One of the major premises for websites to gain traffic is search engines. The marketers often use two robust options – search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to gain visibility in search engines.
SEO enhances traffic received from search engines like Google and Bing through strategies like content creation, link building, technical optimization, optimization of web design Frederick MD, etc. In contrast, PPC is an advertising strategy where advertisers pay a predetermined amount every time a visitor clicks on the ad. While SEO strategies offer long-term results, PPC campaigns make instant trails for the businesses to reach the markets.
With two robust options in their hands, marketers face a tough time deciding which one is a more effective technique to generate traffic. If you often face this dilemma, scroll down to find the answer.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO involves strategies that optimize your website to get a high ranking on search engines. With the right SEO strategies, a website becomes more visible to the audience, and more people visit it.
Gaining visitors with this mode is addressed as “organic traffic,” as you do not pay for it.
The marketers use various strategies to enhance the visibility of your website through this approach. Listed below are the components of search engine optimization strategies that most marketers use:
- Using the right keywords or keyphrases
When consumers seek information on the internet, they type some words or phrases in the search engines. These words and phrases are known as keywords.
A robust SEO strategy entails identifying the keywords that the target audience often uses and then strategically placing them in the content posted on the website.
- Creating quality content
After identifying the keywords, the next step is creating relevant content. Creating informative and educative long-form blog posts tends to smoothen the path of getting a higher ranking and building a brand simultaneously.
- Backlinks
Websites linked to reputed websites are often perceived as good by search engines. The websites with quality backlinks often get a better ranking in the search engines.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising entails posting ads in the search engines and paying a fixed fee every time a visitor clicks on the ad. The ads appear in important places in the search engine.
Let’s find out how marketers create an effective PPC campaign:
- Selecting the right keyword
A robust PPC campaign also begins with identifying the right keywords to tap into the target market. While looking for the right keywords and keyphrases, the marketers also take essential variables into account, such as cost-per-click (CPC) and search volume for the potential keywords.
- Bidding
After keyword identification, the next step is getting an edge over the competitors. Businesses do it by outbidding their competitors.
- Optimizing the landing pages
It is one of the most important strategies of a PPC campaign. Which pages the visitors land on determines their consequent step. By optimizing the landing page, businesses tend to guide their visitors to their desired action- such as purchasing their product or service or signing up for their newsletter.
SEO and PPC: The Similarities and the differences
SEO and PPC are two different entities, yet they share many similarities. First and foremost, both approaches aim to bring traffic to a website and generate conversions.
Secondly, both approaches utilize keyword strategies to meet their end goals. The keyword strategy for SEO incorporates finding relevant keywords and using them in titles, content, and technical and on-site elements. On the other hand, PPC uses keywords to bid on.
Talking about their differences, paid advertisements pop up at the top of organic rankings, and advertisers are bound to pay for the site visits, which is not the case with SEO, where traffic is obtained organically by implementing SEO strategies.
Finally, PPC offers instant results, but SEO takes quite some time to offer results. However, the traffic, awareness, and conversions obtained from PPC frizzle out once the campaign ends, whereas the results obtained after a long-term investment in the SEO campaign are more permanent.
SEO and PPC: The combined effects
The indications of SEO and PPC strategies depend on the requirements of the website. While some marketers emphasize the importance of organic traffic, some tend to stick to PPC for getting results almost instantly.
However, the best approach is to use these search engine marketing (SEM) tactics together. Here is how this collaboration works:
- Maximizes SERP coverage
A site that uses PPC advertising appears above the search results. It is the first thing that visitors see on the search engine result page.
When PPC is conjugated with SEO, the website gets an opportunity to cover a large part of the search engine result page, with ads on the top and listing below that.
With this, the impact of the SEM strategy of a website doubles. Moreover, upon seeing the name of the website more than once of the search engine page results, the searches do not doubt the reputation of the company and lay their faith instantly.
This combination proves to be a potent way of directing visitors to the website.
- Optimizes keyword strategy
As you know that SEO and PPC, both these SEM approaches use a robust keyword strategy to dominate the search engines.
Although a very strong strategy, when keyword strategy is used in search engine optimization (SEO), the results take time to manifest. But when used along with the keyword strategy of PPC, results surface immediately.
As PPC campaigns give immediate results, the marketers get to know the keywords and key phrases that work well for the business. They can use the same keywords to optimize the website pages to enhance the visibility and traffic on the website.
Once the SEO team knows the specific terms that their target audience uses the most, they can form an SEO campaign based on them.
Furthermore, once the organic results of the SEO campaign surface, the information can be used to optimize the PPC promotions.
This cycle benefits the website by leaps and bounds.
- Enhanced brand awareness
When a visitor clicks a PPC ad, they are directed to the landing page, which introduces them to the brand and its offerings. From here, even if the visitor abandons the page, they at least are aware about the brand.
This awareness works when they search for similar offerings in the future. On finding the brand in the organic listing, they are more likely to visit the website and even use the services.
The Bottom Line
SEO and PPC are considered vital tools to drive traffic to a website. No matter how large or small an enterprise is, every online business requires these approaches.
SEO and PPC share a symbiotic relationship. They both benefit each other in many ways. And, when used together, their combined impact brings positive results.
