Benefit from Backlinks
Backlinks are when another website links to one of your pages. People like to reference trustworthy and authoritative sites in their own content. This line of thinking is no different from a journalist interviewing an expert, or a student citing a reliable source. Your credibility bolsters their own credibility. Once Google decides your content is authoritative, other websites will too. This is beneficial to you because your authority increases as you gain backlinks—helping to maintain or increase your ranking.
The Gift that Keeps Giving
As you may have already guessed, organic rankings continue to drive traffic to your site. Once you’ve earned authority, you’ll rank on Google’s first page. This creates a positive feedback loop. Consumers will continue to trust your company and Albania Email List 215428 Contact Leads click on your site. Other websites will link to your resources. All of this continues to show Google your site provides value to consumers, so it continues to rank.
Cons of SEO Efforts
Without a doubt, SEO is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your site and convert searchers into paying customers. However, this marketing strategy is not without its drawbacks.
Patience is Key
The primary downside of an SEO campaign is that it truly is a long-term strategy. Usually, optimized content takes between 6 and 9 months to rank—depending on the keyword difficulty. This is because there is so much content on the internet. The competition is fierce! Especially if you’re trying to break into a field where there are already other authoritative websites ranking. This is why it’s important to be patient. Correctly optimized content will rank, it’s only a matter of time.
Less Control
Unlike paid ads, which are guaranteed a top-spot, your organic position can fluctuate—meaning you have less control over the campaign. Also, since no-one completely knows the Google algorithm and given that it’s always changing, it’s natural for your position to shift slightly. This leads us into our next point…
Requires Consistent Effort
Although SEO is not as demanding as PPC, it still requires close monitoring and constant effort. We told you a successful digital marketing strategy relies on hard work! Since SEO is a long-term strategy, it requires you to be invested in consistent content marketing efforts, while staying on top of any changes to the algorithm and Google’s Terms of Service.
Relies on a Team
Both on-page and off-page SEO strategies are a team effort. You need specialists to optimize your website, research target keywords, integrate those keywords into quality pieces of content, spearhead backlink outreach and monitor the success of your campaign.
PPC Advertising Pros
We’ve all seen the rows of ads lining the top of any Google search results page, and perhaps have even clicked through—experiencing the benefits of Google Ads as a consumer. But as a business owner, how does this strategy benefit your company?
Get to the Top Instantly
Right off the bat, the greatest advantage of a pay-per-click ad campaign is that the top position can be bought. This immediately places you where prospects can find you, and encourages potential customers to choose your product or service. It offers immediate returns and works very quickly. This speed is especially helpful to increase PPC traffic and push sales if you’re a brand-new company with no established authority.
Full Control of PPC Campaigns
Unlike SEO, with a PPC ad campaign you have complete control over your online marketing efforts. Your advertisement stays in the top position as long as you continue to pay the search engine—usually Google by way of Google Ads. This can be especially helpful if you want to experiment by way of A/B testing. Since PPC offers quick results, you can run different campaigns to see what resonates with your target audience and what doesn’t.
Allows for Niche Targeting
Another excellent benefit of PPC ads is that you have more granular control. With Google Ads, you can edit the audiences you want to reach based on different types of data, such as demographics and location. This is helpful if you want to focus on ads that will resonate with a specific niche—such as single women under 40 living in Dallas.
PPC Marketing Cons
By now, you may be thinking that pay-per-click advertising is the way to go. But, let’s take a moment to unpack some of its drawbacks.
Very Expensive
PPC is a significant financial investment. You pay every time a prospect clicks on your link, which is what you want out of the campaign to begin with. This means the more successful your campaign is, the more it will cost you. Depending on the keyword you’ve selected, you could be paying thousands of dollars every month to stay at the top-spot in a highly competitive field.
Not to mention, it is possible to get into a bidding war over keywords with other companies. This will significantly drive up the cost of your ad, possibly crippling your marketing budget. Even without a bidding war, there is no cap on the cost per click and cost per lead, meaning the price of your advertisement could continually increase.
Labour Intensive
With any marketing campaign, consistency is key. But this is taken to another level with PPC marketing. You have to continuously pay the search engines to remain in the top-spot. As soon as you stop paying, your advertisement disappears. Your position is only visible while the campaign runs. PPC also requires close monitoring to ensure your ads are working.
Short-Term Results
PPC is not a long-term strategy. It may offer a quicker return, but PPC traffic is short-lived. After your money is spent on a click, there are no residual benefits. The campaign won’t build web-authority or trust in your target audience. Also, like we mentioned earlier, the ad disappears once you stop paying for it. Only organically ranked pages remain.
Ad Blindness & Fatigue
The greatest danger of a pay-per-click campaign is that your target audience will grow tired of your ads and skip over them completely. Much like in traditional advertising, novelty is key. If you’re not offering additional value, prospects who skipped over your ad the first time will do so again. Remember your consumer is bombarded with ads every day, so it’s important that yours stands out or you’ll miss the opportunity to gain a click.
SMM Campaign Pros
Social media marketing is quickly becoming one of the most buzz-worthy tools in the digital sphere. And certainly, we’ve all seen brands blow-up on Instagram—reaching thousands of loyal followers. But is social media truly worth the hype? Let’s find out.