SEO vs. PPC: How and when to use both strategies?

Last Updated on August 12, 2024 by Admin

To help your business succeed, you need a good digital marketing plan. There are many strategies you can use, but it’s important to choose the right ones. Two of the most popular ones are search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

When deciding between SEO vs PPC, it’s crucial to understand how they differ. Knowing the difference can help you pick the best strategy for your needs.

Let’s explore what each of these strategies does and how they can attract more visitors to your website.

What is SEO?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the practice of optimizing a website to improve its visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). The goal is to attract more organic (non-paid) traffic by making the site more appealing to search engines like Google and Bing.

The higher your content ranks, the more likely it is to get clicked on. In fact, research from Backlinko shows the top three Google search results get 54.4% of all clicks.

There are five main elements of SEO:

1. Keyword research: It involves finding the phrases and terms people type in search engines while looking for information on a product or service.

   It helps in:

   • Identifying valuable keywords (words that are likely to attract users interested in your products or services) to focus your content on.
   • Understanding what users are looking for with these keywords so you can better address their desires and requirements.

   When searching for keywords related to your specific area of interest, remember to consider how often people search for them each month and how tough it is to rank for them. You might find some excellent opportunities with keywords that are often searched but aren’t too hard to compete for.

Read also: Keyword Mapping: What is it and how to get started?
2. Content creation: Content creation involves developing informative and/or entertaining materials intended for your target audience. This process can help you boost brand awareness, improve your site’s rankings, and generate new leads and customers. There are various content formats you can explore, including:
   • Blog posts and articles
   • Videos
   • Infographics
   • Podcasts
   • Social media post
   • eBooks and whitepapers
   • Newsletters

   However, it’s crucial to match the content format to the user’s search intent and your topic.

   For instance, if you’re targeting “beginners guide to yoga,” users seek comprehensive yet easy-to-understand information. An eBook or a detailed blog post would guide them through the fundamentals.

   Conversely, for a query like “yoga poses for beginners,” a video would be more beneficial as it visually demonstrates the poses, making it easier for beginners to learn and follow along.

3. On-page SEO: On-page SEO makes your web pages easier for search engines and users to understand.

   This includes not only enhancing the quality of your content and using the right keywords but also involves other elements like:

   • Linking pages within your own website.
   • Using clear, simple URLs.
   • Making sure images are optimized and have descriptive alt text.

   On-page SEO helps search engines better comprehend your content, assessing its relevance to specific search queries.

   It also improves the user experience, potentially leading to more engagement, longer time spent on your pages, and better conversion rates.

4. Off-page SEO: Off-page SEO includes actions you take outside of your own website to improve your search rankings.

   This involves:

   • Getting backlinks, which are links from other websites that lead to yours.
   • Earning mentions of your brand on various websites.
   • Writing guest blog posts.
   • Collecting reviews.

   These activities signal to search engines that your site is trustworthy, which can help your website rank higher in search results.

5. Technical SEO: Technical SEO involves the behind-the-scenes adjustments that help search engines better understand your site and enhance user experience.

   Key aspects of technical SEO include:

   • Maintaining a clear sitemap to guide search engines through your site.
   • Ensuring your site loads quickly for better user interaction.
   • Using HTTPS for a more secure browsing experience, rather than HTTP.
   • Optimizing your website to work smoothly on mobile devices.

Getting the technical details right sets up your website for more success in search results.

Benefits of SEO

• Budget-friendly: It stands out as one of the most affordable marketing strategies, offering a cost-effective means to expand your brand. Unlike paid advertising, you don’t incur costs for organic traffic, and much of the optimization can be handled independently. Even if you choose to hire an SEO agency, it generally costs less than pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
• Long-term results: When done properly, your SEO efforts can yield results that last for many years. By adhering to best practices, you avoid penalties from search engines like Google. Additionally, SEO tends to have a compounding effect; top-ranked pages naturally attract more backlinks simply because they’re more visible. This ultimately results in high rankings and increases their chances of staying at the top.
• Increases trust: The more your brand appears on Google, the more consumers will trust it. Unlike PPC, dominating search results doesn’t require a hefty budget. By concentrating on content marketing, your brand can become the primary resource in your industry, showing up for every relevant keyword and establishing itself as a trusted authority.

  According to Edelman’s 2023 Trust Barometer report, 59% of surveyed consumers are more likely to purchase a new product from a trusted brand, even if it costs more.

Drawbacks of SEO

• Requires significant time: SEO is more like a marathon than a sprint. It requires steady, ongoing efforts over several months to achieve noticeable results.

  You’ll need to spend considerable time researching keywords, crafting content, optimizing your website, and continuously improving your SEO approach. This might be seen as a drawback for businesses that need immediate outcomes, because SEO doesn’t provide a quick surge in traffic.

• Changes frequently: SEO requires ongoing attention. You need to consistently update your website and content to keep pace with changes in search engine algorithms. This can be challenging for those who have limited time or expertise.
• Penalties for Poor SEO Practices: Ignoring search engine rules can lead to penalties that might lower your site’s rankings or even remove them completely.

Using irrelevant keywords, purchasing backlinks, or copying content can lead to trouble. Google might see these actions as attempts to manipulate rankings, damaging your content’s credibility unfairly.

Recovering from such penalties can be difficult and time-consuming, often needing a total redo of your SEO strategy.

What is PPC?

Pay-per-click marketing, or PPC, places your website at the top of the search engine results page (SERP), and you pay only when someone clicks on your link. Your ad will usually be displayed above the organic search results and will be marked with a “Sponsored” label to indicate that it is a paid advertisement.

To use PPC effectively, you need to determine your business’s most important keywords and decide which results pages you want your ads to appear on. When someone searches for these keywords, your ad will appear; if it appeals to them, they’ll likely click on it.

There are four main elements of PPC:

1. Keyword selection: In PPC advertising, just as in SEO, choosing the right keywords is essential.

   You should select keywords that:

   • Match closely with your ads and landing pages.
   • Generate enough searches to attract visitors.
   • Are not so competitive that the cost exceeds your budget.

   Begin by creating a list of related terms to your products or services.

   Then, use a tool like a keyword planner to research search volumes and get suggestions for additional keywords.

   Remember, the better your keywords align with your audience’s intent, ad copy, and landing pages, the higher your Quality Score in Google Ads will be.

   Google Ads uses a quality score to assess the quality of an ad. A higher score can result in better ad placements and a lower cost per click (CPC).

2. Bid setting: This crucial step requires setting the maximum amount you are prepared to pay for each click on your PPC ads.

   Your bid is then entered into a real-time ad auction, competing with others who are bidding on the same keywords. The result of this auction decides if your ad will be displayed and its placement on the search engine results page (SERP).

3. Audience targeting: Audience targeting involves selecting who gets to see your ad. You can target individuals based on their demographics, interests, location, and other factors, ensuring that your ad reaches the most relevant audience.
4. Ad creation: Ad creation involves determining the content of your ad and deciding where it will direct users. For instance, the ad below will lead people directly to Shopify’s homepage.

Google assigns a Quality Score to each of your ads, which evaluates their relevance and usefulness. Generally, higher Quality Scores show your ads to more people and help reduce the cost per click.

Benefits of PPC

• Immediate traffic and results: In the SEO vs PPC debate, PPC stands out because it works fast. Your ads start getting clicks as soon as they go live.

  This quick action is really useful for introducing new products or special deals.

• Quick experimentation: PPC allows for quick feedback. You can set up a campaign, run A/B tests to compare different approaches, and quickly see what’s effective and what isn’t.

  In contrast, SEO results take longer to appear, making it harder to pinpoint exactly which change or strategy led to success or failure.

• Easily measured: One of the main benefits of PPC is that it’s easy to measure the success of your ads. You can see clear numbers like the number of people who saw your ads, clicked on them, and completed the action you wanted.

  This makes it simple to make changes if the results aren’t what you expected.

Drawbacks of PPC

• Quite expensive: Unlike SEO, which can generate traffic with minimal or no cost, PPC marketing typically requires a substantial marketing budget to achieve results.
• Constant investment: When you stop spending on PPC ads, your results stop too. Unlike SEO, which can keep attracting visitors long after you’ve set it up, PPC requires continuous spending to maintain results. This sudden stop in traffic and conversions can be a big problem for businesses that need steady online visibility.
• Strict guidelines: PPC search ads have strict limits on character count and format. While these limits can help keep messages clear, they also reduce the space available for storytelling and showing your brand’s personality.

This restriction can make distinguishing your ads in a competitive space challenging.

SEO Vs PPC – Which is better?

Neither SEO nor PPC is inherently better or worse; both are valid ways to attract traffic.

The best choice depends on the situation, as there are times when one method might be more suitable than the other.

Let’s explore those scenarios.

When to use SEO?

You can use SEO in the following situations:

• Building brand authority: Regularly showing up in organic search results can establish your brand as a trusted leader in your field.

  For example, a health food store that frequently appears in search results for natural and organic foods is likely to be viewed as more reputable than one that doesn’t have a visible online presence.

• Tight budget: SEO tends to be more budget-friendly over time. Although it requires time and effort to get your content to rank, you don’t face costs per click like you do with PPC.

  For example, a small bookstore might not be able to compete with larger chains on common keywords due to high costs per click. Instead, it can attract readers by focusing on SEO and creating content that naturally ranks for niche literary genres or local author events.

• Long-term ROI: SEO can deliver a consistent flow of traffic. By adhering to fundamental optimization practices, such as regularly updating content, carefully using keywords, and more, you can maintain these results over the long term.

When to use PPC?

You can use PPC in the following situations:

• Fast conversions and visibility: PPC ads allow you to quickly reach relevant users, which can increase your leads and conversions.

  For example, if you’ve just introduced a new line of organic coffee, a PPC ad can make sure your product shows up right when potential customers are searching for coffee options, even if they haven’t heard of your brand before. This visibility helps you tap into customer interest right at the moment it happens.

• Targeting specific audience: PPC platforms have strong targeting options that let you show your ads to people based on their age, what they like, and how they behave. This way, you can make sure your ads reach people who might really be interested in what you’re selling.

  For example, a fancy jewelry store might choose to show its ads to people who often look at expensive items and have more money to spend.

  On the other hand, while SEO lets you write content for specific types of people, you can’t control exactly who sees it as precisely as you can with PPC.

• Testing marketing strategies: PPC ads offer immediate feedback on what captures your target audience’s interest. They can act as a testing area for different parts of your marketing strategy.

  For example, you could use PPC to figure out which call-to-action phrases get more people to respond or which promotional offers are most popular.

Using SEO and PPC together

You can combine SEO and PPC to leverage the strengths of both and create more effective marketing campaigns.

To quickly raise your profile, you can start with a PPC campaign, which helps put your brand in front of people immediately.

As your brand gains recognition, you can enhance your organic reach by implementing an SEO strategy. Over time, as your organic visibility grows, you can gradually decrease your spending on PPC. This shift allows you to maintain steady traffic through a robust SEO campaign, optimizing your overall marketing budget.