There are many digital marketing methods that can drive traffic to your site. Two of the most popular methods are SEO and PPC. If done well, both methods can provide excellent results for your business as well as driving those all-important conversions. This post will look at the pros and cons of SEO and PPC as well as providing guidance on which one you should use or whether you should use both depending on your business goals.
SEO Introduction and Benefits
First let’s start with SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and focuses on the optimisation of your website with the aim of ranking as highly as possible in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
Search engines like to know that your site is trustworthy and well established before they’ll allow your site to rank highly; this is to ensure that people searching are only shown high quality results that are relevant to their search query. You[ML2] can show that your site is relevant and trustworthy through SEO techniques such as content marketing, meta tags and descriptions, link building and keyword optimisation.
Although SEO can take longer to see results, it is often more cost-effective in the long term. The traffic that visits your site as a result of SEO is often high quality and relevant to your business as customers clicked on your site when they were likely already searching for something your business offers. SEO also helps build brand credibility and trust with your customers; if you’re taking the time to maintain a high-quality site that ranks highly in SERPs rather than simply paying to be there through PPC advertising, this suggests that your business is relevant and is therefore likely to increase customer confidence.
PPC Introduction and Benefits
PPC stands for Pay Per Click; this is where advertisers will pay to have their ads at the top of SERPs. With PPC, you only pay when a potential customer clicks on your ad, meaning if no one clicks on your ad, you don’t need to pay anything.
As with SEO, PPC allows you to directly target customers who are searching for your product, however rather than ranking organically, advertisers do this by bidding on keywords that are relevant to their business and customers. Although PPC can cost more than SEO, it is ideal if you’re looking for quick results, whether that be increased brand awareness, site traffic or conversions. PPC campaigns can also be easier to track and measure when compared with SEO campaigns; Google Ads provides metrics such as cost per click, click through rate and impressions that can easily show patterns and trends in data.
PPC campaigns also lets you test different ads in order to easily see what attracts customers to your site, this can then allow you to tweak and improve your marketing strategy if required.
Which is Right for You?
SEO and PPC are both great methods that can seriously improve your conversion rate and drive traffic to your site. As previously mentioned, if you’re looking for a quick campaign turnaround that allows you to see results quickly and you have enough of a budget, then PPC is probably the way to go. However, if you’re looking for more cost-effective, longer term results, then SEO is probably better for you. If you have the time and budget, then sometimes using a mix of both PPC and SEO techniques can be better for your business as they can often go hand in hand.
Do you need help with your SEO or PPC campaigns? Get in touch via phone on 01642 955370 or email us. We can help through our SEO and PPC services where we’ll take care of your campaigns for you!
