Which Should I Choose – SEO or PPC?
So, you have a WordPress website. It looks good, it’s user-friendly, and the people who visit it tend to make a purchase or sign up for your services. There’s just one little problem: your traffic is low. How do you spread the news about your company to people who have never heard of it—people outside of your immediate area?
There are two big players in the world of digital marketing that can help give your WordPress site a major boost: SEO and PPC. Here, we’ll lay out the basics of each strategy.
What is SEO, and how can it help my website?
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” Put simply, it’s the art of making a webpage or website as search-engine friendly as possible. The easier your website is for search engines to crawl, the higher it will appear in search results, and the more eyes will see what your business has to offer.
The most common way of optimizing a website for SEO is creating blog posts and landing pages that contain popular keywords related to your industry, a process called Content Marketing. SEO experts can also insert links, alt text, meta descriptions, and photo descriptions into your pages to further boost your site in the eyes of search engines. If this is all Greek to you, don’t worry—that’s what we’re here for!
What is PPC, and how can it help generate leads?
PPC, or Pay-Per-Click advertising, is a more direct approach to placing your site in front of your target market. PPC, or “Pay Per Click” advertising, is when a company pays a search engine like Google to display its ad as the very first search result. You know those sponsored ads that appear at the top of almost every Google results page? That’s PPC. Here’s how it works: every time your ad is clicked and a visitor is redirected to your site, you pay the search engine a small fee. You may pay .10, .20, or even .50 cents for that click. But if it results in a $100 sale, your PPC investment just paid for itself, and then some.
I have a new website! Should I choose PPC or SEO?
Both SEO and PPC offer tremendous advantages. Ideally, they should both be used together as part of an integrated digital marketing strategy. However, if your budget constraints force you to choose, think about what you would like to accomplish. PPC is preferred by many new businesses because it’s fast. A PPC ad generates clicks and views almost the moment the ad is activated. It’s a great way to give your brand a big boost very quickly.
On the other hand, PPC ads can get very expensive if they don’t convert (meaning, if you get a lot of viewers and no sales). It’s also important for your brand to build a strong, solid web presence, not only to achieve higher search engine rankings, but to be perceived by your target as the leading authority in your industry. For that reason, don’t knock SEO. It may take a little longer to see results, but it’s more cost-effective and generally yields better-quality leads. In fact, many users have subconsciously trained themselves to ignore “paid results” entirely when browsing the web or searching on Google.
Long story short: think of SEO as being a strong, strategic approach to online branding and marketing, and Pay Per Click as a tactical, fast response to factors like declining sales.
Affordable Greensboro SEO and PPC services
If you’re ready to launch your SEO and/or PPC campaigns today, contact WebRealSimple. We’ll sit down with you, have a conversation, and work to truly understand your business. Then, we’ll build a solid digital marketing plan that maximizes your investment and grows your brand. You can check out our work here, and once you’ve browsed around, give us a call today.