Which Strategy Is Perfect For You: Organic SEO or Pay Per Click (PPC)?

Both SEO & PPC are part of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) which is one of the important tools you can use as a part of your overall internet marketing campaign. We love snappy digital marketing terms. But we only love them when they do something great for your business. The SEO vs PPC debate has been going on for years. A general question among our clients is, ‘Should I do organic SEO for my site or rely on PPC‘? In short, the answer is both. You need more than luck to succeed in the affiliate business.

As you may have doubts, we also have a long answer… But wait! Don’t give up yet. We promise that it’s not boring or technical, not even so long. So, let’s start! If you’re already an expert & don’t need to know what SEO & PPC is, go straight to the next part which will help you decide which method to choose to complement your marketing strategy.

First & foremost, organic website traffic is the equivalent of Google with great word of mouth in digital form. This is the process of optimizing your site & content to contain relevant & adjuvant information that your clients will search for. Google-bots reward you by boosting your content & pages higher up the page ranks, but only if they find their algorithms that are relevant & helpful to their clients.

This system is called search engine optimization & when done correctly, it will increase the organic traffic to your website which simply means more people clicking on your list in Google search results. SEO is great for small budgets, which requires time & effort. This process is as much about recognizing your customers as it is totally about finding keywords. We discuss here minutely how you can be sure that you’re getting high-quality organic traffic.

On the other hand, paid search marketing allows businesses to display their ads within the sponsored listings of a search engine, generally Google. The searches we provide here are commonly referred to as PPC or pay per click, as it is one of the most paid search forms. It just means that a Google Ads partner advertising in the Google search or display network pays a particular amount each time an ad is clicked. CPM (cost per thousand views) is another example of paid search marketing.

PPC results can be instantaneous. With approval, you’ll be able to see your ad at the very top search results. The great position in Google search results comes with a price tag, which not every business can afford. Also, remember that your listing will disappear in the thin air as soon as your ad promotion stops!

SEO Vs PPC

Now It’s Time To Figure Out Which One Is Right for You

Now you know the difference between organic traffic & paid traffic and you’re able to make an appropriate decision. Here is some main factor which you must need to consider:

Traffic Potential:

If you’re an SEO sorcerer & manage to take a position in the top-ranked page on the organic Google search results, you’re maybe guaranteed 24/7  traffic flow; on the contrary, paid ads only drive page visits for as long as your campaign is up & running. PPC may get you more clicks in the short-term (as the survey says) but you’ll end up paying more out of pocket too.

Every business owner’s dream is the notorious page one ranking on Google. But alas! there is no secret sauce to top it off. It is just hard work & more often than not, needs significant financial investment. If your niche’s keywords are dominated by authority pages, it may be wise to invest your budget in PPC campaigns.

Our Suggestion:

Keyword research software like Google’s Keyword Research Tool will give you an estimated competition level for your keywords, along with the average CPCs & help you to make an enlightened decision. So take advantage of the incredible software available to you!

Get A Proper Idea About Cost factor:

Probably you have heard rumors that SEO is free of cost! Let’s know something more about this so-called affirmation. Of course, you don’t have to pay any upfront for organic website traffic, but getting the ‘free’ traffic from Google involves hard work. We all know that time is money & vice versa. There are no shortcuts if you plan to outrank your contender. Among other factors, your PPC campaign’s cost depends on the popularity of the keywords you’re competing for & on how many advertisers are bidding on those keywords.

If you’re concerned paid ads will break your bank, don’t be afraid. You can set a daily budget in advance & have complete control over your spending. Google ads are working hard to make things easier for you, but using PPC is a bit complicated. An unimpeded way to confirm long term success is to hire an SEO expert. Fortunately, we have some of them in our group. We’re glad to help you with your Google Ads campaigns; after all, that’s what we do best!

This is worth investing in paid ads, as it grants you to actively test website variables that can improve conversion rates thanks to the data produced by your Google Ads campaign. SEO efforts are always very much dependent on algorithm updates. In just a few ways, optimized websites can lose ranking in a matter of seconds as soon as the algorithms change. Spending money on paid ads is a superb way to confirm a steady stream of traffic.

Our suggestion:

If you are just starting out & working on a low budget, you may stick with the organic SEO method. Though, remember that you can set your PPC spending limit as high or low as you can afford. Generally, we recommend starting with a minimum daily budget of $10.

Chance To Convert:

After a long discussion, one vital question arises i.e., which visitor is more likely to convert, one looking for your site through PPC or organic SEO? The answer is quite straightforward. If you do a great job promoting your Google ads, the traffic coming from a PPC ad is more likely to convert.

Highly targeted & optimized ads assure that someone presented with it is looking for what you have to offer. Whereas your website can rank for various types of keywords & a user coming across your organic listing, may not be searching for a particular product or service on offer.

Take a look at what your competitors are!

The Industry benchmarks will give you an idea of how much you should spend. How high the CPC is, immensely depends on the services or products you’re selling. The average CPC for accountants e.g., is $5.16, whereas healthcare professionals pay about $2.31 on average per click. If you’re in the insurance sector, the average CPC(cost-per-click) for the ‘car insurances’ keyword can be billed at up to $28.52- a perfectly significant cost factor when considering the profitability of Google Ads promotion.

Our Suggestion:

If you have to expand your budget, relying on SEO can be a wise choice.

Our Expert Guidance

Now, for example, let your product be a wheel. The wheel has been spinning for a long time & many wheels have been creating optimized website content since the discovery of the internet. How are you going to differentiate your wheel in a crowded market? Aren’t people searching for a ‘new wheel with a difference’? or are they? We don’t know, it’s just an instance.

This is the perfect situation where Google Ads & PPC come in.

Regardless of whether you’re an old or new wheel dealer, your organic SEO is still going to take time. AdWords & PPC advertising is the most effective way to quickly track the process of getting your wheel in front of the web’s wheel buyers. Yes, it’s paid advertising; however, you only pay each time someone clicks on your ad. Then it’s totally up to your website & your wondrous wheel to deliver the answer your customer was clicking for.

At the end of the day, it won’t be either one or the other. A combined SEO & PPC strategy is a hefty force that will help you to expand your business & increase your sales. If you’re a small business that wants to target location-based keywords, you’ll be able to make your site visible locally through a PPC campaign. Gaining the same results with SEO alone is a more tough task (but possible). The initial step would be claiming ownership of your business with the help of Google My Business & then optimize your account. But remember, if the content of your website is bad, you’ll most likely end up wasting money on ads that don’t convert.

So, start with SEO then try your luck with PPC campaigns, or better, let us support you!

SSMD Piloto is a group of creative strategists, search engine marketers, copywriters & technologists. From us, you can expect appropriate skills & measurable results. Our goal is very simple: consult, create, and convert. Through close collaboration, accountability & complete transparency, Anchor brings together the forces that determine the journey of your digital brand. From the ground up, we’re your yokefellow in a climb.