SEO and PPC might just be polar opposites when it comes to marketing however there are some similarities between them that could make them both a crucial part of your marketing strategy.
The first and most obvious difference is that Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is focused on long-term organic growth whereas Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) is more concerned with paid advertising. This is a crucial understanding to have. This is because terminology in marketing can often be misused, making the entire process of marketing more confusing than it needs to be. A perfect example of this is PPC itself. It is often used to just mean Google Ads, but it can be used to mean paid social, Google Ads as well as any other online advertising platform. The comparison between the two is often seen as a “one or the other” comparison. As though you either use SEO or PPC in your marketing strategy. However, using both can cover gaps in the application of the strategy.
The most obvious similarity is the level of impact that keywords play in both PPC and SEO. And, as mentioned above SEO is more commonly used for long-term growth. So while you might begin to see some improvements quickly the real impact will only be felt months if not years down the line depending on your industry. This is where PPC can be used to complement your SEO strategy. PPC’s use of bidding on keywords means that even if your website isn’t currently ranking well for one of the keywords, then you are still able to appear on the first page of search results. The difference is that you are paying to be there.
Therefore if you are using SEO to focus on the long-term growth of your business, you should also be looking to use PPC to account for users’ searches that your website doesn’t appear for.
