PPC VS SEO: What is the best option for your business?
All businesses should realise the importance of search engines as a way to build traffic to their website. Two of the most powerful traffic generators are PPC and SEO. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is a method of advertising on search engine results pages, such as Google AdWords. PPC users pay to have their website appear at the top of a search engine results page when certain keywords are used. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) refers to a set of techniques used to organically send a website to the top of the search engine. Though both techniques have the same end goal, businesses should consider which method will work best for them.
Budget
When deciding between PPC and SEO, businesses should consider their advertising budget. PPC is a more successful method of driving traffic to a website, but it comes at a price and some businesses do not wish to spend on advertising. The cost of PPC depends on the Cost-Per-Click, which can be very high in competitive industries. However, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad, which means that you get instant results from your investment.
Competition
If your business is in a very competitive market, being at the top of a search engine is more important. Since PPC results appear before the organic search results, PPC may be a better option for businesses with a lot of competition.
Results
If you are seeking immediate results, PPC is the best option for you. SEO can take time to see results. However some businesses view paying for search engine advertising as pointless when they can get the same results from SEO, which comes at no specific cost per click. SEO users must consider, however, the time and effort they are investing into improving their SEO. Many businesses hire someone to take care of their SEO so they are in fact paying to improve their position on search engines.
Return on Investment
For many businesses, driving traffic to their website will directly result in a sale. So, these businesses are able to judge whether they are making the money back that they invested in their PPC. If you invest £1 into your PPC, for example, and make £2 back as a result, your investment was worth it. However, many businesses, who do not make a sale on their website, are not able to see the direct relationship between the money they are making and their investment in their PPC, so it is difficult to know whether they are unnecessarily paying for PPC.
Measure
With PPC, you can measure the success of the campaign. With any marketing campaign, it is important to measure the success to be able to plan future campaigns. PPC allows you to measure how many people clicked on the advert and therefore how successful the campaign was. You can also measure your SEO, but it is not as specific. Through programs such as Google Analytics, you can see how many people have been to your website and where they have come from.
There is no specific answer for whether you should use PPC or SEO; it depends on your business and your goals. If you choose to use PPC, though, you should aim to improve your organic SEO also to ensure that if people choose to avoid the ad results at the top of the search engine; your business still appears at the top of the organic results.
