Is PPC Better than SEO? Many people often get confused between the concepts of PPC and SEO. It isn’t a matter of if PPC is better than SEO. Both are marketing tools that capitalize off of keywords, but they are utilized and perform based upon different goals and metrics. At SEO Smooth, we do not specifically believe that one method is better than the other, instead, we seek to understand our clients’ goals and then recommend the best solution for them. PPC and SEO campaigns can be equally effective depending upon your goals, and you should definitely have a solid grasp of how each of these functions works.
What Are PPC And SEO?
There are various ways to think about PPC and SEO, but here we want to break it down to the basics to really give a thorough explanation of each. We are going to explain what each acronym stands for, and how each method is used so that you can better choose which will work best for your business.
PPC specifically stands for Pay Per Click, which is exactly what it sounds like, campaigns where you are paying for each click on your ad. PPC ads can be used on Google, Yahoo, Bing, and even social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Essentially, PPC campaigns are paid promotional ads that are shown to specific, targeted audiences in order to gain exposure and new leads for your company.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization which refers to optimizing your website, social media page, landing page, etc. in order to ensure that when users search various search engines using key terms that your website shows up on top. Optimizing pages for search engines includes optimizing the written content on your site, maximizing keywords, ensuring your site is listed on local sites and so much more.
How Do I Know Which Is Best For My Business?
As we said before, PPC and SEO work both independently from each other as well as hand in hand. If you are just starting your journey with your business, we would highly recommend employing both tactics so as to maximize your exposure to new and potential customers. We recommend this because it will take time for SEO to work to get your website to the top of search results, however, it will take only a few weeks for a PPC campaign to achieve this.
Oftentimes, SEO and PPC can get confusing as many do not understand that one is paid and one is organic. One of the best explanations for this is that PPC is like renting that top space, and SEO is more like owning that top space. Paying to show up as a top search result is temporary and only lasts as long as you’re willing to pay for it while working toward that goal daily through SEO tactics is much more like owning that space as you will continue to show up there even if you aren’t paying for ads in that space. This is not meant to sound as though SEO is better, it is more about what you need and when you need it.
Is PPC Better than SEO? Or is SEO Better than PPC?
It depends on a few factors such as your business model, current visibility situation, type of business and the type of conversion you need (a sale, a lead, etc), and where you need it.
As always, if you’re unsure if PPC or SEO is right for you, then give us a call or reach out to us via our contact form and our talented team will get back to you!
