You will find that there are several acronyms involved in the field of internet marketing and it can be tough to keep up. However, there are two such acronyms all digital marketers have to be aware of and they are SEO & PPC. When you are looking to improve your focus and boost the visibility of your brand, you can take a closer look at SEO & PPC for deciding the approach that will be more suitable to your marketing budget. Keep in mind that SEO &PPC are two sides of the same coin. They are both trying to get your company noticed on the web.
SEO/PPC difference
The clue for finding out the difference between SEO/PPC lies in the name of both these approaches. SEO or search engine optimization optimizes your site content for improving its ranking in the SERPs. These results are many times referred to as organic search results. Pay per click or PPC on the other hand involves the promotion of your website or its content by using paid alternatives available on your selected ad platforms. Some of the more popular PPC campaign platforms are Bing, Google, Amazon, and Facebook. When you are paying per click, you can find the ad close to the top position of the SERP. The optimized content is also going to feature close to the top spots however, it will always be below the paid content. Like everything in life, there are some exceptions and several caveats for both SEO & PPC. If you are a good internet marketer, you will be aware of how to use both of them effectively.
What is the better alternative between SEO/PPC?
Is there a better alternative involved while selecting either SEO or PPC? It depends basically on what you are looking for in terms of results. Both these internet marketing approaches have their advantages and they can be useful at a certain point in time during your campaign. There are fewer costs involved in SEO, excluding the expenses of content creation and time spent on managing the content. But, PPC can bring you the clientele immediately at least for short term advantage.
For most business managers and website owners, investment in SEO is a wise decision in long run. This decision process is well-documented on the internet. The importance of the research process for an average customer cannot be underestimated therefore, having the content ready for answering the queries and being available during this phase will always be extremely critical. Conducting a successful organic SEO campaign means you are saving money on paid clicks. However, in some cases, a successful PPC campaign will pay for itself.
A cheat sheet
Using PPC: You need to use the PPC approach when the promotion is time-sensitive such as in the case of live events, or discounts, or sales seasons for your products and services. PPC is useful while launching a new product or service and when you are looking for maximum exposure. You can profile the brand well in a competitive market by using PPC. It can be used when you are looking to target a specific audience or demographic. When your website is not designed for SEO viz. it doesn’t have blogs etc., you will be required to use PPC. Sometimes you do not have the time for managing the SEO. Here you can opt for PPC.
Using SEO: When you are looking to build a solid foundation for continuous traffic that will not be paid, you need to use the SEO approach. Sometimes when you are looking to develop your DA, Trust Flow, etc., you need to use SEO. SEO is necessary especially when you looking to build an information portal or thought leadership.
The verdict for the comparison between SEO/PPC
After reading all the information above, you may still be looking to decide what approach will be best suitable for your case between SEO & PPC? Keep in mind that most site owners will always work on SEO as their long-term goal that is going to need continuous input. However, using PPC campaigns can also boost SEO. After the proper brand exposure, people are more likely to opt for organic results. If you are offering useful content on your website, it may be shared on other sites and social media. These backlinks are great for SEO. When you are undertaking a PPC campaign ensure that it is being seen by the right audience. Remember, there is a sizable fake market on the internet with crawlers, bots, click farms taking a share of the marketing budget.
For a better understanding of these internet marketing approaches, and if your business lies in Jacksonville, FL area, get in touch with Local SEO Jacksonville. They will help you in defending against shady practices and make sure that your ads are being seen by humans.