The difference between paid search (PPC) and SEO

The difference between paid search (PPC) and SEO
15
Sep

For online businesses, Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) are a fantastic source of traffic to your website. The list of search results indexes websites for users to click through to find the information they are looking for, and as a result, a higher ranking website will attract more traffic. There are two ways to secure your website’s position on the SERP, including PPC and SEO. But what is the difference between paid search (PPC) and SEO? And how can you use a great SEO strategy to boost your performance online?

What is paid search (PPC)?

So what is paid search? Well, this is also known as Pay-Per-Click (PPC), and this is a digital marketing strategy where you can choose to advertise your website, which will then appear at the top or the side of the search results, and will be marked as “ad”. To do this, you will pay a fee to the search engine each time the ad is clicked. 

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, and this is a highly effective long-term digital marketing strategy. The goal for good SEO is to improve a website’s visibility in organic (unpaid) search results. To achieve this, many aspects of the website, and the website content, will need to be optimised to ensure a high rank can be achieved. 

What is the difference between paid search (PPC) and SEO?

There are a number of differences between the two different marketing strategies, and these include:

  • The speed of results
  • The costs
  • Trust and credibility

PPC, SEO and the speed of results

One way to compare the two different options is to look at the speed of the results. For immediate results, PPC campaigns can be very effective. These can generate traffic quickly, as soon as you set up and bid on keywords. However, it’s important to note that some keywords will have a higher volume of ads and competition, and so your choice of relevant keywords can be very important. 

On the other hand, a high quality SEO strategy provides slow results that are more sustainable. While it does take a while to rank highly using an SEO strategy, once your website is ranking well, this high position can be maintained with ongoing effort.

As a result, both of these strategies can be used together to achieve both short and long term results, but SEO can be much more sustainable in the long run.

The costs associated with PPC and SEO

Another good way to compare the two strategies is to look at the costs. PPC involves setting an advertising budget and managing this well to ensure that your return on investment is worth the ongoing costs. 

SEO also involves an ongoing investment, because maintaining a good website with a high level of optimisation does take a consistent effort. However, once a website ranks well, the cost is incredibly low. In fact, this can offer significant savings over time.

PPC, SEO and trust

Finally, you can also compare the two in terms of trust and credibility. In general, SEO results are more trusted, because potential customers and clients tend to prefer organic links, than those that are ads. This means that SEO can boost the credibility of your company, and this can even lead to an increase in sales and sign ups.

Here at Pumpkin Web Design we are Preston’s leading web design and web marketing professionals. We provide a wide range of high quality, effective website solutions and content marketing services across Preston and the North West, from Southport to Wigan, as well as Manchester. For more information or advice about professional SEO why not get in touch today?

Pumpkin Web Design Ltd is a small and highly results driven digital agency working for like minded clients in Preston, Chorley, Southport, Blackburn, Burnley, Morecambe,Wigan, Manchester, London, Warrington, Blackpool, Lancaster, Leyland, Lytham St Annes, Bolton, Chester and the UK. Our services include web design, SEO, content marketing, video production, brand design and much more.