Are you confused on the difference between Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click?
We want to help you understand more easily and be able to decide which one will be more beneficial to your website and your business.
Is one more effective at building an online audience and attracting more visitors/ customers to your website?
Or should you use both?
Truthfully, there is no right or wrong answer.
It all depends on what type of business you have, the industry that you are in, your goals and more importantly your budget and resources.
A quick way to understand the between the two is by doing a quick Google search. Type in small business accountant Coventry and press enter this is what you will see in the results:
How to tell the difference between the two examples.
On the first page the first results all have ‘Ad’, these are Paid Per Click ads that are run through Google Ads, Google’s online advertising platform.
The second set of results will be lower in the page and are always listed below the Ads, they are made up of organic results from SEO efforts. These organic results are generated BY Google based on complex algorithm and hundreds of factors.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation.
It refers to the practice of using content and many other tactics to convince Google that your website is legit, trustworthy , filled with quality, relevant and useful information for people using the search engine. If the SEO is done right then Google rewards your site with a higher spot in the organic search result aka rankings.
Here is an example of a site that does SEO right so that they have ranked at the top of the organic results on Google:
Rankings are important because that is where people look. Some only look at the first page of listings, others may look at page two or three. Hence you want to be listed organically on the first three pages of Google.
There are a hundreds of factors that Google take into consideration before a site makes it high into the rankings. These are just a few things that Google looks for:
- Use of keywords in meta titles and descriptions, as well as H1 tags. This is one of the things that help search engines understand what a website is about.
- Site speed and how long it takes for a page to load for visitors. If it takes too long to load then this could drive visitors away and affect your rankings as a result. You need to make sure that you are on the right type of hosting for your website. Cheap hosting could be detrimental to your site.
- The quality and recency of the content. Keep you website updated regularly.
- The number and quality of sites linking to yours. Search engines interpret these links as trust signals that you are providing quality content, products and services that people are happy to recommend to others.
- Responsive websites that provide a visitor with a great experience regardless of which device they are viewing your site on.
Pros of SEO
All website owners should invest in SEO, not because organic clicks are free but also because it’s a long-term strategy to improve the websites visibility in search engines.
Your website is visible in the search engine results long-term. If done right then rankings and traffic from search engines can remain consistent.
You need to have a great site for visitors to browse through with quality content. Something that will make them come back to your site again and more importantly to recommend to others. PPC can get immediate results by getting visitors to your site but the actual site needs to keep them on your site and more importantly to buy from you.
Cons of SEO
SEO is a long term commitment. A new website can take months to rank especially if you are in a competitive industry.
SEO takes a lot of effort and investment of time into optimising your website.
SEO is an ongoing process. There will always be work to be done. Especially when search engines are changing the algorithms. You need to stay ahead of your competitors.
What is PPC?
PPC stands for Pay Per Click. It refers to paid advertising on search engines like Google.
You create an ad to have your site show up when someone’s running a search for your specific keywords and pay each time a person clicks on the ad.
With SEO you don’t pay when someone clicks on your search result but with PPC ads you do everytime they click on it. This means that you could end up paying hundreds or thousands of pounds every day to get visitors to your website.
Pros of PPC
Fast results. As soon as the ad is live you will start to get the clicks and traffic.
You can target specific customers and run specific ads.
As you are paying for PPC you don’t have to worry about any changes to search engine algorithms. You have the top spot.
Cons of PPC
You have to pay for every click on an ad regardless of whether your visitor buys from you or not.
The click cost can vary especially if you are in a competitive industry with others competing for the top spot, where you will have to pay more.
Traffic from PPC stops as soon as you stop your ad. If this is your only source of traffic to the site then you need to consider SEO for getting long term traffic to your site.
What should I invest in?
There is no right or wrong answer. It depends on your time, resources, goals and more importantly you budget.