A Comparative Look On SEO Vs PPC Advertising: Which Is Right

Published on May 24th, 2019

Two major web marketing strategies most commonly used in the internet business are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising. A question that is often asked in SEO vs PPC debate is which is better for you.

You can pay for traffic using the PPC advertising programs provided by Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing and others. Alternatively, you can build traffic for free by achieving high rankings in the natural search results through SEO.

Paid search ads are highly targeted: PPC visitors are 50% more likely to purchase something than organic visitors.

On the other hand, what goes in the favor of SEO is the fact that an astounding number of over one billion searches are performed on the internet every single day and more than half of these concentrate only on the first three results.

If done correctly, both can get you on the front page of the search engines for targeted keywords in front of your targeted audience.

What is SEO?
What is PPC?
Which is better, SEO or PPC?
What are the advantages of SEO and PPC?
What are the disadvantages of SEO and PPC?

1. What Is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process employed by webmasters and web developers to increase the number of visitors to a particular website. This is achieved through a skilled method of providing a higher ranking in the search results of a specific search engine.

It follows that the higher ranking a website has in the results of a search, the more browsers will visit the website.

SEO restructures the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) content on a certain web page to make it more visible and relevant to search engines.

It involves a thorough rewriting of content and code plus using relevant keywords to emphasize the vital business goals. This is essential since the search engine will look for important elements in the website before it will be given a high search ranking.

2. What Is PPC?

Pay-Per-Click is an advertising option which employs buying website traffic from a particular search engine. This is a form of website advertisement wherein website administrators pay the agreed amount based on the number of times the website is selected or clicked from a list of search results.

The advertisers only pay for users that click on the list and visit the website, thereby, generating hit to the site. PPC is ideal to generate instant hits on the website without the concern of SEO. Nevertheless, if not properly managed, PPC may be costly and may not provide efficient results.

3. Which Is Better, SEO Or PPC?

Using SEO along with PPC is a great option to create greater traffic to your website. Employing both will maximize the SEO and PPC advantages while minimizing their disadvantages.

4. What Are The Advantages Of SEO And PPC?

Search Engine Optimization:

SEO provides credibility for a particular website. Research has proven that site browsers prefer to visit a site that has earned its ranking rather than those that have paid their ranks.
SEO is less costly and its rate decreases over time.
Using search engine’s perspectives in optimizing a particular website usually gains better search results.
A well optimized website is more likely to appear in a number of search engines without the burden of extra cost.
A higher rank website will get better and better results with continuous optimizing.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising:

PPC is great for gaining instant visitors to a particular website.
It ensures a targeted traffic on the specific search terms on search engines.
You only pay for every hit that your site generates from a search engine.
It offers a complete control of the keywords to use and their number.
It provides control over the amount to bid on a specific keyword.
Offers the advantage of testing new keywords/text copy/bid caps that can be easily employed
Provides control on the text to be included in the listing.