Organic vs Pay Per Click, which is better?

When you’re getting started on building your online presence, building traffic can seem daunting. When your content barely ranks on search engines it can seem like a mountain to climb. Organically building traffic from search engines is just one way of ranking in search results, the alternative is pay per click (PPC).

Getting Clicks

You can rank highly on search engine results far more quickly using PPC than building ranking organically. There is no question this is true. However, the effectiveness of this strategy is dependent upon people clicking on the adverts.

Users are increasingly less likely to click on PPC adverts. Despite their prominent placement on search results, users prefer proven, valuable content (i.e. content that has ‘earned’ its spot high on the search results). Only a small proportion of users click on advertised content when searching.

It’s all About Value

Web users trust your content and attach greater value to it if it has made the 1st page of search results on merit. Users understand your content has earned its place through being useful to many, many other people. Pay per click is a sales pitch and users trust this source less.

PPC is Ranked too

You’re being ranked even if you’re using PPC advertising. Google ranks everything. It identifies the most useful content and ranks it accordingly, this includes PPC adverts.

PPC doesn’t necessarily buy your advert placement on the top of page 1. Your advert is given a quality score which assesses the rate of click through, relevance and the quality of the content on your landing page. This quality score (and the price you have paid) will determine where your advert is placed.

Both Strategies have a Place

Organic traffic is the long term goal. Achieving high ranking on searches infers credibility when it’s done organically. On the other hand, organic search is a long term strategy and you may not see a return on your investment for some time.

PPC is a tried and tested method of kick-starting your digital marketing and helping you get traffic. PPC can only be effective however if you have the relevant, quality content people are looking for.