Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to strategies used to get a webpage to the very first page of a search engine’s results pages. Needless to say, SEO plays a big role in the success of online businesses as the majority of the traffic that websites get comes from search engines.
Does that mean you must shift from PPC advertising to SEO? Because both come with their own benefits, it doesn’t make sense just to pick one. What’s important to know is when it’s best to use SEO and when to use PPC.
Here are several situations when it’s best to utilize search engine optimization:
- When You Want to Achieve Consistent Results
Remember that you can’t expect to land on Google’s first page of search results in a day. It’s not even likely to happen in a week. While it’s going to take some time, you can expect steady traffic once you do land that coveted spot.
- When You Are Trying to Establish Your Authority
You can build an authority site – one that people in your industry and anyone interested in your field turns to for reliable information. The goal is to be the website that instantly comes to mind when people discuss your niche. You can achieve this with various effective SEO strategies that can help drive more traffic to your website.
- When Your Goal Is to Increase Your Website’s Value
Your website is the virtual version of your shop or office, which is why you must increase its value. Some of the factors that come into play here include how much traffic the website generates, how consistent it gets that traffic, its rankings on SERPs environment for an indicated period and more. All of these factors are affected by your SEO strategies!
When Should You Use PPC?
Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is an advertising strategy in the SERPs environment. If you want to land a spot in those sponsored results pages, you need to bid for it. It is called pay-per-click because, in essence, you will have to pay for every user that actually clicks your ad.
Here are several situations when it’s best to utilize pay-per-click advertising:
- When You Want Immediate Results
Compared to SEO, PPC delivers almost instantaneous results. Upon having your ads on those sponsored pages, you’ll get visitors on your pages in a matter of minutes. That’s how fast it works! It’s because the moment it’s up, millions of people can see your ad.
- When You Are in Need of High-Volume Traffic
Pay-per-click ads let you narrow down your target audience based on demographics. That’s one of the reasons PPC is such a powerful marketing tool. It can help you effectively reach the right people that will be more likely to be interested in visiting your web pages.
- When You Have Limited Time to Promote an Offer
If you have a limited-time offer for your products or services, you can use PPC to make sure that your audience will see your ad at once. Even if you only have two to three days until the promo ends, you can be sure that PPC will get you the needed traffic.
- When You Want to Dominate in Your Keyword Category
As you should know, PPC results are placed above the organic search results – an enviable position as roughly 50% of traffic goes to those top sponsored links. So, if you really want to get a huge chunk of the traffic from relevant keywords, it is best to have a solid PPC strategy!
Conclusion
At this point, you now know that both SEO and PPC can contribute to your online business’s success. But, you can’t simply choose one and not have the other. Instead of trying to pit one against the other, you should focus on how to make them work together. It’s also a good idea to have digital marketing experts help you with these strategies. You can find dependable agencies offering both SEO and PPC services in Toronto that can give your online business the edge that you need!
Analytics Beyond is a reputable digital marketing agency offering an array of services that include PPC and premier SEO in Toronto and other cities in Canada and the U.S. Contact us today to learn more about our services!