SEO vs PPC: Which is better for my startup?

SEO vs PPC: Which is better for my startup?

With a decade of online marketing experience & having worked as a Digital Marketing Consultant for popular brands, I get to interact with a number of entrepreneurs, share my experience & learn a thing or two from them. After many such interactions through the years, I have realized that the common problem faced by many startups at least in their initial stage is the lack of time & budget. Because of the limited budget, startup entrepreneurs are seen knocking the doors of the investors to grow their business.

Irrespective of what may come, a startup needs to promote its business online to be successful. For which, having a nicely-built website is critical so is the online strategies deployed to promote it. There are different ways a website may be promoted online: SEO, PPC, SMM & so on. However, I will limit the discussion to SEO & PPC, throw light on which is apt for startups.

SEO vs PPC: Which is better for my startup?

To begin with both SEO & PPC have their very own pros & cons. Having said that, SEO is a suitable choice for many startups because of low/no cost as long as website online optimization is executed in-house. Furthermore, SEO scores high with regard to CTR & converting online users to a customer. With that being said, SEO does not work overnight, it is a laborious & time-consuming process. The outcomes can be seen after 3 months or so after having a great SEO strategy in place. However, keeping in mind the long-term strategy, the SEO results are worth investing the time & effort.

What in case your business cannot wait for long to get the desired result? Yes, that is when PPC comes into the picture. PPC can be your savior if budget is not a constraint for your business. You pay Google a certain amount of money to get the traffic. Indeed, an excellent way to promote your business. However, care should be taken to run a successful PPC campaign due to the fact that a poorly run campaign can take you nowhere except eating up your cost.

So which one is right for my startup? The answer entirely depends upon the startup & the marketplace you operate. Before incorporating these strategies, study your competitors & get to understand their strategies. If you've got budget & time, you ought to invest in both then give sufficient time to yourself & see which works best for your business because marketing is all about experimentation. In case, you have a budget & lack time then PPC is advisable & if its the other way round then SEO is favored. Irrespective of the constraints & what strategy you deploy, one is sure to achieve the much-desired result if done correctly.