SEO vs PCC: What’s the difference?

First, let’s understand the differences between SEO vs PPC (i.e. Search Engine Optimization vs Pay Per Click) results. When Google spits out a search result, we must remember that paid ads appear above organic search results. The former is SEO, which is free but requires a lot of time to get right. The latter (PPC), on the other hand, has to be paid for by the advertiser. Implementing SEO strategies to boost your organic ranking in Google does not cost a penny, but will definitely take time away from your business or enterprise. Businesses need to do some back-end calculations to determine which strategy works best for them. For example, if the business finds that artwork for advertisements never really sells well, he may opt for a strong SEO strategy. On the other hand, if another business sees that it can obtain a strong CPC (Cost Per Click) ratio in her PPC, then the business may choose to go the advertisement route.

Which one works better?

Besides the relatively inexpensive costs associated with SEO, there are a few other benefits. A strong SEO strategy creates an awareness within Google of your company or business. This is a double-edged sword, however. One bad review can remain at the top of your Google rankings for a long time. Conversely, a string of good reviews can bolster user confidence in your product. This confidence builds upon credibility and trust. A small business, has to reply on multiple and repeat customers, meaning that the better their reviews are, the more profits it is likely to generate. In this vein, the business owner sees that its business is climbing up the Google ranks, in which it is already miles ahead of many other sellers in the same industry. That said, to be miles ahead of your competition requires a lot of hard work.

So, what if you don’t have to compete with many others in your industry? Certain industries are hyper-geographically focused. Take wedding photographers for example. Very few wedding photographers are interested in traveling cross-country to cover a wedding. This means that if you are a wedding photographer living in the suburbs of Tulsa, you likely do not have too much competition. Thus, when somebody in Tulsa searches for ‘wedding photographers near me’ or ‘wedding photography in Tulsa’, your page is much more likely to reach the top of Google’s rankings. If this is the case, then wedding photographer should empty a targeted SEO strategy, rather than struggling and paying for PPC. This is one thing you can consider when comparing SEO vs PPC.

If you are looking to employ an SEO strategy, you must take into account that you’ll be competing with giants, such as Amazon and eBay. If you see that your website is consistently ranked lower than these giants, you may need to rethink your strategy (perhaps selling candles on Etsy may do the trick). Some businesses offer a completely unique product. These cannot be found anywhere else other than from a specific company, the business owner does not have to compete with Amazon, eBay or Craigslist. Again, choosing SEO vs PPC depends on your business model.

To test a product, go for PPC!

PPC offers a very targeted audience. Because of this, you are not competing against Amazon or eBay, as they sell everything, but rather against another, very niche market. This extremely targeted audience may be smaller, but much more receptive to paid advertisements in their results, as they searched for just that! Another advantage to PPC is time. Whereas developing website credibility and increasing your Google rank takes a lot of time, developing a paid advertisement may take a day. Using PPC in this manner may be a good way to rapidly increase your exposure online, especially if you are looking to sell products during the holiday season or Valentine’s Day. Again this depends much on your business model. Related to the speed of getting your products online, PPC is a good strategy if an entrepreneur is testing a product to determine how successful it may be. Because you get results relatively quickly, there are multiple ways to test your product to gauge its popularity quickly. If you want to start PPC now, you need to create a Google Ads account.

Here’s another neat thing about PPC, Unlike SEO strategies that pit one website against another, PPC actually has a visual representation of the product you are selling. If you are selling a visually appealing product, PPC may be precisely the strategy for you, especially if it is a unique product. If you are a lumberyard looking to sell 2x4s, a PPC strategy is likely not for you because 2x4s are not visually appealing. However, if your small business designs hand-made penchants, now PPC is a more viable strategy, as these can appear as visually-appealing advertisements on Google. PPC is additionally a good strategy if you are a small business selling many different items. While all candles may look more or less the same, if you are a jeweler with many different types of necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and rings, then you are consistently pumping out new products and product lines. This would render PPC a stronger strategy than SEO because otherwise, user would have to search for very specific keywords to reach your landing page.

When to use both SEO and PPC together?

Using both SEO and PPC is both time-consuming (SEO) and costly (PPC). If the entrepreneur has changes strategies or is looking to get a product off the ground quickly, then an oscillation between PPC for new product, combined with SEO, later on, could be a good idea. Once users begin searching for the product online more frequently, the entrepreneur can remove the paid ads. Then, when there is another product that they wish to sell, they can repeat the process to infinity. Here’s the trick with this strategy: the entrepreneur must switch strategies over and over again. This works if a business is selling different products all the time, or growing at such fast rate that a new product line is in order every few months.

Some people may be tempted to use both SEO and PPC at the same time. This is definitely possible, but, unless you have a very specific reason, it is generally not considered an optimal strategy. Not only does this tactic cost both time and money, your efforts may ultimately cancel each other out. Imagine if a user searches for soy candles online and sees both a website found organically through SEO strategies and an ad for the same product placed there through PPC. It is in the business’s best interest to have the user click on the website and save the cost of clicking through the advertisement, but that’s not a guarantee. Ultimately, having your web page pop up twice for one search cuts the effectiveness of both strategies by half, rendering this combination a sub-optimal solution to online marketing problems.

By now, you should be familiar with the differences between SEO vs PPC, along with having a general idea on what strategy they would be using for their business. There is a second part of SEO that we have purposefully been putting off – branding. I will shortly write an article discussing how branding can develop your SEO strategy over time.

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