SEO or PPC: Which one is better? It’s a question that makes a lot of content creators confused because there is no “one size fits all” answer to it. Both SEO and PPC have their own pros and cons, so it’s usually best to combine the two strategies to make the most of your online visibility.
The point is to follow the latest growth marketing trends and use the right techniques before your competitors find out about it. It’s not an easy task, but we are here to give you a hand and show you five credible PPC and SEO strategies for growth marketing. Let’s take a look!
In the dynamic world of digital marketing, the debate between SEO and PPC often leaves marketers pondering. The truth is, there’s no universal answer, as each method brings its unique advantages and disadvantages to the table. However, to truly dominate in the realm of top growth marketing, it’s crucial to embrace a holistic approach that combines the power of SEO and PPC. This synergy not only maximizes your online visibility but also keeps you ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing.
The Difference between SEO and PPC
If you want to supercharge the discoverability of your business and solidify brand reputation, you need to understand the difference between SEO and PPC.
The former strategy is aimed at improving website ranking in engine searches, while the latter allows you to pay for direct advertising. As such, the two concepts differ drastically, so here’s what you can expect from SEO:
- It’s a long-term ranking strategy, but users love it. According to the report, the first five organic results account for almost 70% of all the clicks.
- SEO boosts brand authority. If you can rank highly in engine searches, the audience will recognize you as one of the niche leaders.
- The strategy is cost-efficient because you invest time rather than money. And once you achieve the desired results, it’s much easier to maintain ranking.
- The downside of SEO is that you really need to think long-term and spend a lot of time before actually seeing the first results.
That’s the way things work in SEO, but now let’s see PPC advertising:
- PPC guarantees visibility as your content displays at the top of the search results. According to the report, Google AdWords reaches 80% of Internet users globally.
- The strategy works almost instantly, so you can expect immediate results.
- PPC enables extremely accurate targeting. Instead of reaching out to irrelevant users, you can target potential customers based on location, language, device types, interests, and many more.
- Of course, the problem with PPC is that you actually have to pay for it and compete with other bidders who are targeting the same keywords.
5 Ways to Improve Your PPC and SEO Strategy
Now that the differences between PPC and SEO are clear, we can concentrate on what matters the most here – five ways to improve your growth hacking techniques. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the most practical tips and suggestions.
- Optimize content for voice-powered searches
SEO studies reveal that 20% of mobile queries are actually voice searches. The figure keeps growing steadily, so the first tip on our list is to optimize content for voice-powered searches. How can you adjust the website and make it suitable for personal assistants like Siri or Alexa? Here are a few suggestions:
- Voice searchers ask 5W+H questions (who does what, when, why, where, and how) and you should answer each one clearly and directly.
- Write in a conversational tone because voice searches sound more natural than textual queries.
- Target longtail keywords to match users’ intent.
- Use video content in PPC campaigns
Voice communication is getting increasingly important online, but video marketing is already the most significant force in the digital universe. Researchers prove this fact because 68% of people say they prefer learning about a new product or service by watching a short video.
The only logical conclusion is that you should use video content in PPC campaigns, too.
Jake Gardner, a script creator who works for professional writing services, claims that the most important thing is to craft a short and up to the point video: “That way, most people will watch it in its entirety and hopefully conduct a purchase based on your call to action.”
- Local SEO is fundamental
The Internet enables entrepreneurs to do business globally, but the truth is that most companies stick to their neighborhoods and do the job locally. This is exactly what makes local SEO so critical in 2020.
Google My Business will assist you in reaching nearby customers, but you need to make the first move and create an account on this platform. Here’s how it works:
- Create a new business account
- Enter the address of your store or office
- Allow the platform to show your business in Google Maps
- Insert relevant information like a business category, phone numbers, emails, websites, etc.
- Verify your account
- Take advantage of negative keywords
Almost every webmaster and PPC company will tell you that keywords represent the essence of PPC campaigns, but you should never underestimate the importance of negative keywords. These words and phrases let you exclude search terms from your campaigns and help you focus only on the keywords that matter to your customers.
The idea behind this PPC concept is to approach interested users only and avoid budget-waste, but you must be careful not to use too many negative keywords or select the wrong type of negative keywords. The three types currently available are negative broad match, negative phrase match, and negative exact match.
- Exploit internal linking
The last SEO strategy on our list is to exploit internal linking and cross-promote different pages on your website. This strategy is often neglected among webmasters, but you should keep in mind that well-selected internal links can drastically increase site traffic and the time spent on page.
If you are running a website on WordPress – and most people are – we recommend Yoast SEO for accurate internal linking. It’s a multifunctional tool, so you can use it to add internal links to your pages and complete a number of other SEO activities simultaneously.
The Bottom Line
SEO and PPC go hand in hand, so you cannot afford to focus on one concept and neglect the other. In this post, we showed you five ways to combine credible PPC and SEO strategies. Now it’s time for you to make a move and skyrocket online authority using the tips we discussed above!
