If you’re familiar with even just the basics of digital marketing already, you know that search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for bringing traffic to your website. While many businesses have realized over the past several years that they need to invest in SEO to attract their audience, some might think that’s all they need to make their online presence a success. However, this isn’t entirely true. You should make constant efforts to improve your website’s SEO, but this isn’t the only digital marketing strategy you need to invest in. If you’re already interested in improving your SEO, you might also be wondering if you also need to invest in pay-per-click, or PPC, advertising.
To make your digital marketing efforts as impactful as possible, you should do both SEO and PPC. While PPC might not directly help your SEO, the indirect benefits could lead you to see improvements, not to mention the benefits it has on its own.
SEO vs. PPC
First, we should make it very clear what the differences between SEO and PPC are. Although they both help bring users to your site, they achieve this in different ways. SEO will help you earn traffic organically by optimizing your website (think foundational and generational), while PPC brings traffic in through pay-per-click ads (get rich quick but no lasting results in search – they always disappear the moment the money runs out – superficial). SEO and PPC get along great together, and combining them offers more benefits and opportunities than using just one method. It’s the perfect kind of mixed seeds to plant if you want to have an abundant harvest! For sure.
PPC Gets You at the Top of Google’s Search Results
In SEO, the goal is to get your website at the top of the SERPs. The lower you rank, the lower your chances of users clicking on your website are, which can drop significantly with each position. If you have spent any time learning about SEO, you know how important it is for your website to be as high up as it can get. While PPC might not bring in organic traffic, it can still bring in traffic from users on search engines.
PPC ads can appear in Google SERPs, social media platforms, and on websites, but we want to focus on Google for right now. Utilizing PPC can help your ads show above organic rankings. Many PPC ads can be found above the highest organically ranked website, and while it may show that it’s an ad, this will help catch users’ attention quickly. Your ad can be the first thing a user sees when they search for something, and if it’s well-crafted, it will help drive traffic to your website. You might already rank organically for a certain keyword, but having an ad appear as well can only improve your chances of getting a user to visit your site.
PPC Can Help with Keyword Research
When many people think of keywords, they likely associate them with SEO. However, PPC also revolves around targeting the right keywords. When you’re already performing keyword research to determine what terms you need to go after, using this information and applying it to PPC as well only makes sense. However, if SEO and PPC are both new topics for you, PPC can be extremely beneficial in terms of keyword research.
SEO, while more than worth it, is known for having a long wait before you start seeing any real results. Of course, the results of SEO can be long-lasting, but let’s be real, no one likes waiting to see if their time and money is being well-spent. PPC is almost the exact opposite in this regard – you can start to see results from your campaign right away. This means that while those who only use SEO are waiting to see if they made the right keyword choices, you can quickly see how your ads do with the keywords you’re using. You have the information you need without the long wait, so you can make adjustments as more data rolls in to be proactive with your SEO keyword strategy.
Users Become More Familiar with Your Brand – ABB
ABB. Always Be Branding. Always! Building brand awareness is an important part of converting more users. There’s a huge amount of competition on the web today, and you want people to trust your brand above all the rest. To do this, people need to get familiar with you and your business. Brand recognition might be an obviously important thing to achieve for some, but you still might wonder what that has to do with SEO. When people remember your business and see you in the SERPs, they might be more tempted to click on your site instead of the other results, even if yours isn’t as high up.
There are many ways to build brand awareness through digital marketing, with PPC being one of them. PPC ads are highly-targeted, which means that the users who see them are the people most likely to benefit from your business. Your ads are shown to the right audience, and even if they don’t click on them, they see them. They now know your business’s name and have an idea of what you offer, even if your ad didn’t move them to take further action at that point. When these users see your business come up organically when searching for something, there’s always the chance they’ll remember it. Maybe you’re not in the first position, but many people prefer working with businesses they already know, so what position you’re in might not have as much of an effect on them. Not only can this bring in more traffic, but more traffic can mean a boost in your rankings. Whatever you can do to get your name out there in a positive way can end up helping you in the long run, and not just with SEO. ABB.
Let ENX2 Marketing Help Drive Results
There’s no one single digital marketing strategy that will provide everything you want, including SEO. While SEO can help in many ways, it can’t do everything alone. Digital marketing has many moving parts. If you want to be successful, these parts have to work in unison to be the most effective. At ENX2 Marketing, our award-winning team knows the benefits that every type of digital marketing has to offer and how to implement them to get the greatest impact. We can help ensure that all aspects of your digital marketing strategy complement one another so that you can get the best results.
We’ll take care of everything your business needs for digital marketing. Contact us to find out what we can do to help you!