This is a question we always get asked:
Should you use Pay Per Click (PPC) Marketing or Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with your website?
There’s no definitive answer. However, if you ask most successfull online businesses or entrepreneurs, they’ll tell you to try a combination of both. Getting great on-page SEO for example shouldn’t take too long. Follow the best practices for on page SEO and you won’t go far wrong. The only problem is that search engines can take a long period of time to index your site. Even then you’ve got to worry about how to climb the ranking ladder, which is incredibly difficult, especially when you’re in a competetive industry.
But with PPC you can target searcher intent. You can use action keywords to make sure you deliver the right content, to the right searcher, at the right time! Now that obviously comes at a cost! People new to PPC often make the mistake of setting high budgets using a tiny handful of extremely competetive keywords and get stung. PPC gets people to your site quickly as well! As soon as you’re ads are approved and they start being shown to searchers, you’re going to see increased traffic! As long as your Landing Page is optimised you shouldn’t have a problem converting some of those visitors.
Now. What you’ve got to do is get a combination of both these factors.
The great advantage in the long term is that because your ranking well in the search engines you’re pulling in a lot of organic traffic. Some of which will no doubt convert. However, what you also get is super targeted traffic, which is much more likely to convert. The relationship between these two different forms of traffic is simple. One costs you money the other doesn’t.
SEO can bring massive rewards when done well. Plus the fact, if you’re willing to put in the time and the effort, you can do it yourself, for free. Sure it’s a long road to travel and it’s difficult at times but the long term rewards are undeniable.
PPC can bring you the traffic that makes you money. Due to the targeted nature of PPC ads, you can’t deny the fact that the traffic converts better.
Takeaways from this article:
- SEO is incredibly important regardless of whether you rely on PPC for traffic.
- PPC drives extremely targeted traffic that generally converts better.
- A combination of the two is key to long term success!
