Whether search engine optimization (SEO) or pay-per-click (PPC) produces the highest return on investment is hotly debated by the digital marketing community. There are pros and cons of both traffic generating models; however, the efficacy will vary depending on your business, site age and keyword intent.
Typically, SEO is considered to be an inexpensive form of generating traffic compared to PPC. Although SEO requires consistent effort to see positive results and can be much more time consuming compared to PPC which produces instant results. In this blog I intend on putting a stop to the perpetual SEO vs PPC debate.
Advantages and Disadvantages of SEO
Over the past decade SEO has become a popular strategy among all sort of companies specifically, startups. This is primarily due to the fact that SEO is cost effective and allows your website the opportunity to rank higher on the search engine result page. This is notable as organic search results are known to have a significantly higher clickthrough rate than paid search and accounts for a larger percentage of total web traffic (53%).
A requirement of an effective SEO strategy is to produce engaging content that builds trust with your audience and organically produces backlinks; producing such content can be a time-consuming process and can take months for positive results to be visible.
Pros of SEO
- Done right, SEO can rank your website higher on the search engine result page allowing for an increase in the number of impressions and traffic your site earns; simultaneously leading to exponential growth to your business.
- Unlike PPC, a well optimized SEO strategy can generate a return on investment for years and can be more profitable in the long run than PPC.
- Dominating organic search; specifically, the first page helps build trust among your customers/site traffic, as they know that Google views your website as an authoritative source.
- An SEO campaign ensures that your website is mobile friendly, which is more important than ever as more queries are done on mobile and Google prioritises mobile first indexing.
Cons of SEO
- Not surprisingly the primary disadvantage of SEO is the amount of time it takes to see positive results.
- Algorithmic change can hinder growth and the continuation of a particular strategy.
- SEO can’t guarantee first page results, which is important to note as 75% of searchers never scroll pass the first page of results.
When to choose SEO?
Search engine optimization is an appropriate method of generating site traffic for all webmasters and businesses; for as long as neither are under any time constraints where results are expected to be produced in a short time frame.
It is recommended that resources are allocated towards SEO as soon as possible; as a means of accommodating for the average 6-month time delay it takes to show results. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll get results.
Advantages and Disadvantages of PPC
If you own an ecommerce website investing within PPC may be a great strategy to promote your product and services. By targeting keywords exhibiting high commercial intent your business can increase it conversion rate in addition to only having to pay for the service (PPC) once the searcher has clicked on your advertisement.
Pros of PPC
- The biggest advantage of PPC is the fact that it provides immediate results, you can be at the top of the results in as little as a day.
- You only pay after a customer has clicked on the ad. Considering that web traffic typically only clicks on advertisement if they intend on making a purchase; PPC can be very buyer oriented if the quality of the content/landing page meet their standard.
- PPC has less of a learning curve than SEO.
- Split testing is much easier in PPC compared to SEO; all that is necessary is that you create two ad campaigns and assess which has the highest CTR.
Cons of PPC
- The biggest disadvantage of PPC is that it requires constant investment to see positive results. It can be very costly and the financial barrier to entry may be difficult for many startups to reach.
- Paid search accounts for a much smaller percentage of total search volume than organic search.
- PPC campaigns are susceptible to click fraud. Considering that webmasters have to pay for every click they receive on an advertisement, malicious third-party actors can take advantage of Google’s difficulty in distinguishing between real searchers/interested parties and bots/fraudulent actors.
When to choose PPC?
Pay-per-click advertising is a great means of generating site traffic as long as you have the budget.
Final Thoughts
It important to develop an integrated marketing strategy that includes both SEO and PPC, as it increases the potential space your website can cover on the search engine result page (SERP). Formulating a plan that includes both SEO and PPC will typically produce a larger ROI and aid in achieving both long- and short-term business goals