Online Business Marketing: SEO Or PPC?

What is Search Engine Optimization and Pay-Per-Click?

SEO 101: Comprehending The Meaning Of SEO

Search engine optimization or SEO is a broad term that is used to describe optimization techniques and strategies that are applied to websites in order to rank higher on the search engine results. There are 2 ways to get ranked on the front page of the search engine results.

In order to rank on the front page, you can either pay to be on the front page or do it organically. SEO techniques centers around ranking high on the search engine results organically.

Any rankings that are obtained organically are unpaid instead, organic rankings are decided by the search engine algorithms. The rank of a web page will be decided based on the content posted on a particular keyword (How significant and appropriate the content is).

With that being said, although SEO helps a website improve in rankings organically. SEO is however not free. Mastering SEO would require a tremendous amount of time invested. As implementing an effective SEO strategy requires good understanding and good analytical skills on key metrics, which is learned through years of experience.

Alternatively, you could look to hire SEO agencies to optimize your website’s SEO for you. Either way, both methods require a significant amount of investment (money or time).

SEO is not only meant to be utilized in Google search engine but it also works for other search engines as well (Bing, Yahoo). As the internet is now an integral part of our lives, where the internet is used for various reasons from researching a product to finding a restaurant. Having a good SEO for your website has also increased in importance in terms of long term online awareness and market share.

Having good SEO in place would create both short term and long term value online. Creating sales conversions in the short term and in the long term strengthening one’s brand name and brand awareness.

The main distinction between SEO and PPC lies in the fact that with SEO there is no need to make any payments to the search engine provider in order to rank high up in the search engine results.

Types Of SEO

There are two general types of SEO. On-page SEO and Off-page SEO.

1.On-Page SEO

On-page SEO also referred to as On-site SEO involves SEO techniques that are used to optimize web pages for both search engines (readability) and audiences (engagement). In return ranking high on the search engine results for a specific search term.

On-page Elements to look into to better optimize web pages:

• Semantic HTML
• User Interface Design
• Keyword Research
• Metadata
• Website Crawlerbility and Indexability
• High-Quality URL Description

Optimizing these elements will definitely improve your web page rankings in the search engine.

2.Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO also referred to as off-site SEO involves SEO techniques that look into external factors (Off the website) which influence a website’s ranking in the search engine. These factors are not influenced by on-page SEO techniques.

A strategy that is mainly used in off-page SEO is something that is referred to as link building. Link building involves building credible external links that would direct users to your website. The higher the number of external links that are directed to a particular website the more authority the website would gain, which will help in boosting the website’s ranking in the search engine.

Obtaining credible external links can be done through,

• Web Directories
• Bookmarking
• Social Media Sharing

Other elements that assist with off-page SEO:

• Influencers Shoutout
• Guest Writing
• Social Media Marketing

Pay-Per-Click (Google Adwords) 101: Understand PPC

PPC is an acronym for pay-per-click. PPC is a marketing strategy that involves paying for an advertisement space in the search engine in hopes to increase a website’s number of visitors and exposure.

This marketing strategy is exactly the opposite of SEO which involves organically increasing a website’s visitors.

Typically outsourcing PPC management is run through Google Adwords as it is a well known and widely used digital marketing platform. Through Google Adwords, users have the ability to bid for Google’s advertising space.

Users are able to appear between the top 1 – 4 position on the front page of a Google search result depending on the particular keyword that is bid on. Whenever a Google search engine user searches a specific keyword, Google would give priority to Google Adword users. Placing them at the top of the search result.

However, advertisements that are displayed do not solely rely on the amount of bids that the business/marketers are willing to pay. Although it is an important factor that is considered by Google, there are other factors that are involved as well. On top of the maximum amount a business is willing to pay, Google also considers the advertisement copy, the relevancy of the advertisement to the keywords that are bid on and the quality of the squeeze page.

Note that: Google will only take the minimal amount required to outbid your competitor. Plus for each click that you get from the advertisement, a fee will be charged.

In comparison to ranking organically, organic rankings are more cost-efficient and paid advertisement may seem unnecessary. However, it is important to note that ranking on the front page of a search engine result organically is so much harder to accomplish. Additionally, statistics have shown that the number of clicks on Google Adwords advertisement is much higher in comparison, with a ratio of 2:1.

Essentially, this means that 64% of the Google search engine users click on advertisements when they are looking to make a purchase.

In order to run a good advertising campaign through the use of Google Adwords. It is important to understand the limits of your advertising cost, ensuring that the maximum amount you are willing to pay for the advertisement does not result in a loss.

To illustrate this let’s say that you are looking to sell a digital product that has a price tag of $20 with a profit margin of $15. Based on previous data you know that you have a sales conversion rate of 1% (every 100 visitors = 1 purchase). This shows that the maximum amount you can bid in order to make a profit of $1 is $0.15 for every click (you can adjust depending on the preferred profit margin).

As seen, in the illustration above by understanding the limits of how much you can spend on advertisements. Necessary adjustments can be made to ensure that you are able to achieve the amount of profitability that is desired.

Should I Utilize SEO OR PPC OR Both In My Marketing Strategy

The Ideal Marketing Strategy

Ideally, you want to utilize both SEO and PPC as part of your marketing strategy or at least consider both. Although it is ideal to use both, there are also other aspects that are needed to be taken into consideration. The main concern here is whether you have the resources to utilize both SEO and PPC as part of your overall marketing strategy.

With that being said, by using both digital marketing strategies you are basically able to use them to cover each other’s weaknesses. As both SEO and PPC have their own pros and cons.

With PPC businesses are able to generate immediate feedback. Plus advertising on Adwords can be very cost-efficient which gives businesses the ability to generate results immediately. Similarly, SEO is a marketing strategy that is cost-efficient as well but takes a slightly longer time to generate similar results.

Ranking high on the search engine results organically takes time. With the use of PPC, you are able to neutralize that and immediately rank on the front page. Collecting immediate feedback for adjustments or generating short term revenue and the data that are collected can also be used to make improvements on your SEO strategy.

On the other hand, it costs money to run an Adword campaign. Over the long run, once your SEO improves and multiple web pages are ranked high on the search engine results, additional revenue would be generated (Lowering overall advertising costs).

Advantages of Digital Marketing: Digital Marketing Vs Traditional Marketing

There is no method of measuring the value of running an advertising campaign through traditional marketing platforms (TV, Billboards, Radio, etc). Traditional marketing is only useful when you are trying to increase awareness.

As there is no accurate way to actually scrutinize each advertising campaign to better understand the RO I(Return on investment).

In contrast digital marketing (SEO and PPC) provides you with metrics that supply you with relevant data (real-time), that are readily available to be analyzed. On top of that, digital marketing also provides insights into the visitors’ behavior and actions.

Especially with PPC, as with SEO, it takes a longer amount of time to collect enough data before the data are relevant enough to be analyzed.

Another primary advantage of digital marketing in comparison to traditional marketing is that with digital marketing the marketers have the ability to specifically target relevant customers (i.e demographic, age, gender). Plus, if the visitors do not convert the first time you have the ability to retarget your advertising campaign.

In contrast, traditional marketing does not have the capability to specifically target a specific market. Every advertising campaign is marketed to the masses in hopes that the advertisement would reach the intended customer.

For illustration purposes consider a person who is specifically looking for an advertising agency that does SEO. Through digital marketing, you are able to reach out to that person directly but through traditional marketing, the person has to come across a specific billboard or newspaper to be aware of the fact that you are providing SEO services.

The Bluelight Marketing agency has more than 5 years of experience in Google Ads marketing and over 100+ successful campaigns under management, book a free consultation today and learn how we can help you.