Google receives over 8.5 billion searches per day, which is about 100,000 searches per second. This translates to roughly 2 trillion searches per year. And that’s just one search engine, albeit the most popular one in the world with 92% of the search engine market share. Needless to say, your business needs to be visible on search engines to survive. But there are so many strategies you can use to maximize online visibility, which one should you choose?

Let’s take a look at the two most extensively used strategies – search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) marketing. While both come under the broader content marketing umbrella, each has its own goals, advantages and limitations.

SEO and PPC: A Comparison

SEO optimizes content and design for better search engine rankings, enhancing organic traffic over time, while PPC advertising secures immediate visibility by buying ad space for targeted keywords.

Here’s a look at their basic differences.

Content Marketing via SEO PPC Advertising
Goal: Improve a website’s visibility in search results. Goal: Reach customers quickly.
Strategy: Optimize content to rank higher in search results. Strategy: Pay for ads to appear on search result pages.
Benefits: Builds organic traffic, trust, credibility and long-term results. Benefits: Can provide quick results and allow campaign customizations.
Drawbacks: Results take time. Drawbacks: Results are short-lived, and you pay for each click or lead.

While the timeframe for results, expenses involved and strategy are different, the average conversion rate also differs between the two strategies. The average conversion rate for SEO across industries stands at 2.4%, while that for PPC advertising comes in at 1.3%. This is just the tip of the iceberg – the conversion rates vary widely across industries.

Search Engine Optimization Gets Higher Conversions

The elements of the strategy also differ between marketing via SEO and PPC.

Components of Search Engine Optimization Components of PPC Advertising
Keyword research: Targeting words people search for Keyword research: Targeting relevant terms for your target audience
On-page SEO: Creating high-quality content, optimized for relevant keywords Keyword bidding: Setting the maximum you’re willing to pay per click
Off-page SEO: Building backlinks & improving your site’s authority Audience targeting and retargeting: Showing ads to specific audiences
Technical SEO: Ensuring search engines index your content accurately Ad creation: Designing compelling ads to drive clicks

However, remember that to ace search engine optimization, you need to stay abreast of the latest updates to Google’s algorithms. The search giant constantly refines its algorithms to ensure that the search results offer the most relevant and highest quality results.

This brings us to the next important question.

Should You Choose SEO Marketing or PPC Advertising?

One way to decide is to understand what types of businesses would benefit from which strategy.

When to Choose SEO When to Choose PPC
Your budget is limited You need quick results
You’re in it for the long haul You’re launching a new product or service
You want to build authority in your niche You’re promoting an event
Your audience is searching for answers and information You want to drive traffic to specific pages

While the best marketing strategy for a business depends on its goals and objectives, why not get the best of both worlds? Both SEO marketing and PPC advertising have their own strengths but when used together, you get to cover all bases. Here’s how to combine the two for maximum impact:

  1. Promote Your Most Valuable SEO Content
    Maximize visibility and traffic to specific content or pages with PPC ads.
  2. Retarget Organic Users
    Retarget prospects who visited your content via organic search but didn’t convert via PPC.
  3. Dominate Search Results with a Balance of PPC and SEO
    Appear multiple times on SERPs by combining PPC and SEO.
  4. Test SEO Strategies with PPC
    Use PPC ad performance data to gauge user interest and refine your SEO strategy.

Sounds daunting? It doesn’t need to be if you partner with an experienced content marketing agency. With more than two decades of experience building strong foundations of SEO and high-quality content, supported by PPC campaigns, for businesses across industries, Veda Informatics has done it all. Speak to us to learn how we can help your organization cut through the online noise.