Jaimi Jansen Fitness, Nutrition and Business Consultant

SEO. PPC. Aren’t they the same thing?

You may have heard these terms when discussing digital marketing strategies with a friend, marketing consultant, or at a workshop or seminar. Over the last 10 to 15 years, business owners have started to realize the amount of weight digital marketing carries. That’s why SEO and PPC are the talks of the town, and it’s important to understand and leverage each to benefit your business.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to crafting your website in a way that search algorithms will value, and list your business near the top of relevant keyword search queries. It’s important to note here that while Google is the most common search engine, there are a ton of others as well, such as YouTube, Bing, and Yelp. Each search engine has its own way of valuing and prioritizing keyword search results. Thus, it’s important to understand the subtle nuances behind every search engine.

The amazing thing about SEO is that it is FREE traffic for your website. This means free leads, sales, and more. You can’t directly pay a search engine in order to rank higher, this isn’t a bidding war. What SE’s value is their users and the information you are able to provide them. This means crafting a website experience and content that will satisfy the needs of whatever the user is looking for. The better your website can do this, the higher it will rank, and the more organic traffic you’ll be able to generate

PPC

Pay-per-click (PPC) refers to traffic which you deliberately paid for. This can be through different means, but some of the more common platforms include Google and Facebook ads. Within PPC, there is a common variable referenced called cost-per-click (CPC.) CPC refers to its namesake, the average cost for each click you receive to your website. For example, if you get 50 clicks at $1.50 PPC on Google Ads, it’ll cost you $75.00 total.

The important thing here is to remember that PPC only refers to paid clicks. It does not take into account impressions, other conversions, or free organic clicks. The cost of each click is determined by many factors, such as the quality of the content you are putting out (in the eyes of the search engine) and how competitive of a keyword you are trying to rank for. The more people are trying to bid on the keyword, the more the average CPC will be.

What’s the Difference?

In simple terms, SEO involves free organic traffic, while PPC involves paying.

The more nuanced answer is that traffic from SEO generally takes a much longer time to develop, especially if you’re starting from ground zero. It can take months to establish a reputable website along with the content needed to climb keyword rankings and start receiving organic traffic. However, anyone can create Google or Facebook ads. Of course, this won’t be free, and it’s almost pointless without well-crafted landing pages.

While organic traffic requires more time, it has the potential to provide a much larger ROI than PPC. Once your website establishes itself as strong web authority, you’ll be able to see exponential growth in traffic to your website. Unless you have the budget for it, you’ll have a hard time bringing in as much traffic with PPC.

What’s Next?

If you’re completely new to digital marketing, signing up for my monthly newsletter is a great place to start.. I’ll be providing free insight related to the most innovative marketing theory and strategy around. The blog articles featured in the newsletter are an excellent foundation to learn and build off of.

If you’re looking for more direct, unique feedback for your business, schedule a free 30-minute consultationhttps://www.jaimijansen.com/contact/ with me. We’ll take a look at your business model and create a custom package tailored to fit the unique needs of your brand. This option is perfect for those who are starting from ground zero or anyone who would like to build on what they have.