You want to go up against the competition, but you don’t know how. Maybe you don’t have a million-dollar advertising budget or a full-time marketing staff.
So what do you do?
The answer lies in SEO and PPC, two powerful methods of attracting visitors to your business. But what’s the difference between SEO and PPC?
Knowing how each method works is crucial to your business’ success. Here’s what SEO and PPC are – and why you need them.
The Difference Between SEO and PPC
The main difference between SEO and PPC is right there in the name: SEO is search engine optimization, while PPC is pay-per-click.
But what does that mean, exactly? Both PPC and SEO are a form of search engine marketing (SEM).
SEO involves enhancing your website to gain greater visibility on search engines.
One of the benefits of SEO is that it creates organic traffic. That’s traffic that naturally occurs from visits who conduct internet searches. This traffic is essentially free.
Of course, you may have to pay someone to help with your SEO. SEO website optimization is a process via which an SEO specialist ensures your site shows up in SERP (search engine results pages).
The better your SERP ranking, the more likely your website will show up earlier in a search engine’s results. Showing up on page one or two of the results will get you much more traction than showing up on page ten or fifteen.
PPC is paid advertising. PPC advertising is where you pay a publisher for each click someone makes on your ad. This ad could be on Google or social media sites like Facebook.
PPC is more costly than SEO. There’s no guarantee that each click will result in a sale – the visitor simply clicks and navigates to your page.
However, that’s not to say that PPC is bad. One of the PPC benefits is that it offers quicker results than SEO.
You can also pinpoint a specific audience with PPC. A PPC campaign allows you to target specific audiences, including age range, marital status, interests, and geographic region.
You can also run A/B testing, or split testing. A/B testing lets you show visitors two versions of a page, allowing you to test which version is more popular.
Which SEM Method Is Right for Me
So now that you know the difference between SEO and PPC, you may be wondering which is better? The answer to that depends on what goals you are trying to accomplish, how soon you are trying to accomplish them, and your budget.
SEO offers long-term, sustainable growth. It takes time to build credibility, but it can give a greater ROI over paid advertising.
PPC offers quicker, better-targeted results. However, there is a cost associated with it.
Looking for more relevant tips and tricks? Check out the rest of our site, including our SEO and marketing sections.
