PPC vs SEO: Which one is better?

Promotion is a very important element for a brand. It doesn’t matter where you are from, the industry you are in or what your perception of things are, if you want to succeed and really get your brand out there, you need to come up with the right marketing tools to get the best possible results. In that regard, there is always room for comparisons.

When it comes to the world of digital marketing, there are a lot of different tools and elements that you can use for the betterment of your brand’s exposure, but a lot of people don’t know how to contrast and compare for much better results. For example, a lot of people don’t know what PPC and SEO are, let alone how they work and, even less so, how they compare to one another.

This is something that we have decided to address. In this article we are going to cover PPC and SEO, what they do, how they work and how they stack up with one another to determine which one is better. Are you ready? Let’s begin!

What is PPC?

This is a term that you have probably have read and found a lot of times over the years if you have been reading about digital marketing, but perhaps you are not familiar with it. Well, it is important to point out that PPC means “Pay-Per-Click”, which obviously says a lot about how it works, but there is a lot more to it.

PPC is basically a strategy of promotional ads where you get high quality traffic to your website. The interesting part is that it can be done through a lot of different areas, such as banners, searches, videos, social media platforms and a lot more, adding a level of versatility to this particular tool.

It is also worth highlighting that, in the case you decide to go for the choice of searches (which is most commonly associated with Google Ads), then you can start having the opportunity of showing up in searches and you just have to pay, as the name of the process goes, per click, which makes for a much more effective strategy.

What is SEO?

When it comes SEO, it means Search Engine Optimization and is exactly that: the improvement of your search traits so your brand can be highlighted during the internet searches that people do, mainly in platforms such as Google.

In this regard, the use of Search Engine Optimization is not hiring the services of any platform or tool for greater exposure, but rather using certain techniques and strategies to upgrade the visibility of your website in Google searches. This is why this approach has the name that it has.

The strategies usually involve finding out the most used keywords to find the kind of content that you offer, use said keywords and also write shorter paragraphs as it leads to a higher degree of traffic. All of this combined leads to a lot of optimization when it comes to the exposure that your website can get in the process.

While a lot of people don’t have to pay for SEO, there are companies and businesses that offer services and tools that can optimize your content, taking that responsibility off your shoulders, but that mainly depends on your personal preference and what you would rather do in that regard.

PPC vs. SEO

One of the main differences that these two platforms have is the fact that, while SEO can lead to a lot of positive results, the reality that PPC tends to generate a lot more results than organic leads, so that is something worth taking into account. It may require payment, but it does lead to a positive return of investment, at least in this particular regard.

Another obvious difference is the payment, of course, and it does play a big role in these circumstances, whether we like it or not. There are a lot of projects out there that may not have the necessary financial resources to invest in PPC, which is why they tend to use SEO as it is usually free (leaving aside the potential of hiring professionals in that regard).

We also have to point out the time where you start seeing results with both techniques. For example, when it comes to PPC, the results are usually immediate while SEO tends to aim for the medium and long term, so that is another aspect that could be taken into account, although is not uncommon that a lot of brands tend to use both of them to get much better results in different stages of the process.

It is also worth highlighting that it depends a lot on the perspective that the person in question has with his or her brand. There are people that like to build content on a much more organic basis and they tend to prefer SEO because of it–it allows them to grow and evolve in a lot of different ways. However, this doesn’t always guarantee results with SEO and that is something worth taking into account.

Conclusion

The truth of the matter is that there is no better choice between these two. By and large, the vast majority of businesses tend to use both of these techniques because they work a lot better as a combination rather than just one focused strategy. This is something that a lot of people fail to understand and they usually want to pick just one, but the people that know how to carry a business understand the nature of these elements.

Digital marketing is a long, arduous journey, and there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. You need to put in the work and you have to rely on a lot of different tools, techniques and what have you to get the best possible results at short, medium and long term. This is an element that is going to help you through a lot of different stages in your career, so take that into consideration.