Are you looking to gain more customers for your business but are not sure which type of online advertising to invest in? Search Engine Optimization and Pay Per Click advertising are both great options to drive more traffic to your website! Although both are effective, they are very different and have distinct benefits & challenges. In this article we will explore both traffic generating avenues and how they can be an asset to your business!
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of increasing your website rankings in the search engines. This is done by creating content, optimizing web pages and back linking to relevant, trustworthy websites.
What are the benefits of SEO?
1. Cheaper investment in the long term
Although expensive in it’s beginning stages, SEO is the most sustainable traffic generation investment. Once a business is ranking for certain keywords, they can enjoy the additional traffic generated for quite a while. This is a significant advantage over pay per click advertising (PPC), as once you stop investing in PPC, your traffic source would immediately stop.
2. Diverse organic traffic that stays
An additional benefit of SEO is that once you begin ranking for specific search terms, your website will start to naturally rank for other unintended search terms as well. This means that your business could be getting customers from a wide variety of sources!
What are the disadvantages of SEO?
1. SEO takes a lot of time to develop
Being one of the most powerful ways to drive traffic to your website, SEO takes a good amount of time to work it’s magic. Search engine optimization involves a lot of different factors that Google uses to rank your website. With all of these different factors, and the billions of different websites Google has to rank, it is no surprise that it takes a long time to begin seeing rank increases within Google. According to a study completed by Ahrefs (leading SEO blog), only 5.7% of pages rank in the top 10 for at least one keyword within a year of publishing.
PPC (Pay Per Click Advertising)
PPC or Pay Per Click advertising is a form of online advertising in which a business pays every time a link of theirs is clicked on Google. This could be a small business wanting to be 1st spot when searched for “Lawyers in Kingston”, and when a potential customer clicks on that ad, the business is charged a fee.
What are the benefits of PPC?
1. PPC allows for instant results
Pay Per Click advertising allows you to get immediate traffic to your website. You can select which search terms you’d like to compete for and Google will send targeted paid traffic to your website. This is great for businesses who need an immediate return on investment when it comes to advertising.
2. Target your ideal customer
Google allows for advanced targeting to better help you find your customers. Pay Per Click advertising gives your business the power to display ads targeting users based on location, demographics and more.
What are the disadvantages of PPC?
1. PPC is expensive and a continuous investment
PPC is a great option to begin generating more customers for your business. However, PPC can be expensive in some industries and requires continuous investment to continue producing results.
So, SEO or PPC for your business?
So, we’ve taken an in-depth look at the advantages and disadvantages of both traffic generating sources, but which one is best for your business? Well, it really depends. Both are fantastic options when it comes to growing your business!
A smart business will utilize both channels in their marketing strategy. As SEO is great for long-term sustainability and PPC is great for short-term, instant results!
