SEO vs PPC : which strategy is better for businesses in 2021?
This seems to be the neverending dilemma that digital marketers across the globe are trying to solve. In a pure sense, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) are very different, but they both serve the same purpose, bringing traffic to the website, which makes them harsh competitors.
Just as the name suggests, SEO aims to improve the rankings of a particular site and drive
organic traffic. SEO itself doesn’t cost any money (not counting hiring someone actually to do it).
Whereas, PPC is paid advertising when each click costs money.
So, for this search, the first result is a result of PPC and the second one is that of SEO. Now that we have established the difference between the two services, let’s shift the focus to their effectiveness, and why and when you should pick which.
SEO Strategy
If you are planning to increase organic traffic through SEO, then be prepared for a time-consuming process and ready to try out different strategies sometimes even simultaneously.
One thing that people tend to misunderstand is ‘SEO service is one time thing’ which is not true.
Google algorithms continuously change throughout the time and these changes can affect your business ranking significantly.
That is where seo experts become a big role here because they need to be creative and ready to adapt to curtain changes in order to improve or maintain organic ranking for websites.
2019 survey about SEO pricing has shown that on average a project-based task costs around $1,001 or more and can reach to as much as $25,001-$50,000.
Is it worth spending that much money on SEO and ranking?
It highly depends on the profile of your work, the field, the competitors, the budget, and so on. Being on the top results on Google, of course, can boost sales, but you’ll need to weigh your options and budget very carefully.
Go for SEO if you need to have your product or service showcased as the top result on search engines. Secondly, consider your time and money. SEO requires multiple approaches, and each of these approaches (projects) will cost you at least $500
PPC Strategy
Paid search has one distinct benefit over SEO – you pay for the result, not just the process. SEO might or might not be successful in generating organic traffic depending on their experiences and how they stay up to date. If you selece you can end up paying for nothing.
On the other hand, PPC charges you per click, so to just put, you are paying for an outcome. Moreover, since Google gets money from the advertisers, it has to offer advantages and one of them is showing the ad in the first place on the results page.
On Google Ads, PPC ads cost between $1 and $2 on the search network. $1 and top position on the results page – sounds tempting, right?
Well, PPC strategy sounds affordable and result oriented. In reality, it can cost a lot more than SEO. Each wrong keyword targeted to the wrong audience costs money, and I can’t tell how many thousands of dollars have been spent on PPC advertising in vain.
Which One to Choose Then?
There is no universal answer to this inquiry. Now you are aware of the perks and downsides of SEO and PPC strategies and the average cost for each. So you should think of your final goal, your budget and of course, the human resources at hand.
SEO is a great long-term plan, and PPC is an irreplaceable option if you need results now and are sure you can find the right keywords and insert them into engaging ad content.
Integral Media – SEO Melbourne & PPC Management Melbourne
Suite 2/149 Chapel St, St Kilda VIC 3182, Australia
+61386781709