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There are dozens of digital marketing strategies to choose from when promoting a business, and deciding between a lot of them can sometimes be confusing. When it comes to driving traffic from Google, many business owners feel like they’re faced with choosing between PPC vs. SEO. The truth is there are pros and cons to both; however, when used together, they become an extremely successful tactic for maximizing your revenue.

What are the benefits of organic search engine optimization (SEO)?

SEO is the process of optimizing web pages to appear in keyword-related search results. Organic traffic generation is when your website ranks highly for keywords and phrases that users are typing into a search engine. The clicks that you receive to your site are free, and there’s no limit to how many times your website can be found for phrases that your content appears for on Google.

SEO creates awareness of your brand

Approximately 80% of all searches made on Google are informational searches. This means that by publishing content that users are actively searching for and ranking it to the first page, you can drive traffic full of interested visitors. An effective keyword strategy will target keywords at each stage of the buyer journey:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Decision

Many people search Google for answers to problems they have. By teaching people about how your product/service solves their problems, you create an awareness of your product by educating those looking for answers.

SEO results in compounding returns

One article that ranks on the first page of Google can stay at the top of the search results and drive traffic to your website for an indefinite period of time. This means that as you continue to invest in SEO services, the traffic that you’re driving organically becomes less expensive as time goes on.

Organic traffic is considered to provide greater returns than paid traffic (PPC) because when you stop paying for traffic-the traffic stops flowing to your site. In contrast, there is one major benefit of SEO; if you stopped paying for SEO services, you would still receive the traffic from any content assets driving traffic organically.

High converting form of inbound marketing

On average, SEO provides one of the highest returns on your investment. Keyword research is a crucial part of identifying who is specifically looking for what your company offers. By delivering the content, your ideal audience is searching, you attract users who are likely to engage with your content, products, and services.

What are the benefits of Google Ads (PPC)?

Google Ads are a form of traffic generation based on the Pay-Per-Click model. Rather than creating content to rank naturally on the first page, this model affords you a spot on the first page (at the top or bottom), where you only pay if a user clicks on your ad and lands on your website.

Immediate traffic generation

PPC campaigns are excellent for providing instant traffic to your website. Rather than wait the time it takes one of your pages to rank in the top 10 spots, your advertisement can appear as soon as you set up your PPC campaign. It depends on the competition level, but some content will take anywhere from 3 months to a year to rank on the first page. With PPC, you can speed up the time it takes to generate revenue from your website and put your site on the first page for highly competitive terms.

Send users directly to the “bottom of the funnel” content

When you set up a PPC campaign, you can research the keywords that represent buyer intent. Drive traffic that is ready to purchase to increase the conversion rates of your landing pages.

Collect vital data about your ideal buyer personas

PPC campaigns are gold mines for identifying high-converting keywords for your business. The data provided in PPC reporting indicates your best-performing keywords, the worst-performing keywords, and engagement statistics on visitor behavior. As you learn more about your audience, it allows you to optimize your campaigns’ optimization to increase conversion and revenue.

Combine PPC & SEO to maximize your results

When you’re comparing PPC vs SEO, you need to base your decisions in light of your business’s short-term and long-term goals. Ultimately, SEO is about increasing the revenue your website generates for your company. Each of these strategies can work together to provide you with advantages that the other cannot.

Use PPC reporting to inform your SEO efforts. Use the data to create valuable content assets targeting keywords that generate the highest converting traffic for your business.

You can get on the first page for keywords that your organic content isn’t ranking for. PPC can be a way to fill in the gaps in your organic traffic generation to cover keywords that you know will turn a profit.

At the end of the day, Google Ads managment offers you another piece of SERP real estate. Even if you’re already ranking on the first page organically, why not have a second position if the keyword is making you money?! You can drive traffic from both your Google Ads and your high-ranking content to maximize traffic, lead generation and increase revenue.

Putting it all together

Using both Google Ads and SEO can be overwhelming. Google Ads is one of the most powerful, yet complex advertising platforms on the planet while SEO can be confusing so it can be beneficial to hire an SEO consultant. What ever you choose, using them together is a deadly combination to over taking your competition and reaching success online.