SEO Important?
SEO is one of the most cost-effective ways to increase your online presence and get more traffic to your website. This is because SEO targets users who are actively searching for products, services, and information related to your business.
If you’ve never heard of SEO before, or have no idea where to start, don’t worry—you’re in good company. A recent study found that over 30% of B2B marketers feel they aren’t skilled at creating organic search content that ranks well on search engines.
“Today it’s not about ‘get the traffic’ — it’s about ‘get the targeted and relevant traffic.” – Adam Audette, Chief Knowledge Officer, RKG
What is PPC?
PPC is a simple concept used by tons of companies to get more traffic to their website while generating sales and awareness. This online advertising is primarily based on a bidding system. The more you pay, the higher your ad will rank when someone searches for the product or service you sell. When your ad ranks high, you can reach even more customers who are looking for what you have to offer.
It sounds pretty straightforward, but PPC does require some research and planning before starting so that you can make sure your campaign will be successful. You also want to make sure that it’s doing its job and actually generating leads and sales for your business so that it will keep doing its job.
PPC Benefits
PPC ads are displayed at the top of search engine results pages, which means that you can get more traffic to your website quickly. Typically it is a cost-effective way to receive more web traffic, and it’s also easy to track and analyze.
Unlike SEO, which takes time to implement, PPC ads generate leads in a shorter period of time (since they’re displayed at the top of search engine results pages). As part of an overall marketing strategy, PPC should be strategically used.
Two Growth Strategies
✅ Both SEO and PPC are effective.
✅ Both can increase traffic from relevant customers.
✅ Both can provide insight into customer behaviour.
SEO and PPC are two of the most effective ways to achieve these goals. As such, they are worth utilizing in tandem—the results of each will amplify the other’s effectiveness if you work them together effectively.
Conclusion
Unlike organic search ranking or SEO, in which you don’t pay for positioning on a search engine results page, PPC is a paid model of advertising.
While there are many “quick fixes” to improve your PPC ranking or increase traffic through paid ads, it’s not necessarily as simple with organic rankings.
The process of achieving an organic ranking can be a long one that requires ongoing optimization. Regardless of which tactic you use, your goal is to show up on the first page of search results or get your ad in front of as many people as possible.
I hope that this article will help you understand both SEO and PPC and integrate them into your marketing.
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Morgan Lewis
P.S If you want to know the common mistakes to avoid when starting an online business, then download my PDF here.
