SEO or PPC – Which One Should You Choose?

| February 11, 2016

SEO or PPC – Which One Should You Choose?

If you want to market on Google, there are two ways you can go about it. You can bring in organic traffic with diligent SEO or get paid traffic with PPC ads. Both have their advantages and disadvantages and both can yield the right results over time. However, investing in both can be a major expense; so if you’re on a limited marketing budget, you’ll have to choose which marketing strategy is ideal for you. Here’s a brief guide that would help you decide the best solution for all.

What is SEO?

This term is tossed around quite often but very few truly understand the breadth and scope of it. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s actually a combination of several strategies aimed at achieving a single result; higher rankings on the search engine results page, i.e., the SERP. You need to consider that Google takes over 200 ranking factors into account when it decides where your website would be placed on the SERPs. There’s also the fact that these ranking factors change and alter every time Google updates the algorithm.

You’d say that SEO is a long con. You need to hunker down and keep working on it for 6 to 12 months before you start seeing any results. However, the rewards of this are rich. Once you have an optimized almost all aspects of your website. That’s when the organic search traffic starts to come in. In the long run, SEO wins.

What is PPC?

PPC or Pay-Per-Click ads are, as the name implies, that you need to pay for. They’re placed at the top of the SERPs and usually occupy prime real estate. PPC ads always appear above the fold, which makes them the first thing that the search engine user would see. Most people won’t bother to look beyond the first few results. After the PPC ads, you’ll see the local search Google Maps results. It’s below the Maps result that you see the organic search results. They rarely occupy much space above the fold.

It’s easy to understand how PPC ads work. You bid on specific keywords and incorporate them into your ads. Your PPC ads will be featured on the SERPs and every time a user clicks on the ad, the amount you bid on the keyword would be charged. For example, if you placed a bid of $0.75 on a particular keyword, every time a person clicks on the ad, you’ll be charged $0.75. Now, this might not seem like a significant amount at first, but it can multiply over time and become expensive for you.

Which to Choose?

Ideally, you should use both strategies. That way, you won’t be placing all of your eggs in one basket. However, if that’s not possible and you’re a new business with limited revenue, PPC will be a better idea. Naturally, you’ll need to place some limitations on the amount of clicks per day, but you’ll get quicker results and ROI with PPC. After you’ll accumulated enough revenue and your business is taking off, you can invest in SEO.