Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) are great marketing tools.
They work off similar principles, so lots of people confuse the two. But there are key differences to bear in mind.
SEO is the process of improving your site’s content to ensure it shows up at the top of a Search Engine’s list of results.
Search Engines scan EVERYTHING on the internet to find pages that relate to users’ search queries. By ‘relate’, we mean the most relevant and authoritative sources of information.
Relevance is determined by a page’s use of keywords in common with the user’s search term, and how well the page fits in the context of similar information online.
Authority is about how much we can trust the site. Search engines measure the reputation of domain authorities, for example, and the quality of the links (and backlinks — that is, people who have linked to you).
Finally, they’ll look at whether the website works well from a technological point of view. This is known as Technical SEO.
Sites that feature well in these categories will appear high in the list of websites on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). People are more likely to find them when looking for things related to your business.
High-ranking websites:
All that and your SEO strategy doesn’t have to break the bank- SEO is really affordable!
There are some things to bear in mind, however:
PPC is a form of paid advertising where you only have to pay when the ad gets clicked on. You pay a little bit for every click the advert generates. Hence the name: Pay-Per-Click.
Makes sense.
You identify the keywords your target audience are likely to search for, ones you’re likely to rank for, SEO-wise.
Then you bid on these words. Your ad will go into auction with other advertisers who also want to use those keywords and, if it wins, it will be shown to people who search them.
A PPC auction is a simple procedure and one that we have a few articles about, over on our KnowledgeBase. It’ll consider your ad’s relevance, quality, and budget. Some keywords are really competitive, so it’s worth thinking about long-tail keywords (those more specific search terms further down the sales funnel), too.
SEO takes a while to get going. It’s a long-term investment. But once you’re up and flying, SEO costs are low and no additional spends are necessary.
PPC has no upfront investment but can have a higher cost at a later stage. The more clicks, the higher the cost.
SEO takes time. Search engines have to get to know you and, depending on your industry, that can take a year or more. Over time, your site will jostle with other sites for the top spot. It takes time to build authority and trust, to slot your site into the network of competitors’ sites and to build enough content, with enough keyword usage, to make a difference.
On the other hand, because the jostling happens early doors at the PPC Auction, PPC can offer more immediate results. If you get past the auction stage, you can start seeing traffic changes in a few hours.
The Click-Through Rate (CTR) is the most important metric to measure for PPC. It determines how much you’ll pay for the ad, as well as how well it’s doing.
A high CTR indicates your ads are well-placed. Great work! Now you’re a trusted site. You can use this in your SEO strategy.
With SEO more generally, the CTR is important but so are your rankings, visibility, and impressions. (You can view these on tools like SEMRush).
If you’re ranking high for keywords AND have a good CTR, your SEO is working well.
However, if you rank high for a lot of keywords but your CTR isn’t improving, it means people are seeing your site but you’re not intriguing them. Time to look at building trust through your titles and meta descriptions.
PPC is a more targeted option. You only show your ads to people who have searched for specific keywords.
You can go even more specific and bid on long-tail keywords, targeting ads towards people who are most likely to buy.
With SEO, you have to use keywords across the board. That means some are going to be really competitive, and your targeting might not be as precise.
PPC is great for:
SEO is great if you:
Everyone can benefit from a good SEO strategy. After all, it generates an audience, and an audience is what keeps a business running.
For local businesses, you can really focus on Local SEO to target those in your area. Being visible online is important to local businesses’ longevity because it all starts online. People tend to do a quick search these days: ‘Tech Business near me’, for example. Then they’ll leave their house to find you and commit to a purchase.
For online competition businesses, your online presence is everything. The internet is a noisy place. That means investing in your SEO and PPC will make you more visible. It’s like standing on someone’s shoulders in a crowd.
Do you want to know a secret—one which you’ve probably guessed? An integrated approach is best.
PPC can help you with specific campaigns, but you should really use SEO strategies across the board.
The two complement each other. You can use your findings with PPC campaigns to support and grow your SEO campaign, too.
With an integrated strategy, your budget split depends on your priorities and urgency.
If you URGENTLY need new traffic, or have a product launch or event coming up, PPC should get the majority of your budget for a bit. Its immediacy will serve you well here.
But, if you’re trying to improve your visibility in organic searches, improve brand awareness, and hone an image for yourself, SEO will get more funding.
That’s not to say you just completely give up on the other option. Many people split it so one gets slightly more than half of the short-term budget. Maybe you split it 70/30, and then merge more as your organic efforts begin to pay off.
SEO
BUT…
PPC
BUT…
It all comes down to what you want to achieve right now. For goals that have more urgency, and would benefit from creating a sense of FOMO and immediacy, you should hone in on PPC.
For a more all-encompassing strategy, on the other hand, direct your focus to SEO. It’s how you create a brand identity, and get noticed, overall, so that you can launch more competitions and products on the regular.
But really, this decision shouldn’t be paralysing. Prioritising PPC over SEO for a while won’t damage your business, as long as you swap it over every now and then.
We got you covered. Send us a message and we’ll see what we can do.
