SEO vs PPC: Where do you spend your money?
Everyone uses the Internet to search for information. In fact there were 1.2 trillion searches on Google in 2012! But if you have a website that doesn’t have valuable content and isn’t searchable, it has no authority or relevant meaning for search engines or indeed your customers. So what do you do, ‘cross your fingers and hope for the best’?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing can drive the traffic to your website. But Search Engine Humanisation (SEH) can ensure you attract ‘profitable’ visitors that will buy what they want, when they want it. To achieve this, organisations should take time to understand the psychology of an ideal customer – what makes them ‘click’ and buy your product online.
What is SEO?
Businesses are all too aware that if their website is ranked higher in a search engine for a specific search, they have a better chance of bringing traffic or visitors to it. Many sites find that SEO brings them approximately 70% of their traffic. This can be the ideal mix for SMEs, start-ups or even big brands who have limited marketing budgets.
But if you focus entirely on ranking high and generating large volumes of traffic you may well be missing the point – it’s far from job done. It’s a quick-fix SEO approach. You need to attract ‘traffic’ that will buy your services and tell their friends to buy too!
What is PPC?
PPC advertising is a way for websites to appear in prominent positions on search engine results pages by paying the engine to display their results. It’s a fast way to put your product or service in front of people who are ready to click and buy now. You only pay for those who click on your ad and visit your website. However, many might argue that PPC is a pushy, expensive mass marketing approach to generating too few sales.
As an alternative option, you can pay for your online advertising on a cost per action (CPA) basis, where you only pay for the number of viewers who buy your product as a direct result of your advert.
What is Search Engine Humanisation?
SEO and PPC can work together in harmony but not in isolation of Search Engine Humanisation ‘SEH’. SEO and PPC search goals and principles are the same and they share similar advantages and disadvantages. However, SEH can give you that ‘yellow brick road’ route to pinpointing your target audience more cost-effectively.
SEH is about taking time to really understand your ideal customer. Put the effort in and you’ll attract the right type of quality visitor again and again over the long-term.
Make it your responsibility to take time to identify what problems customers need to solve, what words they are searching, how profitable they are and whether they are likely to offer repeat business. Knowing this type of information will improve your conversion rates and increase sales. It’s a back to basics approach to understanding and satisfying customer needs. Good old fashioned marketing.
What next for SEO vs PPC?
Building long-term relationships with your customers through search and creating unique content adds value to the Internet. It’s not just identifying the right keywords it’s about the right visitors. This adds value to Google results and your potential to convert new business. So whether you opt for SEO or PPC, both can help improve the rank of your pages only if coupled with SEH. Optimised pages attract visitors and new customers and they can promote and build brand loyalty to ultimately sell your products.
SEH doesn’t have to be expensive, but it will take time. A little effort will reap financial rewards. Adopting a holistic approach to search engine marketing will ensure that you are getting the most from your marketing budget, rather than treating it as interdependent on your overall marketing toolkit.
To find out more about implementing SEO or PPC get in touch.
Sources http://www.leadgenerators.co.uk/articles/the-difference-between-ppc-and-seo
