If you own a small business and want to attract customers from all corners of the web, or customers you
never even knew existed, there are two primary strategies you’ll probably want to decide between.
Both SEO, or search engine optimization, and PPC, or pay-per-click, have their advantages and
disadvantages. It’s your job and choice to decide which will work better for your business. But what
exactly is the difference between them?
The Pros and Cons of SEO
Search engine optimization is the process of improving your website and its content in a way that
improves your ability to trend on search engines such as Google and Bing. SEO is beneficial to a business
because it allows organic traffic to reach your site and stay on for longer as they read through your new
or improved copy.
It’s also cheaper than PPC, which can be prohibitively expensive for some smaller businesses. However,
if you choose SEO for your business, it will take time and a high degree of effort and knowledge of your
customers and industry to be successful. The content you produce on your website and social media
needs to be unique and highly keyword rich in order to attract eyes to your site.
The Pros And Cons Of PPC
Pay-Per-Click advertising lets you advertise in different search engines of your choice, immediately
scoping out the demographic you need and targeting specific segments of the population you think will
benefit your business. You can start to see significant traffic with PPC within only a week or so but it will
cost you money depending on how many ads you want to run and how frequently.
Still, the ability to target different demographics is usually seen as a massive benefit to those who
choose it, keeping in mind that ads become less effective overtime due to oversaturation. Some
companies have combated diminishing returns by experimenting with different ads and ad types over
the course of a few months or weeks.
Making Your Choice
At the end of the day, there’s no decision which is set in stone or will be guaranteed to drive traffic to
your site over another option. Making the choice between PPC and SEO greatly depends on your
business model and how much you’d like to spend on your marketing.
It’s also possible that a well-made website ripe with content will be more liable to pull in users and
views than ads, depending on the demographics you target and the mindset of your customers. PPC will
often give you quicker results, although it is more expensive and less likely to work overtime. SEO is a
foundational part of marketing strategies and will pull in customers as long as your site is maintained
every month or so.