SEO VERSUS PPC – THE PROS AND CONS

Search engine optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click advertising (PPC) are popular techniques for driving traffic to your website. The objective of both is to drive traffic to your website via the search engines. Both types of digital marketing need to be considered, then from there you can determine if SEO, PPC, or even both options are best suited to your needs, goal and budget. 

BUT WHICH ONE IS BEST FOR YOU?

Sometimes the response to SEO versus PPC is actually PPC and SEO working together. As a starting point, it is important to understand the concepts and objectives of SEO and PPC.

SEO is the process of getting traffic from “free” or “natural” listings on search engines, such as Google or Bing. Houston SEO is like a marathon, where it takes a long time to see the results of your hard work. Your website is modified or improved so that it appears higher in the organic list of sites.

These lists or rankings are determined by factors such as the popularity of your links and the relevance of your content, but changes will certainly not happen overnight.

Houston PPC advertising allows you to display ads in the sponsored results section of each search engine’s results page, and when you click on that ad, you are charged a fee.

If you want immediate clicks on your website, PPC is a much shorter run – like a short sprint – because you can immediately start appearing on the first page of results.

In Houston, your PPC ranking is determined by the amount of your bid on keywords, the quality score of your ads, and the landing pages that the ads point to. The main factor in choosing between the two is the type of budget you have to work with.

To go into depth on which digital marketing technique is suitable for you, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of SEO versus PPC:

PROS AND CONS OF PPC

BENEFITS OF PPC | Houston SEO Pros

1.   IMMEDIATE OUTCOMES

• If you are launching a website or even a brand new business first, you want to get your new website name known as soon as possible.  Houston PPC works much faster in the short Houston SEO race against PPC, but faster doesn’t always mean long term.
• This is also beneficial if you have promotions or special events that need exposure and cannot be planned months in advance.

2.   YOU ARE IN CONTROL

• With PPC ads, you have control over the page to which the “clicker” is sent.
• By having control over the home page, you are able to ensure that the visitor sees the information most relevant to what your ad was displaying.
• The ads that are displayed are written by you and you are able to test them to see which ad performs best, which landing page is best for visitors, etc.

3.   FLEXIBILITY

• You have the option to choose the keywords you want to bid higher on, how much you want to spend in a day, and even the option to pause your campaign if you’re on a budget.
• You can also set the location of your ads and where you want them to appear.

THE DISADVANTAGES OF PPC 

1.   LIMITED LONG-TERM BENEFITS

• Once the money stops, the ads stop. While you can gain some brand traffic on the go, that unbranded search traffic will disappear completely when the ads stop running.

2.   BAD REPUTATION

• PPC ads look like ads because of an ad tag and are purposely placed where they are found.
• Many people don’t like the ads, refuse to click on them, or frankly have no idea what they are and don’t trust them.

3.   COSTS ADD UP

• Even if you have the ability to control your PPC campaign budget, the costs start to add up and you could end up spending more money than originally planned.
• The traffic to your site with PPC depends entirely on the money you pay there. If the keywords you are targeting are highly competitive, they can be expensive and can exhaust your budget quickly.

PROS AND CONS OF SEO |  Houston SEO Pros

BENEFITS OF SEO

1.   TRUST

• 86% of search engine users say they trust organic search results rather than paid search results. In fact, it has been said that researchers simply get upset with the ads that appear during searches and don’t even think about clicking on them.

2.   LONG-TERM BENEFITS

• Once all the best SEO practices are implemented – like creating quality content, rich in keywords and a strong link profile – the results will exceed your efforts. The ROI for SEO will continue to increase long after the peak of PPC.

3.   RELEVANT AND TARGETED TRAFFIC

• SEO allows the use of “long tail “keywords, which are sentences of three to five words that refine a search term to be more targeted.
• For example, someone who is looking for “wedding cakes” probably just does a little casual browsing or looking for ideas.
• Someone who is looking for a “Wedding Cake Price” is someone who is more advanced in the buying process. With “long tail” keywords comes more relevant traffic.

4.   WEBSITE POWER IMPROVEMENTS

• The main difference when it comes to Houston SEO versus Houston PPC is that with Houston PPC, you pay for visitors, but with advanced Houston SEO, you gain visitors by improving your site and following best practices. It can take a lot of work, but it’s a good thing in the long run because of the improvements to the usability of your site.

DISADVANTAGES OF SEO

1.   CONSTANTLY EVOLVING GOOGLE ALGORITHMS

• One of the main complaints about SEO is that all the work you put to get your website on the first page results could be affected completely if Google publishes new algorithm changes (which they do, at a rate of approximately 1.2 changes per day).

2.   CONTINUOUS MAINTENANCE REQUIRED

• Keyword research, content updates, link building and more are all SEO factors that need to be regularly monitored and updated in order for your site to maintain its ranking or increase it.

3.   TIME LAG

• Compared to instant PPC results, when you compare SEO against PPC, the time lag with SEO can be a waste of time.
• It may take one to three months to see an increase in ranking or traffic. It also depends on the degree of optimization needed to get your site ready for launch.