With a multitude of
marketing services and “gurus” popping up everywhere, it can be tough to decide which marketing strategies to budget for. Most people recognize the value in
search engine marketing but may not have a clue to what that means and how to go about showing up in search. First a few definitions:
- SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is everything involved in making a website show up in search engines as an organic search result. Below is a screenshot that highlights organic search results in google.
- PPC stands for pay per click and is just another term for search engine advertising or paid advertising through sites like google, bing, and yahoo. Below is a screenshot that highlights where the paid ads are on google.
So now that you know what the difference is between SEO and PPC, which strategies should you use? There is no simple or universal answer considering
creative marketing strategies vary from company to company.
Why SEO? SEO typically delivers a higher return on investment than PPC and also is trusted more by most searchers. SEO can take several months to start seeing results but will pay for itself over and over as first page rankings are achieved.
Why PPC? PPC works on a bidding system where companies basically pay more to show up higher on the search engine pages. PPC is especially useful to gain valuable exposure on search engines before SEO has had time to ripen. Also, with really competitive keywords, PPC is a solution that will give you the chance to compete with big names when SEO is really competitive.
Typically, the best option is to choose the perfect hybrid between SEO and PPC services depending on how competitive your niche is. Many times SEO can completely replace PPC in the long run once top rankings have been achieved.
