The Difference Between SEO & Pay Per Click (PPC)
In the world of marketing, you will see so many options to use to grow your business and
achieve the success you have been looking for. Two choices to help your business are using SEO or PPC.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, refers to the process of optimizing website content
relevance, technical configuration and link popularity. This allows the website to be found
quickly and easily, showing up in relevant and popular search queries. In response, search
engines will rank the website higher.
Search engines provide results to search queries. Google has 92% of the worldwide search
engine market. Search engines are what we use to find websites, information and all types of products or services among many other things.
SEO helps your website rank higher on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) and get more
traffic. To do this, you need to understand your audience and how to make the best website
possible to get the best results. The most important elements of SEO are the search term (user input) and search output (the output).
What is PPC?
PPC, or Pay-per-Click, is a way the internet drives traffic to websites. For PPC, the advertiser pays the publisher each time the ad is clicked. It is a targeted advertising method, used to reach a specific audience.
Although Google is the most common place to use PPC, Pay-per-Click is also used on Bing,
Facebook, Instagram and other platforms. Often, there is a goal associated with PPC marketing, and goals can be recorded on your website with tools such as Google Analytics. You will be able to see how your campaign is doing and also be able to analyze website performance. PPC gives your ad the potential to be seen right away and speed is important for visibility. Using PPC also makes it easy to run marketing experiments and test data, but you must remember PPC needs to be monitored to make sure it is working the way you want it to.
How do you choose which one is right for you?
Which one should you use for your business? Let’s dig into this further.
SEO means Search Engine Optimization. It is a way to increase your website’s ranking and
visibility on the internet, especially on Google, Bing and other platforms. PPC is the acronym for Pay-per-Click, this is where ads appear on premium search results pages. They usually have prominent positions in search results. PPC are paid advertisements that use demographics and keywords to allow the ads to show up at the right time and for the right customers.
You also need to understand the way Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) work and what they show. Modern SERPs will have the following list:
1. Maps
2. Ads
3. Images
4. Featured “snippets”
5. Videos
6. Knowledge panels
7. Commonly-asked questions
8. Organic listings
Both SEO and PPC are designed to help build your business. SEOs are designed to bring
awareness, branding, credibility, trust and versatility. SEOs also help with reviews, reputation, traffic for the website, ROI (return on investment), costs, and sustainability among other things. PPC are fast, targeted ads to get in front of certain customers. PPC gets the best position on a page, brand visibility, budget control, costs, stability, and dynamic ad copy. There are several questions to ask that will help you decide if you should use PPC or SEO. Here
is a list:
● Who are the desired customers?
● What is the desired product/service?
● How will the customers buy?
● What keywords will you use?
● How much business is needed?
● Final question-Do you have more time or money. (SEO-more time, PPC-more money.)
Both PPC and SEO work, you just have to decide what is better for your business. Look at what your business needs, and what each, SEO and PPC, offers. Choose the best one for you and the success of your business.
For interest, here are some marketing acronyms you should know.
PPC: Pay per Click
SEO: Search Engine Optimization
SEM: Search Engine Marketing
CPC: Cost per Click
CTC: Click through Rate
ROAS: Return on Ad Spend
SERPs: Search Engine Result Pages
It is always best to sit down with a professional marketing company like Branch Marketing and discuss what your needs and options are. Having experts guide you will only bring success to your business and a smile to your customers faces. Contact Branch Marketing today.
