The difference between SEO and PPC is night and day. You can think about the difference like this.
Organic traffic is a gorgeous wildflower that grows when it’s in the sun and when it has water to drink. PPC is a magnificent (and expensive) silk flower that will never wilt.
Both SEO and PPC are ways to practice search engine marketing (SEM); they just approach the same problem from very different angles.
We’ll break those angles down in depth below.
What Is SEO?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the most efficient way to bring traffic to your site. Instead of banner and video ads, SEO focuses on tweaking the content of your site to appeal to Google.
Think back to our flower analogy. By writing blogs, uploading videos and pictures (A.K.A. “theming” your site so that Google sees it as a good, industry-specific resource), you’ll be creating a fertile garden bed for your audience—the flowers—to grow in.
When you’re starting an SEO campaign, keep several things in mind.
Track Your Content Output
Google likes to see your site generating consistent content. You can think of writing blogs, posting pictures, and uploading videos as a weekly reminder to Google that you’re still there and reliable.
Track Your Backlinks
Backlinks are vital. A backlink is generated every time a site with good SEO links to your site with a blog post or a resource page. Collecting more of these links than your competitors means that you’ll rank above them in search results.
What Is PPC Marketing?
Pay Per Click (PPC) is the most reliable way to generate traffic by far. So long as you have a credit card and a halfway decent designer, you can generate conversions for your business.
PPC is a silk flower in a vase on your conference room’s table. So long as you pay for it, PPC will bring you business. Kind of like how a silk flower blooms all year long.
So what do you need to generate reliable PPC conversions?
Strong Creative Direction
If you want to generate as many clicks as possible and fast as possible, you need good brand recognition. To that end, you need to be branding your advertisements and using a ton of creativity to create them.
The faster you can make a customer think “that was cool” or “oh, I’ve heard of that company,” the more likely you are to get a conversion.
Stay Organized
It’s important to know what ads you’re running at all times. Keeping a checklist like this ultimate marketing checklist for small businesses will help you prevent overspending. (Don’t want to forget about those ads you scheduled to run a month ago!)
What Comes First, PPC or SEO?
We generally think you should rely on the most well, reliable, method of generating traffic for your business. Use PPC to appear in search results while you develop the SEO strategies you want to use.
PPC is the first step to create a holistic marketing strategy
How Can You Leverage the Difference Between SEO and PPC to Your Advantage?
Ideally, you should be using a holistic marketing strategy to promote your thriving business.
For example, when your SEO is ready to go, you’ll be able to generate backlinks and more traffic with the PPC you already have running. Transversely, the more visible you are with SEO, the faster someone will click on your PPC ads.
When your two advertising strategies can build off of one another, you’re in the money.
What do you think? What do you think the difference between SEO and PPC is? Do you prefer using SEO or PPC? Let us know!
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