
What is the Difference between SEO and PPC? Pros and Cons
In today’s competitive corporate world, many businesses are constantly striving to enhance their presence to the audience both in traditional and digital channels. While some are succeeding in capturing the audience’s attention, while others are still struggling to find the right strategies to showcase themselves and stand out in the market.
Before driving the digital realm,it is important to understand the difference between SEO and PPC. Which strategy is best suited for your industry to drive success and attract the target audience?
In this blog, you will learn about what is SEO and PPC, their differences and pros and cons of each and how to choose the right strategy for your industry.
Know the difference between SEO and PPC
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing the web pages that helps to rank on Google search results pages. SEO works by displaying the results that match the user query when they search for something online.
The key objective of SEO is to boost the website’s visibility, attract organic (non-paid) traffic from search engines like Google, and strengthen user experience and enhancement.
SEO involves various key tactics such as,
1. conducting keyword research to target the potential audience,
2. on page optimization includes meta tags, content optimizing and images,
3. off page optimization like building quality backlinks from the reliable websites and
4. technical seo that ensures web pages are easily crawlable by the search engines and loads quickly for the users.
Therefore, it is crucial to ensure that your website ranks on the top of the search engine results pages (SERP) results, as most of the users click the first page for any product or services they need.
By improving your website rankings, SEO helps businesses to attract potential customers. It is a longer term strategy that obtains website traffic over time rather than relying on paid advertising.
In simple words, SEO is about bringing website traffic through organic (non-paid) methods, ensuring your website is easily noticeable by the users and the search engines while out beating the competitors.

Benefits of SEO:
1. Cost Effective Marketing:
There is a difference between SEO and PPC, SEO is a long term and stable approach to get online visibility without any direct costs, whereas PPC is a paid marketing strategy that runs ads on search results pages.
2. Boost the website traffic:
SEO helps to drive the website traffic through the (non paid) organic method that brings the potential customers based on their query in the search results page. This will increase credibility and trustworthiness by the users when the websites are ranking on the search engines to create an identity for the business.
3. Better Conversion Rate:
By adding the relevant keywords, SEO brings the users who are actively searching for the products or services and this leads to high possibility of clicks that increases conversion rate.
4. Edge Over Competitors:
Beat the competitors in the search results and have a change of attracting the customers to your website.
5. Target Local Audience:
Local SEO helps businesses to target the local customers with the location based keywords especially benefits for small businesses aiming to target local customers.
6. Long Term Growth:
SEO thrives long lasting results. Unlike paid ads, that gives results based on the budget, while SEO is no cost investment and continues to grow your business online slowly and steadily for a longer period.
Cons of SEO:
1. Continuous Algorithm changes:
Search engines like Google will regularly update their algorithms which requires the websites to adapt the changes in the google factors in order to stay updated with the latest trends and continuously outperform the competitors.
2. High Competitions:
SEO is an extremely competitive field, where many businesses target the same keywords. To succeed you must differentiate your strategies and content to stand out with the competitors’ world.
3. Time consuming:
SEO is a long term process that takes months to achieve remarkable results in the SERP rankings. However, once the website gets visibility by the users, it can lead a steady and sustainable process to a continued growth among the competitors.
What is PPC?
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is an online advertising method, where advertisers pay an amount each time when their ads are clicked on the online platform.
It is the faster method to get traffic and conversions through paid marketing than depending on organic methods like SEO.
How PPC Works?
In PPC initiatives, the advertisers bid on targeted keywords related to their products or services to feature their ads on digital platforms.
The bidding fee depends on the competition for the keyword and the quality score of the ads.
When a user enters the target keywords, the advertiser’s ads will appear in top position in the search engines like Google. This is valuable for the businesses to attract the users to click the ads, bring immediate traffic, and convert visitors to customers and increase the conversion rate.

Benefits of PPC:
1. Instant Traffic:
PPC ad campaigns bring immediate visitors once the ad starts running, differing from SEO which takes time to display results on SERP Pages.
2. Reach Potential Audience:
With PPC, you can curate the ads based on specific parameters such as user interests, behaviour, demographics, location, and timing to ensure the ads are shown to the targeted audience.
3. Dynamic and Customizable:
You can optimize the ads any time based on their performance, to improve the results for better conversions.
4. Remarketing and Retargeting:
PPC enables re-targeting, which shows the target ads to the people who visited your website or interacted with your content, and re-marketing which targets the customers who have previously engaged with your brand and encourages them to complete the desired action which increases the conversions.
5. High Conversion Rates:
With PPC ads, you can achieve high conversion rates, compete effectively with the competitors from small to large businesses and stand out in the market.
Cons of PPC:
1. Cost on Competitive Keywords:
In the competitive industries, it is difficult for small businesses to maintain stability in the paid advertising, as the cost per click for the right keywords continues to rise.
2. Requires Continuous Funding:
PPC campaigns require an ongoing budget to run the ads.Once the budget is exhausted, your ads stop running, While SEO works continuously over time.
3. Invalid / False Clicks:
When your ads are clicked by competitors or users with no intent of making a purchase, leads to spending your money without return of investment.
4. Short Term Results:
PPC relies on ongoing investment. Once you stop paying, your ads will no longer be running. This can lead to short term or longer term results, based on the budget.
5. No Guaranteed Success:
In PPC, there are no guaranteed results on return of investment (ROI), unless your ads are well designed, target relevant keywords,and lead to effective landing pages.
We will see a brief difference between seo and ppc, that helps to choose which strategy works for your businesses.
SEO Vs PPC
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) | Pay Per Click (PPC) |
Organic way to boost the website rankings on search engines to achieve top positions | Paid method to rank at the top on search engines, where advertisers pay for each click |
Long Term process to achieve the results, requires continuous optimization to sustain in performance | Deliver Immediate results with short term, that rely on budget spent and investment |
No Cost required | Involves money for bidding the keywords to target |
Organic traffic grows steadily through continuous enhancement | Provides instant traffic as soon the ads are live |
Limited control over the position or rankings in search engines | Offers full control over the ads position in top or bottom of search results |
Ranking may be affected by updates in search engine algorithms. | No impact on rankings from algorithm changes or updates |
Return of Investment (ROI) tends to be higher in the long term with ongoing optimization effort. | ROI depends on optimization of ads, poor optimization may lead to higher spending with minimal results. |
In conclusion, SEO focuses on driving organic traffic through continuous optimization delivering reliable results on SERP pages without any costs, while PPC provides prompt traffic and visibility via sponsored advertising, but it needs continuous funding to maintain results and ensure measurable Return of Investment. Both methods offer equal strengths. Now businesses can decide the best approach that fits their scope and requirements.
Contact Brandstep, a leading digital marketing agency in Tambaram Chennai, for outstanding performance and results that will take your business to next level.