There is a lot of controversy over whether businesses should use SEO (search engine optimization) or PPC (pay-per-click advertising) to gain traffic toward their website. The answer to this depends on what kind of results the company or organization needs. Both SEO and PPC have their benefits as well as downfalls. After reading through some of the pros and cons you can decide for yourself which will be the best solution for you.
PPC ads are the sponsored links and purchased ads that you will find on a google search. If you are looking for immediate results PPC is the way to go as they generate traffic to your page right away. However, these results are very expensive and short-lived. In 2015, the average small business spent about $9,000 to $10,000 per month and over $100,000 per year on their paid search campaigns. If you are going to be using highly competitive keywords you can expect the cost-per-click to be much higher as they are the most often searched keywords. Let’s say the cost does fit your budget, you will also be required to update information such as keywords constantly in order to keep generating traffic. Thus, PPC ads are best for campaigns that will not need long-lasting traffic. Another thing to think about when it comes to PPC ads is that they are open to competitive manipulation, meaning competitors can quickly use up a daily budget to stop your ads from appearing. SEO is not susceptible to manipulation from competitors.
Consumers generally do not appreciate being constantly advertised to and consequently they are less likely to click on an ad when they are on a search engine. They also tend to believe that the best companies will be among the top results on the organic search results list and rarely scroll past the first page. Therefore, it is imperative for businesses to have an SEO plan in order to get to the top of the results.
SEO is basically how your website naturally ranks organically on a search engine such as Google or Bing. High organic rankings will come with a considerable effort. You will not rank number 1 overnight, it may even take 2 to 6 months, but if you want long lasting results that effort will be worth it. Because of the amount of time and work this will take you should think about hiring a reputable company to tackle your SEO rankings for you so that you can worry about what you do best.
It has been found that 81% of search engine users find what they are searching for through a search engine and 70% of users report visiting organic listings daily. Every one of these users looks at the first, second, and third organic listings while less than half look at the PPC top listings. It has also been cited that 85% of total clicks are results from organic links. This evidence shows that organic results are trusted more by users. In fact, many people have stated that they avoid and/or do not trust PPC results.
Deciding between SEO and PPC largely depends on your marketing goals and the amount of time you wish to achieve them. If you are going for quick and quantity for a short period of time and do not mind the cost go for PPC ads. If you are looking for long-lasting, and quality results you will want to use SEO.
