An effective digital marketing plan should have all of its components working together for your company’s advantage, as a business owner. Before deciding to spend time & money on paid advertisements, you would want to know whether it could help improve your website rankings.

Like any other business owner, it could be difficult for you to get initial customers which goes equally about finding the right equilibrium between the marketing effort’s expenditures, maintenance, and results. Typically, businesses resort to organic search as well as pay-per-click (PPC) ads which would be beneficial to attract adequate traffic to your website. But which tools & techniques would be best for you? Should you focus on PPC optimization, SEO, or both? Keep reading to find out more!

Organic SEO

Organic SEO is the practice of employing white hat SEO tactics to enhance traffic to your website while boosting your site’s visibility in non-paid search engine listings. Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the method aimed at enhancing a website’s technical setup, content relevancy, and popularity via links to ensure its pages are more accessible, pertinent for user queries, and popular with users, ultimately leading to a boost in the website ranking among search engines. For instance, customers use search engines like Google to find out the best places of entertainment like picnic spots, eateries, cafes, and malls, etc. in the city.

SEO experts optimize websites, web pages, and content for organic search results, improving appearance, positioning, and usefulness. This includes web pages, video media, images, and local business listings.

Pros of SEO

1. SEO tools offer cost-effective nature, scalable compared to PPC, driving traffic and ensuring zero clicks.
2. SEO targets different funnel stages by creating content types like blog posts, guides, and case studies, attracting visitors to different stages, and improving conversions.
3. SEO and PPC marketing provide stable search traffic, with SEO predicting free traffic and PPC marketing stopping when the budget dries up.
4. Organic listings improve brand authority by consistently appearing in search results, fostering trust with the target audience.

Cons of SEO

1. Search engine algorithms change from time to time requiring marketing strategies to be altered as per the evolving algorithms for optimal organic results in marketing.
2. Regularly optimize the website for target keywords for success, refreshing old articles and removing expired links.
3. SEO results may take weeks due to factors affecting Google rankings and website establishment.
4. Quality content and SEO strategy optimize search engines, generating revenue and understanding audience goals.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

PPC, also referred to as pay-per-click advertising, is a type of search engine marketing (SEM) in this system, businesses only have to pay when customers respond to their advertisements. PPC advertisements which come with a deadline aid companies in remaining competitive in overcrowded marketplaces by showing search ads next to organic search results which an advertiser pays a publisher (such as Google or Facebook) for each time an ad is clicked. The cost of PPC ads may vary depending on the industry and the keyword volume. It allows businesses to rank organically on search engines by drawing customers who are eager to take advantage of your offer.

Pros of PPC

1. Although the implementation of SEO techniques may take months to yield results, PPC ads may be effective to show quick results in a shorter period (even a few hours.)
2. PPC ads in a PPC campaign target keywords, ensuring the website’s first organic ranking on the search engine results page.
3. PPC campaign enables targeting specific audiences, allowing targeting based on geographic area, age, marital status, or interest using targeted ads.
4. PPC campaign allows A/B tests on Google ads, allowing simultaneous testing of ad elements and performance. Users can decide to kill Google ads or continue optimization for better results.

Cons of PPC

1. PPC campaign is expensive-Without money, as it requires paying for audience clicks, causing traffic to dwindle and reaching often higher sums in competitive industries.
2. PPC campaign leads to lower profit margins, as it’s a “pay to play” system, resulting in higher customer acquisition costs without significant price increases.
3. PPC ads become stale due to Google’s rules, limiting control over paid ads, and causing similar wording to competitors.

SEO vs. PPC – Which is better?

Now, when it is established that there are equal benefits of organic search as well as PPC. But, instead of picking between SEO and PPC, why not use them in combination to your advantage? It should be emphasized that there could be some situations where one channel may make more sense than the other which have been explained below-

1. Innovative Product- Organic traffic for a disruptive company like Amazon requires targeting relevant topics. Though, social media PPC and SEO could help to create brand awareness, organic search through SEO would be an apt choice for a product or niche that is not yet searched for.
2. New Product Launch/ One-time Offers- Are you preparing for a product launch or promoting a one-time event? Since SEO may take longer, your event may be over before you start ranking. Hence, in this case, you may consider PPC relevant.
3. Informational Keywords- Generally speaking, keywords are where people are looking to learn, not buy, and are poor candidates for PPC focused on keywords like “how to cook a recipe” as few people convert into customers. Instead of running advertisements on such concepts, offer content because readers are more inclined to learn than purchase.
4. Promote commercial content- People typically do not wish to connect to promotional material like landing pages or product pages. So, if you wish to get immediate results consider implementing PPC as it allows you to attract traffic to your website.
5. Lower/non-existent budget- Since early start-ups run on tight marketing budgets, it would be a good idea to start with SEO and content marketing to build brand awareness and drive traffic toward the audience.

Interdependence of Organic Search on PPC

We love SEO and PPC in combinations like peanut butter and jelly, even if some people will debate the merits of each strategy until the Internet is no more. Even though they might be employed independently they function so much more effectively together. Here are some examples of how you can mix SEO and PPC for the betterment of your business-

Keyword Research

Tracking organic rankings for PPC keywords helps in keyword research and understanding search intent. By analyzing both organic and paid results, agencies can identify gaps and opportunities for SEO and PPC campaigns. For example, “electrician near me ” has high organic results but few paid ads, suggesting it’s not very competitive. However, “24-hour servicing in New Delhi” has lower organic competition but more paid ads, making it a competitive and expensive keyword for PPC.

Improved Click-Through Rates

SEO tracking can improve click-through rates for PPC ad keywords, as organic listings tend to receive more clicks than paid ads. SEO and SEM reporting tools can help assess the implicit Google approval for both paid and organic positions.

Increased Digital Footprint

A paid ad and organic listing on the first page of Google increase the total SERP real estate, increasing click-through rates and brand presence. With ten organic results on the first page, a paid ad accounts for roughly 10% of the total real estate. Adding an organic listing can double a client’s SERP footprint and enhancing results like “people also ask” can triple their ownership of the critical first page.

Budget Management

Budget management is a key benefit of tracking organic rankings for PPC keywords. By reducing clients spend on competitive keywords, organic SEO proposals improve ROAS and CPC, adjust ad scheduling, and target geographic areas.

Create retargeting ads

Have you noticed any user who visits the website who might have checked the price or the checkout page, but didn’t make any purchase at last? Even after such users have justify your website, with the help of SEO & PPC, you could easily utilize a retargeting technique to persuade them to return to complete a transaction.

Use social media

Although you want your material to rise in the rankings naturally yet can give it a rapid boost by advertising it through social media. In addition to assisting in the spread of content, these forms of marketing may also be able to assist you in obtaining crucial backlinks that will improve your rankings. Additionally, after spending hours writing your most recent blogging post, guide, report, or case study, it would be regrettable not to share it.

Gather data for SEO

PPC advertising campaigns offer you access to a wealth of information, including keyword search volumes, keywords for which competitors are tendering, call-to-call action with the best conversion, etc. With all of this data at your disposal, you should be able to develop stronger SEO tactics with less work.

Key Takeaways

Though online marketing strategies like SEO & PPC could drive traffic to websites, businesses should carefully consider evaluating their strategies and integrate them to get the best possible results.