Advertising today requires knowledge and finesse. SEO and PPC advertising allow you to boost the amount of traffic your site sees online.
But, which one will be best for you?
Honestly, that depends on your situation and objectives. Let’s dig deeper to see which option would work best for you.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization, also referred to as SEO, is all about using keywords and phrases in order to generate more traffic to your site. Using easy-to-read language with clear, descriptive writing along with words you think your users will be looking up is what SEO is all about.

Your Brand

Visibility is the key factor here, and you can easily build trust and respect in your brand using SEO. Once users begin to associate your brand with having the answers to the questions they are seeking, they will be more likely to simply seek out your website in the future. This gives your authority over your brand and chosen topic.

More Traffic

This is what it is all about, really. SEO provides you with more opportunities to boost your business and drive traffic to your site.

Sustainable

The great thing about SEO is that it is sustainable. Organic traffic is able to sustain your business, even if advertising budgets get cut.

Strategic Move

Slow and steady, but strong if you can get it to take off. SEO builds a base and it means that others cannot simply outbid you with money. This organic approach to generating site traffic provides a steady user base with strong roots.

Opportunity

Even if you are using paid advertising, you are not going to want to pay or advertise everything on your site. Even if using other methods, SEO provides a strong pillar of support.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Paid advertisements are well-known and appear just about everywhere on the internet. With a reach potential like this, PPC ads can bring heavy traffic flow to your site.

High Visibility

With PPC ads, your advertisement could be placed at the top of the page. Either way, users will have to scroll by and see your ads.

Product Listing Ads

If you’re an ecommerce store selling products, Product Listing Ads are highly effective. With PLAs, a much higher click through rate can be expected since it’s a lot more enticing to the visitor to click right on the image of your product right at the top of the search page.

More Features

With PPC ads, you’ll have more space to list your address, pricing, locations, phone number and more. This gives your target customer crucial details to reach you right away instead of leading them to a website where they would still have to explore to find information.

Targeted Ads

PPC ads can be laser-focused onto the exact type of consumer you are wanting to target. Ads can be filtered to show only to those who are more likely to click it based on the things like demographics, language, location, and much more. Targeting those who have visited your site before and even showing them things that they have browsed is also available.

Speed

Using ads reduces the time taken to reach your target audience. This means more clicks, more traffic, and more customers right off the bat in comparison to having to wait for months for your SEO efforts to take off.

SEO vs PPC: The Bottom Line

As you can see, SEO and PPC ads are vastly different from one another, yet they both are able to bring in traffic. The bottom line will come down to what you are selling, who your audience is, and what your competition is like.

If you can stick with it long-term to generate the organic traffic from SEO practices, you will likely build a strong, loyal user base. However, that takes time and for those whose site results are in competition with heavy hitters like Amazon, it might not be a realistic option.

PPC ads are wonderful for quick traffic and connecting with people faster. People do not even have to be looking for your product in order to see it, so it can bring in new users. Targeting specific people based on demographics is one of the best features of PPC ads.

If you are selling anti-aging creams and can easily and quickly advertise to women over the age of 40, you are reaching your target audience and not wasting clicks on those who won’t use your product.