Whether you are a stressed-out husband looking for customized jewelry for your wife’s birthday, or a hungry introvert wishing he could order a pepperoni pizza without having to call his favorite pizza place – the internet has got your back. All you have to do favorite a quick Google search, and you will be lead to hundreds of search results that could take care of your needs in a matter of seconds.

A plethora of information

Today, a single Google search will provide you with so many leads, and it will become hard to choose which option to go with. This intense competition for customers is why businesses today need to pay special attention to their marketing strategies – especially the digital marketing tactics they employ.

When it comes to directing traffic to your website, there are two mega players that you cannot ignore: SEO and PPC.

The difference between SEO and PPC

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a modern digital marketing technique that is now considered indispensable in today’s corporate world. It uses the smart art of naturally weaving the most frequently searched for “keywords” that are relevant to a business in the content of its website to reach out to a more significant number of people.

By doing this, when a user then runs a search for the keyword used, Google is more likely to recommend that website in the search results. Hence, it is an inexpensive – yet incredibly effective – way to improve a website’s ranking as a search result and making it more visible to its target audience.

On the other hand, PPC, or Pay Per Click, is a paid digital marketing technique. On the more significant part, SEO and PPC share a lot of similarities. However, the most significant difference between the two is where SEO uses organic methods to direct traffic to a website, with PPC the link to your website is artificially ranked higher on the search results page in response to a specific keyword. When a user clicks on your advertisement, the business pays a predetermined amount to the search engine in return.

The long term answer to digital marketing

As you can imagine, there is a massive debate to the question of which digital marketing technique takes precedence over the other and is more profitable among the two. The answer to this will, of course, vary with each situation.

If what you are looking for is a long term digital marketing technique that pays off in the end, you are better off developing SEO best practices rather than keep spending hundreds of dollars on PPC. Why? Read on to find the answer.

In the long run, financing a PPC program may get expensive. With PPC, you will only be getting results as long as you are always putting money in towards the cause. As soon as you stop funding your PPC scheme, there will be no additional benefits that you can reap off with what you have spent so far.

In addition to the accumulating costs, PPC will only work as far as you have a website that is optimised according to the best practices in SEO. If you are directing consumers to a slow loading website with poor navigation, missing pages, minimal readability and accessibility, and an overall clutter – you cannot hope to truly benefit from your PPC scheme.

Hence, having an organic digital marketing technique lays down a foundation without which any PPC techniques you employ cannot be expected to be as efficient as they have the potential to be. According to a study conducted in 2014, where organic search generates about 64% of total website traffic, paid search is only responsible for a mere 6%.

What to opt for when you need more immediate results?

Of course, the entire picture changes when you become more focused on your short term goals. When you want significant differences in a small amount of time, you have a better chance with PPC.

Search Engine Optimization, though much more pocket-friendly, is a game for the long haul. When you are looking for an immediate impact, Pay Per Click is there to save the day. This is because while gaining a higher ranking, organically takes a considerable amount of time since you start adopting SEO practices, placing an ad at the top of the search results page artificially is much less time-intensive. Hence, you will see an immediate difference with PPC.

However, it is essential to remember that the PPC effects will only last as long as you keep funding the approach. As you stop feeding money into the program, the added traffic stops coming in.

Which digital marketing technique is best for my business?

Another important determining factor when choosing the best digital marketing technique is the size of your business.

Let’s say that you are a substantial online leather jacket store that has the resources and the funds to run an extensive paid search strategy. Just because you can afford it, does this mean that you should go for PPC rather than SEO?

Not necessarily. Why? Because when you have a big business, you likely have a strong marketing team that is continuously working to improve your ranking on search engines organically. Hence, though there will be a decline in website traffic if you stop pushing thousands of dollars into PPC techniques, big businesses are much better suited to cover the difference with smart organic marketing.

On the contrary, it becomes harder for small scale businesses with little or no marketing team to compensate for the dip created by the lack of PPC.

Adopting the two-pronged approach to digital marketing

Perhaps the best way to go about your digital marketing is to employ both organic and paid search tactics, side by side. This two-pronged approach to digital marketing has been observed to generate the best results when it comes to increasing website traffic and enhancing a business’s conversion rates.

Combining both SEO and PPC in a single digital marketing strategy has countless advantages. Not only is doing so beneficial for businesses who have a limited budget for marketing and advertisements, but it also allows businesses to obtain the most out of their PPC scheme, as discussed earlier. In other words, it will enable the businesses to have the best of both worlds while keeping their investments on the down-low.

The final word

Adopting efficient SEO techniques can result in bringing about as much as 64% of all site traffic. With such a high number in generating website traffic, it is no wonder that $79.27 billion are expected to be spent on this venture in 2020 alone.

Is your business investing enough money into Search Engine Optimization? Or have you adopted a paid approach to enhance your website traffic and conversion rate? What seems to be working better for your business? Comment down below and let us know of your experiences with digital marketing. 

Author Bio:

About Ashley Rosa: Ashley Rosa is a freelance writer and blogger. As writing is her passion that why she loves to write articles related to the latest trends in technology and sometimes on health-tech as well.  She is crazy about chocolates. You can find her at twitter: @ashrosa2.