SEO vs PPC Which is better for Website Growth?

If you want to grow your business, then having a website is incredibly important. That being said, you have two options to boost your presence in the online world. One of them is via paying for ads, also known as pay per click. Or you can go with the SEO approach, which focuses on optimising your website to cater to the search engine requirements. It’s the best of both worlds to use both, but most small businesses are unable to do that. Which brings in the question, what results can you expect? Here are some ideas to take into consideration.

What is SEO vs Pay Per Click

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is basically generating organic traffic inwards once you start improving your business online. The great thing about SEO is that it allows you to focus on boosting the awareness of your business naturally. You get to focus on using certain keywords and promote them online at the highest possible levels. It also boosts your brand awareness naturally, which is always a plus. To make things better, it enhances your advertising approach while also bringing in more trust and credibility for your business.

In addition, you will have a natural, constant way of bringing in new traffic to your website. Then there’s also the fact that you will get a really good return on investment. You can do SEO yourself to a basic level, or you can hire someone for extra depth of involvement. Either way, the ROI can be huge, and you will appreciate the results more than you would ever imagine. SEO is also sustainable and has a compounding effect unlike PPC. The downside is that SEO requires time, it’s not immediate, which means if you want instant traffic you will need to go for the Pay Per Click option. It’s a good idea to use both of them, but at first many small businesses will go for PPC to boost their exposure to maximise on their key selling seasons.

Yes, PPC does generate a catalyst to inward traffic because paid search appears above the fold in search engine results. Basically, if you pay for exposure, you will be above the natural results that people ranked for through SEO.  You will bid per click to be within the Top 4 on page 1 of the search results.

You can rank your website naturally via SEO and also use PPC to have your site above the fold as well. Many companies do this because SEO results can falter. Plus, you can use PPC adverts to bring in more brand visibility very quickly. Yes you will have better control over targeting, but you will end up paying a lot of money for your traffic. And if you have a small budget and only want to run a campaign for a short time, this can be very tricky.

How does SEO affect
PPC costs?

For many organizations, PPC and SEO teams work closely with one another and they bring in a great flow and value for the business itself. The idea here is to try out something new and different and the results themselves can be rewarding. Using both search engine optimisation and pay per click is very common for a lot of businesses. But you also have challenges, you don’t really know how to adapt and adjust everything to make it work. That can be tricky, which is exactly why you may need to start only with SEO at first for a solid foundation, to include meta descriptions, site titles, keywords / phrases.  It’s like turning up to the interview with your shoes polished and shirt ironed!

Our main concern will be our rewarded Quality Score.  The higher the score, the lower the cost of each click.  This largely affects the price of PPC ads most of the time. If the keyword has a very high price, you can spend even over £5 or more per click. Remember, clicks don’t guarantee sales, so that’s something to keep in mind.

The number of competitors that rank for a keyword will also influence the pay per click cost, they may also have a better landing page.  You have to assess the situation and once you do that wisely it will be very well worth the effort.

Also, general industry competitivity will end up affecting the pay per click costs. Most of the time costs will be higher in such a competitive set.  Your SEO is a fixed cost and you can adapt it to appeal to your desired market over time slowly becoming an authority site.

SEO can help the cost of a pay per click keyword if the website real estate is maximised.  Here you can have more presence for the same keyword, which means more relevancy for the PPC campaign.  Which in turn increases your frequency of appearing on the results page and improves the click rate.  It really helps and it has the potential to offer you some amazing benefits if you do this right.

In addition, SEO allows you to find more keywords that you can use for pay per click advertising.  It encourages you to promote your business for more keywords, which leads to a large number of people learning about your business. Keyword research tools and Google Analytics / Search Console provide a constant stream of queries related to your site, which you should study.

You can also use SEO to acquire local leads. And that will affect PPC, because you can identify the type of keywords that works locally to bring in even more exposure. It’s the best of both worlds, and that clearly shows why you really need SEO and PPC. Of course they are both affecting one another, but you get some impressive benefits if you use them both, and that alone can be a key difference in the long run.

Is SEO or PPC more effective than the other?

What you have to realise is the fact that both SEO and PPC have their own benefits. One of them might be better one day, but tomorrow things might be different. So you really need to give them a decent term to make it work. What we recommend you do is to use both, because they are very helpful and with amazing results. Of course, at some point you might be inclined to use one over the other, but if you do it right, this will be worth it.

Of course, you also need to realise that SEO and PPC are fulfilling different needs. In the case of SEO, you want to focus on bringing in natural exposure to your business. It also works great if you have a local business without a lot of competitors. This also means the exposure comes gradually, in the long run. Your focus here is finding the right way to achieve what you have in mind and eliminating hassle naturally. Once you do that, the payoff can be nothing short of extraordinary and that’s what matters the most.

PPC is better if you want leads now and if you want to create a fast marketing campaign (with Landing Page) where you can get a really good ROI. It can work really well and it will deliver a very good experience.

How does SEO and AdWords work together?

There are many benefits that come from using AdWords and SEO together. First, the conversion data and keyword list can easily be transferred from PPC towards organic SEO.  It’s the best of both worlds, and you will find it easier to rely on accurate data so you can obtain the best approach and experience. It’s totally worth the effort, and once you do that properly it can really push the experience to the next level in a creative manner.

On top of that, the volume of traffic can easily be improved via targeting clicks for both organic and paid keywords. It’s an ideal situation to focus on using the same keywords for SEO and for PPC advertising.

Moreover, you will be able to move low converting, high volume or high costs keywords from PPC to SEO without a problem. Remarketing is improved because it makes it easier for you to connect with paid advertising clients via SEO. Even if they didn’t go to the website to buy something, now you know those customers and what they are looking for. And you can offer similar keywords and a very good value via SEO. It’s basically the best approach because you can still rely on the previous data for the best value.

You can go even further with this. You can test the keyword strategy in PPC so you can see the type of traffic and how many leads you can get. Once you test the keyword strategy and see that it works, you can go for the long term benefits and value.

This can boost awareness and confidence in your business. People will trust a company more when they see that Google trusts your website really high in their rankings. It will also show that there’s an easy way to navigate and read the website, which can be an amazing opportunity if you are doing it right.

How does search
advertising (PPC) affect search engines (SEO)?

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) are often seen as separate strategies, but using them together can lead to stronger results in search engine visibility.

PPC advertising, while primarily focused on driving immediate traffic through paid ads, can provide insights that positively affect SEO performance.

When businesses think about online visibility, they often focus on SEO due to its long-term benefits.

However, beginning with PPC can help you gather valuable data, like which keywords perform well and which audiences are converting, that can be integrated into your SEO efforts.

One potential downside is that PPC campaigns with a low-Quality Score can become expensive, as they drive up your cost per click.

One of the most significant advantages of running PPC alongside SEO is the ability to dominate search engine results pages (SERPs). You can secure both an ad placement and an organic result for the same search query, effectively doubling your visibility and increasing user trust.

Additionally, PPC allows you to quickly test new keywords and strategies, which can inform and refine your SEO campaigns. For instance, keywords that drive conversions in PPC can be optimised for your organic content to improve rankings over time.

PPC also enhances brand awareness, especially when you’re targeting local markets. Local PPC ads allow you to reach specific audiences based on geographic location, driving immediate results while your SEO strategy gradually gains traction.

This is especially useful for small businesses or those looking to increase their local presence.

Studies from Google have shown that businesses combining PPC with organic results see a significant boost in click-through rates (CTR), and PPC campaigns are a great way to test out user behaviour patterns that can later improve your SEO efforts.

Tools like Google Ads and Google Analytics can provide deep insights into user behaviour, which can be invaluable for both PPC and SEO strategies.

By using the data from PPC, you can make more informed decisions for your SEO efforts, leading to sustainable long-term growth. When executed properly, this dual strategy can deliver impressive results, driving more traffic, increasing conversions, and building a stronger online presence.

SEO vs PPC Conclusion

Is it possible to use both PPC and SEO? Of course, both of them will work great and with the right approach you can actually make the most out of them. It’s important to learn when to rely on SEO and when it’s better to go with a PPC option. SEO is great all-around, but PPC is particularly good when you need that extra traffic or if you’re a new business starting out. It can help a lot to use both of them, just make sure that you add the right limits to your PPC campaign, so you don’t go over the budget!

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