Matthew Widdop
Matty is a Junior SEO Executive at Intelligency, helping our clients to improve their digital performance. Matty is currently studying for his Level 3 Multi-Channel Marketer apprenticeship and has completed a Sport Journalism Degree at the University of Huddersfield.
SEO and PPC are staples of a robust digital marketing approach that is focused on online growth. While SEO is all about improving organic traffic levels, PPC takes a different approach, using online advertising to boost website visitors and sales. In this article, we will be discussing the pros, cons and differences of SEO and PPC, as well as how the two approaches can be combined for a highly effective digital marketing campaign.
Pros and Cons of SEO
SEO is a core principle of digital marketing for any business looking to maximise online growth. By optimising your site and its content for search engines the goal is to elevate your content above your competitors and gain more traffic and sales.
SEO is an organic approach which means it has minimal cost and the rewards can be very cost effective in the long term. However, organic fixes are not a short term solution and improving traffic levels is a slow process that can take months or even years. This can often cause business to get frustrated with the process and abandon the strategy altogether, however a long term approach is always the best approach.
Pros and Cons of PPC
Pay-per-click (PPC) is the process of bidding on ad space on search engines and websites, in order to generate traffic to your site. Every time someone clicks on your ad, you pay a varying fee depending on how competitive the ad space is.
PPC is great for short term wins, generating higher traffic levels in a short space of time to boost sales and visibility. However, long term PPC is not as cost effective as SEO with high ad spends often required to compete for profitable ad spaces.
Combining Approaches
The best digital marketing strategies will combine SEO and PPC efforts as both approaches help negate the others weaknesses. PPC can be used in the short term while organic performance is still growing, in order to generate increased sales. While in the long term SEO is the more cost effective strategy. When SEO performance is peaking, less money can be spent on PPC resulting in better margins for business growth.
