According to a study by Jupiter Research, a part of Forrester Research, 81% users find what they are looking for via a search engine. And, there are two routes via a search engine to reach your desired destination, Pay Per Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The key difference between the two is that while SEO or the organic means to get traffic to your website is free, PPC isn’t, you need to pay for each time a visitor clicks on your advertisement to reach your website.
So, will SEO bring more benefits for your website or should you prefer PPC? According to an article on MOZ, organic search results are likely to be clicked on 8.5 times more than paid results. On the other hand, paid results are 1.5 times more likely to lead to conversion than organic results. Both PPC and SEO are an integral part of search engine marketing (SEM) and if done right, both can get your website to the first page of the search engine results for specific keywords. However, each has its own pros and cons. Here’s a look.
Search Engine Rankings
If you look at the search results page of any popular search engine, you will find PPC ads placed first, followed by the organic results, and PPC ads again at the bottom of the page. So, if you do have a PPC ad, where it is placed (above or below the organic results) will depend on various factors, such as the keywords being targeted, the keywords present in the ad, keywords on your landing page, etc.
On the other hand, organic results form the main content of the page, and where your link appears among these results will depend on how well your website is optimized, both for onsite and offsite SEO. So, while you can get your PPC ad on the first page of the SERPs by paying more in terms of cost per click, appearing on the first SERP via SEO requires work to optimize your website in the best possible way.
Driving Traffic
Regardless of what we use for our SEM campaigns, the primary aim is always to drive traffic to the website, with conversions being the next aim. The fact is that SEO will drive more traffic than PPC, especially if your site ranks high on the SERPs. This is because users trust organic results more than paid ones and tend to click on the results from the first page, with only a very small percentage checking later pages.
Studies have revealed that if your website ranks among the first 5 results, you are likely to see 24×7 traffic to your site. However, it is quite difficult to get to the first page of the SERPs. And, if you find yourself on the second or third page, it would help to start a PPC campaign.
Cost
SEO traffic might be monetarily free, but it does cost you in time and effort. Competition is intense and growing fiercer all the time. The best keywords also see a lot of competition, which means you need to work very hard to create a high quality website and then use an effective SEO strategy to rank well. Your best option would be to hire a skilled and experienced professional to do this work for you.
The cost of PPC, on the other hand, depends on various factors, such as the level of competition for the keywords you wish to use, the number of similar websites that are looking to position ads with the same keyword, etc. Even with the support of Google Adwords, all these factors will influence where your ad is placed. At least you pay on when your ad is clicked and not simply to have it shown to the target audience.
Impact on Conversion
A well-thought out PPC campaign will get clicks only from people who are interested in your offerings. Therefore, the conversion rate from PPC tends to be higher than for SEO. On the whole, PPC shows much quicker results, while SEO is a long-term strategy that will have great results if done well, although you might not see its impact immediately.
A Combination of Both
With both PPC and SEO having their own advantages, a successful SEM strategy should ideally include both. One will bring you rapid results, while the other will build your brand in a way that people remember it the next time they are looking for things that you offer. Ultimately, the choice will depend on your specific needs and your budget.