If you’ve just been introduced to online marketing, you might be overwhelmed by the different marketing methods that are available. Two of the most popular and efficient online marketing methods are pay per click marketing, commonly referred to as PPC, and SEO, which is short for search engine optimization. Both of these methods can yield powerful results, and both have their pros and cons. In this article, we’ll introduce you to both methods and try to assess which one would be the best for your website.
What is the Difference Between SEO and PPC?
While both methods allow you to gain visibility on search engines, they work very differently. With PPC, you can place bids on keywords your potential clients may be searching for and have your ad displayed every time someone conducts a search for that term. What’s great with PPC is that you only pay when someone actually clicks your ad and lands on your site. You have to adjust your bid according to the term’s popularity and your possible return on investment.
With SEO, on the other hand, your goal is to increase your visibility organically in the search results. You can do that by improving your on-page content, increasing your brand mentions, improving your local visibility, and by publishing related content through the right channels among other things. One of the benefits of SEO is that while you’ll need to make an initial investment, you could reap the benefits of a good SEO strategy for years and gain tons of free, organic traffic this way.
Now let’s take a look at some of the factors that could make either option better for you.
Budget
If you don’t have money to pay for advertising at the moment, you could start by using free SEO techniques. But it could be difficult to get significant results, especially if you’re in a competitive niche. However, it could help you prevent some SEO mistakes that could hurt you later on.
If you have a little bit of money to spend, we suggest you give SEO a try. You could start with a small $5 to $10 a day budget and use that for testing. You’ll be able to tweak some of your material to increase conversion and fine-tune your strategy for better results.
You could also work with a specialized agency if you want to build a long-term SEO strategy. There are plenty of great agencies like The Guerrilla Agency that will give you more insight into your local market and competition, look over your website, make adjustments or recommendations if needed, and help you build your visibility through sound SEO practices.
Cost Per Click
When using PPC, you have to take your niche into consideration. Some niches can have very expensive keywords and be monopolized by big players. These players might even be losing on these ads but do it simply for brand visibility. So, in some cases, you might want to either refine your keywords, look at less popular search engines, or choose another strategy altogether.
Search Engine Result Competition
Likewise, competition in search engines results is something you’ll have to consider as well. Google has a keyword research tool that will allow you to check the competition for your main keywords as well as pay per click bids. If you notice that most top spots are occupied by authority sites, then displacing them will be a challenge unless you invest significant time and money, so be prepared for that.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, using as many marketing strategies as possible is the best way to optimize results. Do your research and weigh all the marketing options out there and see which ones would be better for your website based on your budget, needs, and what type of results you’re looking for.