SEO vs PPC: A guide for Small Business in Kenya

one of the long standing debate online, “which is better SEO vs PPC? ” unfortunately its a question we don’t have a direct answer about it.

to be frank, it all boils down to ones needs, situation, organization objectives and market place.  None of them is better of than the other on all fronts, actually each has their Pros and cons over the other.

If pressed which to use, then it all comes down to your understanding of your clients, business goals and needs. Things have however changed, many of new business and website have it very hard starting with Search Engine Optimization and Paid Ads bring instant traffic once up and running.

There are over 1 billion users of Google every month, and according to net market share, google owns more than 71% of market share as of Jan 2020 

with the above staggering statistics, in only means we need to take advantage of google platform through search engine optimization and also PPC Ads for your small business in Kenya.

In this post, we delve into SEO vs PPC and get the detail about it services, difference, pros and cons, and when to optimize or when to pay. In the case that both work out best for your business then we look how to integrate both of them for your overall marketing.

SEO vs PPC: An Overview

to start with, lets have a look at what SEO and PPC is all about.

What is SEO?

SEO is the process of optimizing website and also website pages for a higher appearance or ranking on Search Engine Result pages such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing !

It involves finding out what search engine consider relevant with regards to a user query and then optimizing your website and web pages to rank for it.

it’s crucial to grow or build your google presence if looking to have your organization improve ranking. for this case,

you need to build your contents, optimize your website for keywords that you want to rank for and also publish your contact details for your business.

what is PPC

in PPC or pay-per-click, it’s where by advertisers pay a publisher in this case such as (Google, or  Facebook) to pay only per click or interaction with their Ads.

This ensures that you’re only charged for every interaction with your Ad from your consumer. This method is usually common with Search engines since people bid on keywords.

Social media platforms have also embraced PPC, which is gaining traction among the platforms. With social media they help your audience find your business based on their behavior and interest.

PPC can help business stay competitive online if they don’t have a great domain authority (DA) and this will help them reach their target audience much quicker compared to Search Engine Optimization.

SEO vs Paid Ads: What is the Difference?

the key difference between the two services other than one being paid for while the other is free, is that PPC are usually displayed on top of the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) and are usually marked as Ad.

while Organic result are displayed just below the paid Ad

showing paid Ad as they appear on SERPs

The second result are the organic results and are free to list on Google and other Search Engines

showing organic result as they appear

 

So what are the Pros and Cons of SEO?

Below are some of the benefits of SEO.

SEO is Cheaper than PPC

while SEO may not be cheap nor easy, on the long-term it turns out to be more cheaper than paid PPC. Imagine having a page that ranks on top of google organically and attracts thousands of clicks daily? it would be more costlier to sustain such kind of traffic via PPC every day.

SEO gets more clicks than PPC

most user of search engines ignore paid Ads according to imForza.com, 70% – 80% of links clicked by searchers are organic

This is an important metric to consider more so while making decision on SEO vs PPC, ultimately you’re way better of understanding the intent of the users.

Website Traffic

SEO gives your business greater traffic compared to PPC going by the metrics on the number of user who ignore paid Ads, this drives more opportunity into your business to educate your potential buyers on why to buy from you.

longevity

SEO traffic does not dry up as soon as you stop paying compared to PPC. It’s very challenging to Sustain paid Ads on the long run compared to free traffic as a result of SEO

Brand Awareness

when you rank high on SERPs for commercial related keywords, then you gain trust of your leads as a result compared to paid Ads.

Scope

SEO offers a greater scope of keywords to rank for and appear on SERPs. Take this on paid Ad, you cannot sustain paying for every webpage content on your website, so you’re limited to certain pages unlike in SEO. as much as it may take time, you’ll have a greater scope.

Why not to select SEO?

Takes Time

SEO is painfully slow and takes time and for this reason not good for quick ROI.  so how long does SEO takes? there really is no clear cut answer generally  4- 6 months is consider the least possible, it can go even 8 – 12 months before ranking for some keywords

SEO requires content

Yeah i know! it’s a pain the…to write content every other day and still not rank for immediately, it’s actually the cost you pay for free traffic from Google.

Pros and Cons of PPC

according to google economic impact organization earn $8 for every $1 they spend on google Ads.

Thats a great ROI if you would spend on PPC. But is it the gold mine? what makes it a right fit for your business or not?

below are some of the benefits of PPC

Impressions

Paid Ads always dominate the SERP. They usually appear on the first page of google, and for this reason the make a great impression, the users will definitely see them however much they choose to ignore them.

Deliver quick results

you don’t have to wait for weeks or months to get result, the reason people go for PPC is because the results are immediate if the campaign is set up well

PPC is Adaptable

with PPC you can adapt to any dynamism as result of Ad performance. you can change keywords and start paying for new keywords without worrying about how long changes will take effect.

Targeting

its much easier to target and see result asap by using PPC. you can target Ads by various demographics including Age, Keywords, Time, language, geo-location

So what are the Cons of PPC

Cost

PPC is made possible through bidding i.e. if your competitor is bidding more than you, then you lose your ranking position to them. some industries are very competitive and thus bids are much more expensive

requires alot of tweaking

before you get the right keyword to work with you’ll have to do a lot of testing before you find out what works for you. People get tired of seeing the same ad and thus the longer you use the Ad the less effective it becomes

So when should i use SEO?

so in the context of SEO vs PPC which should i choose.  as much as they’re different, they both serve better on different aspects.

below are some of the circumstance under which one may choose SEO. remember it’s down to different people preference

When you want to grow your website value

SEO on the long-run builds the value of your website bearing in mind it’s competitive for some leading commercial industry keywords which later get to be associated with your site thus building value for  your business in google

build authority for your website

if you want to be the go to site for your niche market, then SEO is the way to go for you. Once you start doing valuable content to the users, they’ll consider your site for Authority online.

Long-term consistent traffic

SEO traffic grows with time and the good thing is that you get to retain this traffic for a longer time and this makes SEO the go to for long-term traffic.

View:  Leading web design services in Kenya

When should i use PPC?

Moving to the other side of SEO vs PPC, when do PPC becomes your go to?

Quick sell of promote a product

PPC offers a great solution to immediately  promote a product online, it does not need great content to rank higher on SERPs

Instant results

it offers a great platform to get ROI immediately the campaign hits the web. this offers a great platform to offer products to taste the market

Targeted traffic

PPC marketing delives the best platform to get more targeted traffic rather than just massive traffic, you get to target your audience on various aspect i.e. age, gender, location, time, industry

Product launches

if you have time limited offers of a product, PPC offers a great place to put the product and generate instant traffic, this is good for launching new product to the market.

How can we use SEO & PPC together?

so can the great battle between SEO vs PPC work together? certainly yes, the answer is Yes!

as much as they may sound more expensive, they all have their pros and cons and what better than using both of them to compliment each other.

some of the benefits of using both PPC and SEO include;

• increase confidence and awareness to your audience by having both strong organic and paid traffic
• rank for  your competitors keyword on search engines, by paying to use their keywords
• conversion  data can be fed for use with SEO after seeing their performance
• you can use PPC to test your keyword strategy and then implement the keywords into long term SEO
• you can grow traffic by having keywords for SEO and paid keyword traffic for competitive terms
• target user of different demographic data and convert them

Read: Local SEO Guide for Small Business in Kenya

To conclude, both SEO and PPC have their pros and cons. It boils down to one’s need in order to settle for which best works for them. on the long-run if it’s possible to run both of them then better utilize each other strength to complement the weakness of the other.