What’s the Difference Between SEO and PPC Advertising?

SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click) are sneaky advertising services designed to help websites rank higher in the search engines. There’s much confusion about which is better, so we’re here to debunk myths about SEO vs PPC Advertising.

Both SEO and PPC advertising are designed to help company websites rank higher in the search engines. They both make a website more discoverable – but there are some crucial differences between these two options that you need to know before making your decision. 

Few Technical Terms to Understand the Basics of SEO and PPC

1. Keyword Matching 

In SEO, you control what your company is listed for by listing a keyword in your website’s title, body, or URL when you first design it.

In PPC, your ad shows up when the targeted keyword is used in a search query by someone looking for products or services like those offered by your company. It is called keyword matching.

On PPC, you will submit an ad to the search engines. The search engines use that ad’s keyword match to show it to searchers. So, in SEO advertising, your target keyword is used in your site’s title, body, or URL.

2. Traffic 

In SEO, you want higher rankings so more people can find your company’s website using Google, Yahoo!, and Bing – but you aren’t trying to get more traffic for the site itself. Because Google’s algorithms are well established (and not based on a giant troll with a personal vendetta against your company), your SEO efforts can impact the amount of traffic that comes to your site.

At the beginning of a campaign, you may need to attract traffic to your website to present an attractive ad and get people clicking on it. In PPC advertising, more traffic is also called a conversion. Meaning that you are asking potential customers to buy something with the click of a button. So, traffic can be a big part of PPC advertising.

3. Efficiency

In SEO, you’d pay $10 for every thousand impressions (how many times the ad gets shown). In PPC, it’s $0.50 per click. SEO ads can run a few hundred times without costing much. PPC ads must be clicked hundreds of times to appear in the search engines.

4. Frequency

In SEO, you start your campaign once and run for a set period. After that, you need to come back with another AdWords ad (or schedule updates to your website) if you want your search engine rankings to increase.

For PPC, it is a paid search. You pay every time a new ad is submitted to the search engines – so if your company runs a campaign every month, your PPC ads are showing up every month.

5. Transparency

In PPC, you never know what keywords have generated a sale or lead for your business – and that’s OK. You don’t need to know what people search for when they click on your ads. Unlike SEO, PPC advertising is transparent and low-cost (also known as targeted).

Why You Should Start Using SEO Advertising

Speed of Growth. In most cases, your site will want to use both SEO and PPC if you grow your business. To see why let’s look at three primary reasons:

1. Speed of Growth

Google has a reputation for being challenging to optimize. There is also no such thing as a golden URL in the search engines (unless you have a different website name altogether). So if you are going to use SEO, you need to start generating results.

2. Visibility

You were talking about SEO vs PPC. Your site needs to appear in the search engines and be found by prospective clients. Even if you don’t rank well, your site will still be discoverable in the SERPs. In PPC advertising, if you get low-quality traffic or no sales from your ads, you can still use Google’s keyword matching tools to identify where people are searching for products or services. Like for instance those your business offers – and improve your results later on. 

3. Scalability

SEO is a slow burn. You might spend a year building up your website rankings – and then there is no guarantee that your site will stay on top for months to come. In PPC, you often get results within days. If you start with this option, it can give you the confidence to expand your possibilities and combine SEO with PPC in a hybrid campaign (where one type of ad influences the other).

The best part about the hybrid campaign is that it’s the most effective option for getting new clients. You can find out which marketing channel converts better and then double down on your efforts with that channel. In other words, where PPC advertising wins, you get more and promote business by giving you a better sense of what kind of people are searching for your products.

SEO Vs PPC Advertising

1. PPC ads have higher visibility and are more cost-effective, but SEO is a better long-term strategy for sustainable growth.
2. PPC Ads generally show up in the SERPs and don’t drive traffic to your site. They also cost more per click than SEO ads.
3. SEO advertising Campaigns can drive traffic to your website over time, with some tactics yielding higher search engine rankings than others. But it only takes one enormous hit or successful campaign to make PPC advertising an unnecessary expense.
4. SEO is an excellent way to drive traffic to your website and better rank for keywords – but with PPC advertising, you can scale up to millions of searches. With this option, it makes sense to expand from a tiny campaign first and then continue with SEO.
5. SEO vs PPC, SEO is still the king of traffic if you want long-term growth. PPC will never replace SEO altogether. It would be best if you considered both effective marketing strategies for any business.
6. SEO delivers higher-quality traffic, especially if you have the right SEO strategy, but PPC is still a worthwhile investment if your campaign brings in new visitors and leads. The problem is that you will never be able to tell where the clicks are coming from unless you use both channels (with proper keyword matching).
7. PPC advertising is fast and cheap, but it only shows up when your target market searches for specific terms in the SERPs. With SEO, you can get several keywords on individual pages to rank high in the SERPs. It will still increase your organic search engine rank (especially if you have many sites with original content).
8. PPC is a good choice for businesses that want targeted traffic, while SEO is better suited for long-term growth. If you only have a small budget and want to start using advertising, then PPC paid search advertising is the right option.
9. SEO is more cost-effective and can often help you increase your organic search rankings. Yet, it can take months of work to see results from SEO advertising. With PPC advertising, you will get new business in a few days.
10. SEO uses paid ads to get your site out there and drive traffic for higher search engine rankings. PPC advertising is better for targeting keywords based on what people are searching for right now – and getting instant results in the SERPs.

Conclusion:

SEO is a more effective long-term strategy than PPC, but if you want to get new clients, PPC advertising can be beneficial. The main difference between SEO advertising and PPC advertising is targeting. SEO uses keywords to rank your site in the SERPs, while PPC focuses on keywords people are searching for right now. The best option is to use both strategies together as a hybrid campaign. If you have the right SEO strategy, you can tell which keyword strategy works best for your business.

Both strategies are complementary and powerful in their own right. You will get new clients faster with PPC advertising, and if you get good enough rankings in the SERPs using SEO, you can also start using PPC (in a limited capacity).