There are several different ways to grow your business online. If you are new to the game, some of those ways may leave you intimidated, wondering where you should invest your time and money. In your research, you have most likely seen words like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC). But, what do they mean? What are they and how can they help grow your business? Both have their positives and negatives, but is one better than the other? 

Let’s look at both. 

Is SEO Better? 

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process whereby you optimize a website to appear as high in the search engine results as possible. A massive part of this process is figuring out what the search engines want and then optimizing your web pages accordingly. 

Pros of SEO: 

1. Organic traffic has staying power. Once you are able to get your website to rank highly in the search engines, chances are good that you will be able to generate consistent traffic.

2. SEO is often a less expensive option than PPC. When you compare the two traffic sources, SEO comes out the winner of the two when looking at traffic generated, as long as you’re looking at the traffic that comes once you have attained high rankings in the search engines.

Negatives of SEO: 

1. SEO takes time. It can take months for your hard work to show any reward. If you don’t have the time to wait for your website and content to rank, then SEO may not be the best option for you.

2. You need unique and quality content. When it comes to content, people want to read the best content available. This can be a lot of work and will require research and a creative mind. If you don’t have these skills yourself, then it will benefit you to hire an expert.

Is PPC Better? 

PPC, or Pay-Per-Click Advertising, is a technique that allows you to advertise in search engines, bringing immediate, targeted traffic to your website.

Pros of PPC: 

1. Quick results. Unlike SEO, where you may have to wait months to see results, it is possible to start getting substantial traffic to your website within a few hours of using an effective PPC campaign. 

2. You can accurately target different demographics. When you use PPC, you will be able to target different types of people. For example, if you want to target a woman in her 30s who lives in the UK and is interested in cooking, you can target her with your ads. SEO does not give you this option. 

3.You can experiment quickly and easily. With PPC, you can set up a campaign and run A/B tests so that you can monitor what works and what doesn’t very quickly. SEO is a slower process, so it will take time to come to any conclusion regarding the success of an SEO technique.

Negatives of PPC: 

1. It can be expensive. If you are in a competitive niche, PPC can be expensive and your return on investment (ROI) may be low while you are figuring out which ads work and which don’t. If you have a low ad spend, you may want to steer clear.

2. Ads can become less effective. Using the same ads with every campaign will result in them becoming stale and less effective. To combat this, mix up the copy and images and refresh the ads to keep them working long-term.

Which is Better for You? 

When it comes to determining whether SEO or PPC is better for your business, the answer would be that it depends. Both marketing strategies are legitimate sources for bringing in traffic.

If you want quicker results, then PPC will be the better option, because SEO will take time to work. For those with a smaller budget, SEO will be the better option, as paid ads can be expensive, especially if you don’t have experience with them. 

You may want to use both SEO and PPC in tandem. When using them together, you can seriously ramp up the amount of traffic that you can get to your website!