It has been estimated that Google processes about 63,000 searches every second, making the approximate number of searches per day around 5.6 billion. Taking that into account, how are you going to make your website stand out from others? In order to do so, you must choose the right marketing strategy (or combination of), to maximize your brand’s potential. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) are two powerful marketing strategies used in the digital marketing world. This blog will briefly go over the two types of strategies, what they do, and their advantages and disadvantages to help you understand which strategy is right for your website.
Using PPC To Generate Leads
Pay-per-click is a form of paid advertising that boosts traffic to a brand’s website. PPC brings higher quality leads, and in return, more customers. Every time one of their advertisements is clicked, advertisers are charged a fee. PPC enables you to swiftly exploit search engine traffic by paying for or bidding on keywords associated with your product or service.
Advantages of PPC
- PPC produces quick results, if you place the highest bid on that keyword. A popular platform used for PPC is Google Ads which gives free access to anyone that has a Google Ads account.
- You don’t have to be concerned about how a search engine’s algorithm may affect your ranking. Your organic rank won’t matter because you’re bidding for the top slots.
- You get to choose your target audience. Ads may be targeted based on search terms, location, and various times of the day and week, making it quick and easy to reach that specific audience.
Disadvantages of PPC
- Depending on your brand’s industry, PPC can be costly. The saying “you get what you pay for” is essential when it comes to managing your PPC campaign because the more money you pay, the better results you will get.
- Selecting effective keywords can be time consuming. If you select the wrong words, this will result in a loss of money because your campaign won’t be as effective. Researching the right keywords is an important step when choosing PPC because it allows you to generate more relevant content for possible customers.
- Some people might not trust advertisements that are paid for and prefer sources that are coming from “real” people.
Organic SEO For Lead Generation
Search Engine Optimization is the process of enhancing a brand’s website to make it more visible when users look for goods or services related to that business through a search engine such as Google or Yahoo.
Some common tactics to increase visibility are through the use of keywords, content creation, and page speed optimization. Unlike PPC, SEO is not a form of paid advertising which means that the visibility and traffic drawn to the website is attained organically.
Advantages of SEO
- If done properly, it can be more cost effective than managing a PPC campaign.
- An effective SEO strategy will last a long time because the core methods and tactics used in SEO will continue to work well for years to come and may only need minor adjustments.
- It creates a trustworthy experience for customers. Your ability to rank first in a search result and appear on the top page depends entirely on the authority you establish. Without a good user experience, you’ll have a difficult time bringing consumers to your site in the first place.
Disadvantages of SEO
- Creating the right SEO strategy can be time consuming and doesn’t happen overnight. Oftentimes, an SEO specialist is hired to bring in their knowledge on SEO-specific tools.
- Compared to PPC, it is slower since it may take a couple of months for your website to start attracting visitors.
- SEO is an ongoing process because customer needs will evolve over time. A website can’t be 100% optimized and must be manually optimized as time goes on.
Which One Should You Choose?
Really, the solution is up to you. The good news is that you’re not limited to choosing between SEO or PPC right away and can always start by choosing what you believe is best for your website, depending on your resources. A PPC campaign will yield results the quickest if you have the money and demand to see results right away. However, finding the appropriate advertising that converts without making you pay too much for the outcomes might still take time and trial and error. If you feel like time is not a problem and you’re just getting started, diving into SEO could be what you’re looking for.
