The internet is quickly becoming the centre of all marketing. Countless consumers use search engines as their main method for finding any kind of business. With all the potential swimming around, why wouldn’t you want to tap into it?
There are a lot of digital marketing tactics out there. However, SEO and PPC have emerged as the two main tactics used by modern businesses. If you only have to choose one, here’s a guide to help you decide.
The first factor you need to consider is your advertising budget. Obviously this varies from firm to firm. No matter how high or low your budget is, you should be setting a daily figure and sticking to it.
There are a variety of free SEO methods which you can be utilising. However, if you have even a little money which could be going towards marketing, I urge you to invest it. With the use of PPC ads, you’ll get much faster testing compared to SEO. With PPC, you’re pretty much guaranteed an influx of traffic, which will show you how well your site is converting people who land there. This will make sure you’re not sitting around with a poor-performing website for too long.
The main advantage SEO has over PPC is that it’s not affected by CPCs. Sorry if the acronyms are getting too much for you! CPC stands for “cost per click”, and is a big factor to consider in PPC advertising. Many PPC services allow businesses to bid whatever they want for single clicks.
The competition around this can have a massive impact on your success with PPC advertising. If your business is a start-up, or your marketing budget has taken a blow, then SEO is probably for you. However, PPC can still be very beneficial if your company serves a distinct niche. The bigger the industry, the higher the average CPC is going to be.
Here’s another one for you: SERPs. This stands for Search Engine Results Pages. To determine whether you should choose SEO or PPC, you need to find out how competitive your industry’s SERPs are.
Use an application like the Google External Keyword Research Tool to find this out. This, and other analytical tools, allow you to see how high the demand for your keywords are. At least Google’s tool will show you how many businesses are bidding for your keywords, and the average CPC. You can also use Smallseotools.com to check keyword positions and backlinks data.
The competition can be another reason why smaller businesses should choose to use SEO. When you analyse your SERPs, you might find that they’re dominated by industry giants. Unfortunately, this can make it all but impossible for small companies to gain any footing.
These three factors are the first things you should be looking at when choosing a digital marketing method for your company. Soon, you’ll be able to pin down the most cost-effective solution for your firm. Remember that if your budget allows it, you can always combine PPC and SEO.
