SEO and Paid Search are considered the two pillars of digital marketing. They both are responsible for nearly 68% of all website traffic, which is significantly high. That is why businesses rely on these two tactics to help them reach their target audience. There are many similarities between Search Engine Optimization and Paid Per Click, and many digital marketing strategist work together to improve their campaigns. However, the two marketing strategies are fundamentally different in a few important ways. For instance, when SEO is done correctly, it creates a lasting presence on the web, whereas PPC is a short-term solution. If you have a new product or service that you want to promote, paid ads may be the way to go, since you can target potential customers right when they’re searching for your product or service.
If you have an established business, however, you may want to invest the time and money into SEO to build up your website’s presence and increase brand awareness. PPC ads are more expensive than SEO, but it also delivers results more quickly. This is why it’s important to determine which strategy is right for your business prior to investing in either one.
When deciding whether to use SEO or PPC, you should consider the following:
- How much time and money are you willing to invest?
- How much traffic are you trying to drive to your website?
- What is your ultimate goal?
- How much do you want to grow your business?
If you can answer these questions, you’ll be able to choose the right strategy for your business. However, SEO and Paid Search both have their own sets of strengths and limitations. If you want to be an effective marketer, you should know exactly when to apply either method correctly under optimal conditions.
Best Time to Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
As many as 92% of Americans use a search engine as their homepage which reflects the importance of SEO for businesses. How many times have you heard someone say “Google It”? However, you should know the right circumstances to attain maximum benefits from the users:
When You Require Consistent Results
A lot of businesses employ search engine optimization (SEO) as an alternative to advertising their business online. Search engine optimization (SEO) is an ongoing process and it generally takes months – even years – to succeed.
These are the main reasons why a lot of businesses give up on SEO too soon:
- With SEO, you have to be ready to put in the time and effort. The benefit is that, once you get to the top, your website will be visited by people with all kinds of interests and needs who are ready to make a purchase.
- SEO seems boring. In fact, SEO is not boring at all. It actually requires a lot of creativity and an open mind when it comes to questioning, learning, experimenting, analyzing data and then coming up with solutions for an exponential growth in traffic.
SemGeeks recommends utilizing SEO techniques for long-term, consistent results. The best time to use SEO is when you require steady traffic from search engines. It’s also a good idea to use SEO when what you offer is highly unique and competitive.
When You Want to Build Authority to your Site
For companies that are trying to rank high in relevant search engines to catch the attention of the target customers, the SEO content marketing is a perfect choice. For instance, if you are opening a new e-shop and want to generate leads and sales through it, SEO is the best strategy to use.
There are two primary reasons for this. With SEO you can quickly build authority and reputation which is the key to delight your visitors with a relevant content. Additionally, establishing your presence as an expert in your niche helps you to get backlinks from authoritative third-party websites. Such sites are an established resource center for a particular niche. As they require sustainable traffic to the pages to build up a reputation, SEO works perfectly. The more you write useful articles, the more people will link to them and the higher your chances will be to rank high on search results.
When You Wish to Enhance the Value of Your Website
SEO is highly effective in increasing the valuation of a website. All the main contributing factors – the amount of traffic generated, consistency of traffic generated, page rank, search engine rankings over time, link popularity, etc. – fall in the realm of SEO.
SemGeeks knows that when your business or brand needs a consistent flow of leads, SEO is a powerful tool with great return over time. If you want to rank well in search engines, SemGeeks can help make that happen. Contact us for more information.
Best Time to Use Pay Per Click (PPC)
Paid Search Campaigns are another effective tool that involves Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing. Semgeeks is a Digital Marketing Agency in New Jersey and we have been helping businesses of all sizes to build successful Digital Marketing Campaigns.
Semgeeks offer advanced PPC services providing you the tools, measurement & reporting required to take your website to the next level. With our years of experience in PPC management, your SEM campaigns will be handled by highly experienced professionals who have managed projects for some of the biggest brands in the world.
Here are some situations when PPC works best for businesses:
When You Want Immediate Results
PPC usually delivers instant results. That is why it works perfectly with product launches, squeeze pages, joint venture projects, seasonal promotions, CPA marketing and affiliate marketing that involve high converting offers, analogous online business campaigns, and event-focused marketing.
PPC is an ad placement model that allows you to reach your target audience based on their search terms and keywords. It is specifically important for e-commerce sites where it is responsible for a majority of the sales. It is also a well-known fact that PPC offers quick turnaround time, lower costs for each sale, and these features are more important to businesses online than ever before.
When You Want Highly Targeted Traffic
Unlike SEO, this kind of marketing tactic can be used to better filter your prospects based on their demographic data. Some PPC platforms (such as social media websites) allow you to promote to the age range, gender, income bracket, education level, and even marital status of the audience that will view your ad.
When You Are Promoting a Time-Sensitive Offer
In some cases of marketing products, services, or events, you work with an expiration date and the long gestation period of SEO campaigns offers belated results. In such conditions, the expedience of PPC marketing works perfectly.
SEMrush analyzed over 200,000 campaigns to find out the best time to start your next PPC campaign. Here are the results!
To find the best time to start your next PPC campaign, SEMrush analyzed over 200,000 campaigns across Pay-Per-Click (PPC) networks in Q3, 2018. The analysis shows that the best time to start a new search campaign is between 8AM and 9AM on Monday morning, since over 70% of all clicks arrive during this period.
When You Want To Dominate Your Specific Keyword Category
Google processes more than 3.5 billion searches per day. However, PPC results appear above the organic search results. So, with this tool, you can expect that almost 50% of the search traffic will go to the top 3 sponsored links.
The question, then, becomes: How can you make sure you’re in the top 3 sponsored links?
Well, the key is to use PPC strategically. You should conduct your PPC campaigns when you want to your target keywords. And in today’s digital marketing, most online marketers now know that it is better to zero in on a particular keyword category. Why? Because if your keyword category is one of the top keywords being searched for, then that means you’re more likely to get higher rankings from search engine results.
Semgeeks Digital Marketing It is also vital that you monitor the performance of your campaigns regularly to ensure that your investment is worth it. With Semgeeks Digital Marketing Services, we can help you in ensuring that all your PPC campaigns run smoothly; especially when it comes to tracking performance and optimizing campaign goals.
As mentioned earlier, both SEO and Paid Search have their own merits and disadvantages. So, you should not necessarily think in terms of SEO vs. Paid Search. You can create an integrated strategy while optimizing both to increase visibility, drive traffic and provide an overall better experience. SEO and Paid Search can actually complement each other in your digital marketing strategy. With the right SEO strategy in place, SEMs can be combined to improve the overall campaign performance. Optimized SEO results can lead to greater visibility and become more cost-effective. It is good to know how each work individually, but knowing how they can be combined can also be beneficial for you. Contact Semgeeks today for a free business audit to determine how we can help you with your SEO or PPC Campaigns.
