SEO and PPC are like two roads leading to the same destination- more web traffic. Hence, the purpose of SEO and PPC is the same. So, they are not opposing – they help each other. They have their own merits and demerits.
What is SEO?
SEO is those techniques that help a website or a web page rank higher on Google search results or on any other indexing sites (can be Youtube too(Video SEO)). Keywords, backlinks, images, videos and a host of other aspects (more than 200) are taken into account by Google when indexing a site.
What is PPC?
Pay Per Click is an advertising way used to get traffic to your websites and when a someone clicks on your ad, you have to pay per the click. You can take the hard way and use SEO to make your website rank, or you can use paid advertising for the same. Paid advertising will place your website above the organic search. Why is it called PPC? – Because you don’t pay until somebody actually clicks on the link.
Every once in a while, every marketing professional will come across this question. We’re not playing safe here but both SEO and PPC have their own usages. None can win over the other because their usage is completely different.
SEO is used with a long term in view. But once SEO starts giving results, it will do so for a long time. And when one of your webpages ranks #1 on Google, you can use that page to pass on the SEO juice to other web pages. So SEO is a wholesome process that can give results for a long time. True, a website can rank #1 on one day and #5 on another, but the benefits of SEO do not vanish altogether.
PPC is better when you have to rank your web page quickly. Suppose it’s Christmas time. Amazon and is leveraging this holiday mood to make people buy from them. Now, if you own a small e-commerce store, can you depend on SEO to rank higher than Amazon? It’s just not possible. In order to seize the opportunity, you have to opt for paid ads to grab some eyeballs of the potential customers.
With SEO, you cannot target a specific section of the population. But with PPC, you can achieve that level of precision in targeting.
Then again, in order for SEO to work properly, people have to search for something explicitly. But you can showcase your product through Google’s ad network even when a viewer is on some other website.
Advantages and of SEO Compared to PPC
- SEO is not a one time wonder. It keeps on giving results for a long period of time.
- An SEO optimized web page helps other web pages of the same website to rank.
- SEO requires no money. Everything is organic. Nothing is paid.
- SEO increases the authority of the website.
- There is no limit to how many people you can attract through SEO. PPC comes with a budget.
