SEO vs PPC – Factoring in the Best Suitable Digital Marketing Strategy of the Two

With the immense rise of digital marketing in recent years, there is another term which has seen an increase in popularity and importance as much as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Pay Per Click (PPC). Actually, it is the PPC which is offering a more effective fast track solution over SEO.

However, the SEO cannot be neglected at all, for the various advantages they still persist in isolation. Here, in this story, we will take a look on all the merits and demerits of SEO and PPC, and how to use both of them effectively in you digital marketing solutions.

SEO vs PPC: Major Difference

Both the SEO as well as PPC work with the main aim of increasing the online traffic to your content. The differences basically lie in their approaches. While the organic traffic from SEO is free of cost, that from PPC works on the model of asking cost for every click. However, in recent times, it has been proved that if both the SEO and PPC are worked out together, the results are much more optimal.

Let’s Talk About Merits First

SEO Merits

There are a number of conventional benefits which have been proven by search engine optimization (SEO). Following are the main ones:

1. High visibility – Thanks to SEO, the main targeted keywords related to your content or business are projected much effectively to your targeted customers, which make them well aware about you and your business in general.
2. Brand establishment – The SEO optimized keywords and informational queries which are related to your content or business can make your brand even more renowned among the readers and searchers. This helps in an increase in the popularity of your content and business, and you as a brand.
3. Trust development – If your content or business is projected upon in front of the targeted customer after putting in the relative keyword, it instills a sense of credibility in him/her. And if the content is backed up by suitable reviews and feedback, the trust factor increases even more.
4. Increase in web traffic – With right focus on SEO, the visibility of your content or business becomes higher, which will only increase the number of people checking out the link of it and encourage them to buy that from you.
5. Higher return on investment – As compared to traditional paid media solutions, SEO offers a much higher return on investment (ROI) in general. SEO method might not be cheap or easy, but it is a faster and more cost-effective method over conventional marketing methods in today’s day and age.
6. Better sustainability in long run – Organic traffic created by SEO rarely faces any decline in its pace and magnitude. If efforts are poured consistently, your content or business shows high sustainability.
7. Enhanced click rate – A majority of the customers and readers click on the results or business which seem to be more authentic in nature, which is actually possible by organic listing done by SEO.
8. Increased number of total clicks – Since the organic listing done by SEO gives you more visibility and priority in higher order, the number of clicks in total is increased not only by the ones who always search for it, but also from new people.
9. Enhanced levels of scope – A stronger organic visibility is also responsible for increasing the scope of your business, in even new ventures where you might not want to select for PPC method at all.

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PPC Merits

The pay-to-search model of PPC might not sound like a great idea in front of the tried and tested cost-effective SEO method. However, there are multiple reasons backing the rise in its popularity. Following are the major advantages of going for the PPC model:

1. Much higher visibility and higher position – The number of ads which project on the screen of your device, which are usually three in smartphones and four in desktops, are more in the PPC method. This will make the user think about the paid search ads even more. Also, in addition, PPC helps in making the content or business visible to right targeted audience at the right time. Even if the customer is not willing to buy the product, its visibility to him/her itself will help in paying dividends.
2. Improved options of advertising – Since PPC method focus keenly on advertisements, you have a much clearer control and space for marketing your product. With this, you can provide a clearer picture of your content or business using various options like links to web pages, locations, price page, calls, etc.
3. More focus on visuals – In this digital age, nothing influences more than pictures and videos. The PPC method uses visual shopping ads in the form of pictures and videos, which shows a much elaborative and quick description of the product. This only helps in increasing the click-through rate.
4. Regulated budget – With the PPC, you can have an organized control of how much you want to pay for advertising your product. It has the advantage of having a suitable initial idea of return, which will gradually increase with your will to spend more.
5. Direct targeting – The ads and projection created by PPC method offers a direct and targeted approach to potential customers only, thus attracting the right and required number of customers for your product. This can work on the basis of number of factors such as location, time, day and date, language, etc.
6. Higher speed – The PPC method takes much fewer days to create the required campaign for optimum organic visibility in the online world.
7. Better work on feedback – Since PPC method creates the marketing campaign in a shorter period of time, the feedback on its level of acceptance can also be read faster and more effectively. This is handy when the acceptance of an all new product needs to be tested, which helps in improving it in a more refined manner.
8. Lower cost – If a PPC account is well managed and executed properly, it is actually a much more cost-effective method of projecting your content or business, over the conventional advertising methods. This actually works even better in case of small businesses which are targeting over a small audience or in a small area. 
9. Better stability – The organic search results are usually quite vulnerable to the changes, however, that’s not much in case of PPC method. They do suffer turbulences, but they can be easily managed by making in a few changes.

There are demerits too

SEO Demerits

1. Slow incoming of organic traffic – The keywords which you might be relying on might be exactly similar to the ones by much more popular websites, which have incoming traffic much higher than yours. This will make you rework on your keyword strategy, if you want to have a faster incoming of organic traffic on your website.
2. Developing content assets – For a stronger organic visibility, you might need to have a much higher level of understanding of safe and sustainable building of network of various links related to your business. This might need an expert solution, which adds in cost of your business. However, this actually is a short term demerit, and better understanding of these practices with time can reduce the costs.
3. Unwanted pre-research queries – In initial stages, most of the times, the incoming organic traffic will be more of pre-research queries, rather than the ones who actually want to buy the product. Managing this might not be easy and can be frustrating at times, but better channeling and following a staged approach can encourage them for making purchases at later stages. 

PPC Demerits

1. Initially expensive – If you are new to PPC method of marketing, it is usually expensive at first. The costs can see a significant increase in case you are broadening the customer base, like internationally.
2. Constant investment – Unlike SEO method, PPC actually required consistent investment, no matter how small or large it is. If you stop paying the advertiser, the advertisement goes off air and that leads to stoppage of lead generation as well.
3. Easier to copy – The advertisements generated for you under PPC method can easily be imitated by any other person as well. Each and every content can be imitated, which eventually results in more competition.

Which one to go for – SEO or PPC?

Selecting one between SEO and PPC methods depend entirely on the kind of content or business which is taken into consideration.

If a business is small, it operates over a smaller geographical area, requires lesser number of leads and has little competition to face, relying on SEO is a better idea. However, if the business is large and is taking on directly with bigger e-commerce sites like Flipkart and Amazon, it will surely require larger projection with maximum possible leads and broader network. It is where the PPC method comes into play.

Better to Work Out Together

For an ideal digital marketing solution, it is better to work out both SEO and PPC together. This way the cons of SEO can be taken care of PPC and vice versa. While many smalls-scale businesses might not require this method at all, this surely comes handy in case of businesses which operate on a large scale and demand higher growth and aggressive marketing. The main advantages of working out a marketing strategy involving SEO and PPC together are as follows:

1. The accurate converted and required data and leads generated from PPC can be directly flown in organic search in case of SEO.
2. For keywords which are popular and high-performing, the volume of traffic can be enhanced by targeting clicks in paid.
3. The keywords which are costly and high-volume in general, but low in conversion can be shifted from PPC to SEO.
4. You can test the popularity of a new keyword or product in PPC, and if it works out, you can use it on a long-term basis with SEO strategies in an improved form.
5. The awareness of the product in general is increased when both PPC and SEO are applied together
6. Simultaneous increase in the base of target users, with better assistance in pre-purchase research as well.

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