WHAT TO CHOOSE: SEO OR PPC SERVICES?

Search engine optimization is an important tool for successful online marketing, as it increases the chances of a website being found by target users. Display advertising allows you to reach potential customers faster, improve brand recognition, and increase sales. Although the second tool provides immediate results, SEO is more reliable in the long term, as its effect does not depend on constant financial investments.

There are many pros and cons to both paid and free promotion in Google search results. The best solution is to wisely combine these methods, considering the opportunities of each method at different stages of business development and depending on the sales funnel.

What will be discussed

• Differences between SEO and advertising
• Using SEO and PPC together and separatelyмо
• Pros and cons of search engine optimization
• Pros and cons of PPC
• Conclusions

Differences between SEO and PPC

SEO is the process of optimizing website pages for ranking in the organic search results of a search engine. With search engine optimization, the visibility of a web resource is improved for search engines and target users, i.e., those who are searching for relevant information online. Regular improvements to website optimization have a positive impact on its search rankings, although changes can occur quite slowly.

One of the key features of SEO is the need for publishing unique and authoritative content. If user queries are related to education, finance, health, or anything a person seeks to improve or solve in their life, it is important for them to obtain reliable information. People want to learn from experts. Google refers to important topics as “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL). The website owner must consistently prove to Google that the resource has the necessary expertise, experience, authority, and reliability (E-E-A-T).

Meanwhile, display advertising is a form of online advertising where advertisers pay for their results. The most common advertising model is PPC. This method of attracting paid traffic involves paying for a click, i.e., for each click on a link in the ad. By the way, while search ads are the most common format, targeting in social media also falls into this category.

Pay-per-click in Google Ads allows companies to display ads in Google search results.

“Using Google Ads, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad to visit your website or call your company. Additionally, you can adjust your ad at any time to reach a specific group of people (by interests, geographic location, etc.) or promote a specific offer or product. This flexibility can be an excellent resource for small businesses that cannot frequently update their websites to reflect sales, promotions, or seasonal offers”. “Key PPC vs. SEO take-aways”. Google Ads

Google Ads also allows promoting your business beyond Google search, displaying ads on relevant websites in the display network, which consists of thousands of various sites. Advertisers can select specific sites to run display ads or target users with specific characteristics.

It seems that PPC is the perfect format for attracting potential clients for any business, but there is an important nuance. The longer the advertising campaigns run, the less effective they become. People see the ads too often, and the novelty effect is lost. To avoid “ad blindness,” it’s essential to constantly update existing ads (headline, text, images, etc.).

The ranking process in PPC and SEO differs. Display ads appear at the top of the search results. SEO results appear lower, and only pages with the best SEO characteristics among competitors are displayed on the first page. While paid ads are ranked based on relevance, budget, and the quality of the landing page, SEO results are ranked based on over 200 factors.

In 80% of cases, website owners use search engine optimization, so competition is very high. In contrast, only 20% of cases involve paid, direct promotion. However, at the beginning of online business promotion, it is very difficult to do without PPC. Media advertising brings traffic to the site, creating a flow of visitors and leads, even if the website is new and its visibility in search engines is minimal. After all, it can take about 4 months for a web resource to enter the “sandbox”.

So, while the website prepares for organic traffic growth, advertising brings in the first leads, allows you to recover investments in website creation, and immediately assess the effectiveness of managers’ work. For older websites, PPC successfully drives traffic to promotions or loyalty programs, where immediacy of results and real-time statistics are needed. The list of key differences between SEO and advertising can be illustrated in a table.

SEO	PPC
To get the first results, you need to wait at least 2-3 months. Tracking the dynamics of promotion will take even more time, sometimes a year.	You can talk about the effectiveness of advertising on the day it is launched, making changes to improve results — within a day.
The content relevance to the target audience’s queries may be moderate.	Targeting ensures reaching the target audience. However, you need to ensure that not only the ads but also the landing pages are relevant.
Internal SEO requires website owners to work on pages and their technical improvement over a long period. Changes need to be revisited constantly because search engine algorithms are updated.	Landing pages are only changed to improve conversion. However, the state of the site and its content does not significantly impact promotion, and it does not interfere with attracting paid traffic since the advertiser pays for clicks.
The economic efficiency of the method attracts business owners. SEO requires resources and investments, but compared to PPC, it is considered a free promotion method. To create optimized content, you can hire a copywriter and publish articles independently.	To achieve good results, you need to regularly replenish the advertising budget. Moreover, to set up and optimize campaigns, you will need to hire a specialist or an agency. Without constant analytics, the money spent on clicks may not return.
SEO is distinguished by versatility. The method is used at various stages of the sales funnel and is suitable for increasing brand awareness and “warming up” the audience with useful informational articles.	PPC is suitable for lead generation and quick sales. If used for other purposes, such as introducing the audience to the brand and increasing loyalty, the advertising will not be cost-effective.

Next, we will look at the different aspects of paid and free promotion separately and in combination. If your goal is to quickly attract traffic to the website in the short term, you can focus on PPC. For long-term expansion of business presence online, choose SEO. However, the best approach is to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy that includes both.

Using SEO and PPC Together and Separately

Like most experts, we do not recommend choosing between SEO and PPC. It’s much better to combine these methods, sometimes alternating them, and in some cases, applying them together.

PPC influences SEO because, thanks to the precise and detailed statistics of Google Analytics, advertisers can identify valuable keywords. These can then be confidently used to increase organic traffic by inserting them into articles. In any case, the process should start with keyword research. Only PPC allows you to analyze the queries of the target audience and determine which ones are better moved to SEO due to their cost. This usually happens with keywords that do not have a commercial intent or are aimed at users at the beginning of the “customer” journey.

With a single article containing well-chosen keyword phrases and properly created meta tags, you can rise in the ranking for dozens of keywords. Google advertising ads target only one query, but it will be fast and likely to bring not just page visitors, but target leads.

It is important to align organic search results with ads. Often, PPC ads do not align with organic search results, especially with informational comparative queries that arise in the middle of the buyer’s journey. At this stage, potential customers are not yet ready to buy, they are looking for the best solution and enter corresponding queries, such as “types of coffee machines”.

Organic search results are filled with comparative articles, reviews, including in video format. In contrast, ads are focused on just one product. A user who is considering multiple options and wants to learn more about the characteristics of different products might click on the paid ad and leave the page without completing the target action.

However, if a visitor to the site reads a useful article on choosing coffee machines in the online store’s blog and then follows an internal link to the product catalog, this brings them closer to making a purchase, and such a transition will be free and beneficial for the website owner. This is how internal linking works, which is an important part of internal SEO.

In various selection articles, comparative reviews, you often see advertisements. These external links are directed at interested users and improve the ranking of the site they lead to.

When searching for information on a commercial keyword query, for example, “buy coffee machine for home”, a lot of ads appear at the top of the search results. Typically, users who use the word “buy” in their query are ready to make a choice and pay for the product.

SEO and PPC should be launched together. This is explained by several reasons.

• Keyword data can be used in organic search. For example, expensive or low-conversion keywords can be moved from PPC to organic search.
• Geographical regions with weak SEO coverage can be covered with PPC.
• Remarketing, where allowed, reminds the brand to those who have already visited the site after finding it through organic search.
• These two tools can be used to varying degrees depending on business seasonality. This could be the temporary use of Media ads during sales and promotions or when launching a new product that is not well known in the market.

Before moving to long-term SEO strategies, test your keyword strategy with PPC services. Focus on users at all stages of customer interaction, from search and comparison to consultation and purchase, using informational and commercial keywords in SEO and exclusively commercial ones in PPC.

Pros and Cons of Search Engine Optimization

Website promotion using SEO is not just about filling it with optimized text content. While quality articles play an important role both in ranking pages and in behavioral factors, website optimization is a multi-step process that usually includes four different areas.

1. Keyword Research. First, you need to understand what potential customers are searching for and what information is most valuable to them.
2. On-page Optimization. At this stage, substantial work is done, such as creating unique optimized content. In addition to text, images, tables, infographics, and videos (depending on the industry) are also required.
3. Off-page (External) Optimization. To increase trust and form authority, it’s important to publish on other popular and reliable websites that are related to your business. Articles should have links to your website pages: these links are one of the three main ranking factors for Google.
4. Technical SEO. To ensure that search engines can see, crawl, and index the content, a number of actions must be taken, including adding an XML Sitemap, creating a system of internal links between pages, ensuring proper mobile adaptation, etc.

SEO is suitable for all websites, and without technical optimization, a website won’t be indexed by search engines at all. For online stores and other multi-level websites, this is a great tool for budget promotion, as even after fully filling all the pages, you can continuously update the blog. Informational articles bring new visitors, improving site metrics while stimulating sales.

Website optimization as a tool for business promotion online has many advantages.

• There is no need to pay for organic traffic, and much of the work can be done by yourself. Even hiring an SEO agency is much cheaper than PPC.
• Website optimization provides long-term results. You won’t only avoid penalties from Google, but you’ll also ensure high rankings in the future without the risk of competitors overtaking your site as often happens with advertising.
• This tool targets every part of the sales funnel, meaning it can be applied at every stage of customer interaction. Consumers use Google at every stage of their buying journey. SEO is especially active at early stages of brand awareness, comparing products, etc.
• High brand recognition and trust. The more often a brand appears on Google, the more consumers trust it. You can focus on content marketing and turn your website into a constantly updated source of valuable information.
• A significant number of users skip ads due to ad blindness. They trust organic results and snippets without the “ad” label more.
• Versatility is another important advantage of SEO. Organic search results are very diverse — they include articles, maps, videos, images, platforms, and catalogs, etc.
• Related to the previous point, SEO has the ability to improve the reputation of a company or personal brand. Search results include reviews from multiple sources. Having good reviews on independent resources increases potential customer loyalty.
• And of course, increasing website traffic allows you to attract more potential clients and explain to them why they should buy from you.

SEO is not simple, this tool also requires investment of money and, especially, time. However, this method of promotion is an essential component of an effective marketing strategy for ensuring brand recognition and attracting relevant traffic to the site. Yes, you will need to constantly invest in creating optimized and high-quality content, but there’s no payment for each impression or click.

The strategic advantage is that your competitors won’t simply be able to buy their way into the search rankings if your site has already achieved certain positions. However, SEO has its drawbacks.

• SEO efforts do not provide instant results. It may take about a year to see the first results. During a certain period, traffic may not grow, and it may feel like nothing is happening.
• To continue competing with popular brands, you can’t take long breaks between posts. Periodically, you should update existing articles according to current keyword requirements and follow Google’s recommendations regarding technical SEO and external optimization.
• Even if you do everything correctly, competition in search results can be very high.
• Advertising ads always dominate because they are at the top of the search results. If the user still considers making a purchase, they are likely to click on the link that appears higher in the results.
• In many search results, large companies (Amazon, eBay, etc.) and just popular brands among the target audience dominate. The most successful market players invest a lot of resources into both expensive and budget-friendly promotion methods.
• Creating optimized, unique, and useful content can be quite a challenging task. Often, small business owners take on writing content themselves and spend valuable time doing it, without getting results due to mistakes made.

If you are serious about SEO, be aware of search algorithm changes. Otherwise, you risk spending a lot of effort on tasks that bring little to no benefit. SEO tools are useful, but their use requires some experience.

Pros and Cons of PPC

Advertising in Google Ads guarantees the business owner that their site will be seen by the target audience. The quality of leads and the volume of costs are influenced by various factors, including the thorough selection of keywords and the correct approach to creating ads. However, statistics allow you to accurately track how many people clicked the link.

The preparation of PPC, like SEO, includes several stages.

1. Keyword Research. It was mentioned earlier that the keywords for PPC advertising can be slightly different from those used for organic promotion. Most of these are commercial queries, such as those including the words “buy”, “place an order”, “sign up”.
2. Setting Bids. The advertiser decides how much they are willing to pay for each click.
3. Creating Ads. The more relevant the ad is, the higher its rating from Google, meaning the cost per click will be lower.
4. Audience Targeting. You can set targeting based on location, gender, age, interests, device type, and more.

PPC is a unique digital marketing tool that allows you to see results the same day it is applied. Additionally, advertising has many other advantages.

• Display ads occupy the top, most visible positions in search results. You can include your company’s phone number and other important data.
• Google allows you to display ads with product images.

• The wide range of settings also increases PPC effectiveness. For example, Google’s adaptive search ads have different variations of titles and descriptions, and thanks to split testing, targeting accuracy is maximized.
• A large number of targeted clicks are ensured by the fact that most ads are targeted only at commercial keywords. Ads can be targeted by time of day, day of the week, and many other parameters.
• PPC statistics are transparent and detailed, so it’s easy to determine which ads attract users the most, which keywords bring the most traffic, and which landing pages convert visitors into leads. This simplifies campaign optimization and reduces promotion costs.
• Paid promotion algorithms are more stable compared to organic ones. The ability to continuously analyze search query reports helps eliminate unwanted search queries.

Although PPC is considered an expensive advertising model, it allows you to control your budget. The advertiser can clearly define the amount they are willing to spend on ads each day and set this limit in their advertising account.

Paid promotion on Google has some drawbacks.

• A significant marketing budget is required. The cost per click depends on various factors, including the industry. For example, in legal and medical fields, the cost increases.
• Money must be spent constantly; only then can positions be maintained, and targeted traffic continuously attracted. However, when combined properly with SEO, PPC services can be used intermittently rather than on an ongoing basis.
• Setting up, analyzing, and optimizing advertising campaigns requires many skills and knowledge. Most of the time, achieving good results requires the help of a PPC agency.
• To maintain high click-through rates, ads should be updated regularly. New ads and landing pages need to be tested to continuously stimulate sales.

Track ad results from different geographic locations. Ads, like localized organic results, can vary depending on where the user is located. You can manually generate reports on impressions from different locations or use specialized ranking tracking tools.

Since results are often high only within a certain distance from the advertiser’s location, once again, a combined SEO and PPC approach will be beneficial.

FAQ Answers

Conclusions

SEO and PPC are website promotion tools that share a common goal. Both methods aim at increasing targeted traffic. However, while SEO is considered a long-term, cost-effective method, PPC requires significant investment and can quickly boost sales.

Sometimes these tools are used separately. For example, a new website requires technical SEO and basic optimization, and only after that can paid methods be used.

SEO is suitable for almost everyone, especially those selling popular and in-demand products. Organic traffic growth is not very fast, and this must be taken into account in the marketing strategy development process.

PPC is a quick way to show your site to the target audience. This method is not mandatory for a web resource. It is suitable for attracting attention to a brand or specific event or promotion. It is actively used by advertisers who need to quickly increase sales or promote a new and already optimized web resource to a wide audience. Advertising also helps in testing different business hypotheses regarding new products and services.

The best approach is combining SEO and PPC. With this comprehensive approach, you can control costs and clearly understand which keywords bring not just random visitors, but customers to your company’s site.