When it comes to differentiating between SEO and PPC, it can be a bit confusing. However, these marketing strategies are quite different fundamentally. Let’s take a look at the difference between SEO and PPC.
What is SEO?
SEO is the practice of creating and uploading content with the intention of improving the visibility of your website to search engines. In other words, SEO will help you show up in relevant searches. SEO makes use of keywords. These are the search terms that users are most likely to include in their search queries when looking for your products or services. Apart from content, SEO also makes use of backlinks and outbound links. Therefore, having other sites linking to you will also help you rank by showing search engines that your site contains relevant information.
You do Not Pay to Rank in Search Results
SEO is very popular among digital marketing services for small business website owners. With SEO, you do not have to pay Google to appear in search results. All you need to do is make changes to your site, and if Google crawls your website and places it above others, you will appear in search results more frequently. You can use tools like Google search console to see how your website content is performing. This is what makes SEO a lucrative option among digital marketing services for small business websites.
What is PPC?
PPC or pay-per-click is an advertising solution that allows businesses to bid for certain keywords and the chance to appear alongside organic searches. As the name suggests, with PPC, you only pay when someone clicks on your advert or calls your business. You can make adjustments to your ads to reach a particular group of people. The main difference between SEO and PPC is the immediacy that PPC offers. With SEO, you’d have to wait for some time for Google to compare your site to others until you can rank. However, PPC will not help you rank in organic searches. You will only appear as long as you pay. If your budget runs out, you will stop appearing alongside search results.
The main advantage of SEO is that it is affordable. Apart from that, its results are long-lasting, and your position in search results is fairly stable. This is why marketers love SEO. For instance, approximately 61% of digital marketing professionals indicated that improving SEO and boosting their organic presence was the biggest concern when it comes to top inbound marketing priorities in 2017. This is what makes SEO one of the most effective digital marketing services for small business owners.
Perhaps the only disadvantage would be how slow it is. On the other hand, with PPC, there is no waiting. As soon as you manage to fund your Google Ads account, you will start showing up alongside search results instantly. Also, PPC is not affected by changes in search engine algorithms.