PPC vs SEO – What’s the difference?

17th July 201919th July 2019 by Freelancetosuccess

The major difference between Pay Per Click and Search Engine Optimisation is that traffic generated to your site from PPC will cost you per click while the traffic coming from SEO is organic so it is free.

PPC and SEO are both part of Search Engine Marketing – a great tool that can be used as a part of your digital marketing campaign.

Want to know more?

Here we can explain the other important differences between the two, to help you be a PPC/SEO whizz yourself.

Position in search results

You will find PPC Ads above the organic results and on the bottom of the page. But where your PPC ad appears depends on many factors such as; your max cpc bid and your keyword quality score. Depending on how optimised your PPC campaign is will determine whether your ad will appear in the top positions or the first pages. For PPC, paying a higher cost per click will help get your ad on the first page whereas for SEO, first page positions are achieved through optimising your site for search engines.

Difficulty

You need the relevant and necessary knowledge to run PPC or SEO, it isn’t as easy as you may think! The process of using SEO takes a lot of time and effort overall and it could take months or years to even see any results. PPC can cost you a pretty penny and you could lose a significant amount of money before you understand what to do to make it work. You can get fantastic and fast results though, as long as the person running the ad campaign is more than qualified for the job!

Traffic potential

The aim is to get as much traffic to your site as you can but you might be thinking which brings more traffic? PPC or SEO? To truly maximise your results, you ideally want to have a PPC and SEO presence. However there is opportunity to cut costs. For example you may not need to run PPC campaigns for specific keywords if you already rank highly organically.

Cost of the ads

Although technically with SEO you don’t pay to get on the first page of results. However, the competition is high for a lot of keywords so you can’t afford not to have a high quality website and an amazing SEO plan to keep you in the top 5 positions. Therefore, If you can’t deliver the goods yourself, it will cost you to pay for SEO services to get you there!

With PPC you only pay when people actually click on your ad, no hidden charges! But different factors come into play when it comes to how much you pay for each click such as keyword competition, how much you are willing to bid and your quality score. Benefit; the cost is always controlled as you can cap your daily budget and calculate exactly what your going to be spending.

Conversion

When it comes to PPC and SEO, as long as your ads are highly targeted and optimised then a visitor through PPC is more likely to convert. This is because keywords you bid on can direct customers to bespoke landing pages. Run a successful PPC campaign and the clicks you get from your visitors should be totally engaged and interested in your product or service.