July 13, 2023

SEO vs PPC- Choosing Between Optimisation and Paid Traffic Acquisition

Do you want to enhance the visibility of your website? Or to increase traffic? All you need is to invest in good SEO and PPC. 

Acquiring customers during the initial stages of a business is a challenge that many people grapple with. Balancing the effectiveness, expenses, and upkeep of a marketing campaign needs strong SEO strategies. Generally, the solution lies in choosing between two popular marketing strategies: search engine optimization (SEO) or pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. Would you pay for ads or go for the free SEO? Let’s evaluate both choices with the pros and cons.

What is Search Engine Optimisation?

Search engine optimization, or SEO in Adelaide, involves incorporating content on your website and enhancing its visibility for search engines and users through various techniques. SEO helps your website appear in relevant search results more frequently. Are you considering improving your website’s SEO? Here are several aspects to consider:

  • Ensure your website content is precise, informative, and descriptive.
  • Keep your topic simple with easy-to-read language.
  • Insert relevant keywords in your content.

Advantages of SEO

  1. Cost-effective
    SEO is an exceptionally budget-friendly marketing strategy that offers cost-effectiveness for brand expansion. In SEO, you do most of the work, eliminating the need to pay for organic traffic.
  2. SEO offers long-term results
    Done correctly, SEO can pay dividends for years. As SEO has a habit of compounding, this helps you avoid Google penalties. Additionally, SEO can help your website rank higher in the future.
  3. Great brand awareness and authenticity
    Brand awareness is dependent on the frequency of appearances on Google. That means the more your business appears on Google, the more attraction and trust it gains from clients. Focusing on content marketing makes you the most sought-after resource for your industry, appearing for every relevant keyword and positioning your brand as the trusted authority.
  4. SEO targets every part of your funnel
    Consumers use Google at every stage of their journey in this digital era. That makes SEO the best digital marketing tool to engage customers early in their journey, significantly decreasing acquisition costs.

A Look at the Difficulties of SEO

  1. Volatility of search engine algorithms
    Search engines are volatile. Over the years, Google has changed its algorithms numerous times. That means you have to keep up with the changes, your marketing strategy, and organic results.
  2. There is a need for regular website optimisation
    For your site to continue ranking on search engines, you must regularly optimise your content and web pages.
  3. SEO takes time
    Your SEO efforts, regardless of how intense, aren’t going to drive instant results. The time ranges between six months and a year to see significant traction.
  4. SEO requires high-level expertise
    It is time-consuming if you have to do all the work alone. Hiring an expert who understands your audience’s goals and meets them with quality content is recommended.

Pay Per Click: What is PPC, and What is its Significance?

Pay-per-click (PPC) is a search engine marketing (SEM) strategy that involves advertisers paying publishers, such as Google or Facebook, for every click on their ads. Through PPC, businesses only pay when individuals engage with their advertisements. By utilizing PPC ads, you can attract individuals who are genuinely interested in your offerings and more likely to convert into customers. PPC ads appear together with organic search results.

Benefits of PPC

  1. PPC offers instant results
    PPC is the only digital marketing strategy where you can see results the same day you launch a campaign. Unlike SEO, which can take months, PPC guarantees feedback within hours.
  2. PPC offers exceptional visibility
    Running PPC campaigns for your target keyword makes your website appear first on the search engine result page. Such rankings make your audience notice you first before scrolling to see other results.
  3. PPC offers high-intent clicks
    Often, PPC ads only target high-intent commercial keywords. That means the users clicking on your PPC ads will be close to making a purchase. As a result, conversation rates are much higher for PPC than SEO. With PPC ads, it is also easier to track revenue.
  4. PPC offers great data
    With PPC campaigns, it is easier to generate huge amounts of data. You can also visualize the keywords that drive the most traffic, which ads work, and which landing pages convert best. Likewise, PPC makes it easy to optimize your campaigns, increasing return on ads expenditure while decreasing costs.

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 Disadvantages of PPC

  1. PPC ads are expensive
    You pay for every link that your audience clicks. That means once your budget dries up, so does your traffic.
  2. Low profit margins
    PPC campaigns are known to bring short-term wins, meaning lower profit margins for the SEO owner. As a “pay to play” system, despite no significant increase in your products and services prices, your customer acquisition costs (CAC) would continue to increase.
  3. Limited control over PPC ads
    Ad platforms like Google set the rules of the game. That means your control over your paid ads is very limited. You need to refresh your ads to keep them engaging constantly. As such, if your copy has similar wording to your competitors, it becomes easy for your audience to pass over quickly.

SEO vs. PPC: Which is better?

SEO vs. PPC, a better marketing strategy for your business growth, is a popular question. Choosing between SEO and PPC largely depends on your business goals, growth plans, and other marketing strategies. You should choose paid search for instant clicks, conversions, and targeted marketing. Similarly, organic SEO should be on your priority list if you look at long-term goals such as improving brand credibility, exposure, and scalability within a budget. However, experts agree that instead of running these two strategies separately, you should find a way to bring these two strategies together to benefit your business.

Conclusion

Choosing SEO or PPC depends on your business situation. Evaluating the pros and cons of both SEO and PPC is important to see the right fit for you. Do you need an expert opinion? Try Marketing Sweet, a trusted digital marketing company in Australia, to learn more about SEO and PPC advertising.

About the author 

Elle Gellrich


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