Semalt: SEO Vs PPC Vs SMM

Semalt is a professional SEO and marketing service that helps businesses appeal to and convert their ideal audience. The company was founded in 2013 and provides a range of services including Semalt Web Analytics, Web Development, AutoSEO, FullSEO, Video Production, and more.

Semalt has helped thousands of satisfied customers boost their traffic to new heights. Clients love the talented professionals, trustworthiness of the company, incredible market prices, and flexible discount system that Semalt offers.

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a key practice to bringing more exposure to your company's website. Essentially, SEO is the process of growing your website's traffic by improving your ranking on search engines like Google. 

If your website is popping up as one of the first results on Google for a certain keyword or phrase, then you've done well in your SEO efforts. Achieving one of these top spots involves keyword research, on-page optimization, link building, and a number of other steps. 

SEO revolves around improving unpaid, or organic, results. It doesn't include direct traffic or paid ads that are bringing people to your website. Good SEO helps your audience find you without you reaching out to them directly. 

Pay-per-click, or PPC, differs from SEO in that it is paid, as the name implies. In this model of marketing, advertisers pay a fee for every time one of their ads gets a click. 

Instead of getting traffic organically, advertisers are essentially buying visits to their website. You're probably familiar with the paid search results that first pop up when you run a search on Google - these are a good example of PPC.

Similar to SEO, PPC takes advantage of keywords. The keywords you match with will determine how often your website is clicked on and, in turn, how much you'll earn. Large PPC platforms include Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising.

Social media marketing, or SMM, is the practice of using social media platforms to promote a business's product or service. This concept goes hand-in-hand with the broader terms of digital marketing. 

Through an SMM strategy, businesses are aiming to connect and engage with their target audience in the hopes that they will gain clients who will then spread the word with their friends.

SMM is one of the most personalized forms of marketing as the business is interacting back and forth directly with the customer. Social media marketing can be done actively (adding links from your website to your social network) or passively (updating statuses, publishing images, and the like).

SEO is perhaps the most well-known marketing strategy of these three, and for good reason. Proper SEO practices can help a business achieve improved traffic and web presence and generally craft a greater internet presence. 

You'll experience better conversion rates, solidify your business as an authority in your industry, and save money as compared to other traditional marketing methods.

On the other hand, SEO marketing will not give you instant results. Additionally, there are lots of paid positions that can automatically beat you out for that coveted top spot on Google. 

Since SEO is such a big deal, it's likely that your competitors are taking advantage of this strategy as well, and with so much to learn about SEO, you might fall behind a rival business that's been working on their SEO strategy for longer.

PPC is a logical step for many business owners trying to market their company and test keywords in their industry. The results are often quick and easily measurable, and it's actually pretty affordable. You can track your ads in real time, and you're able to retarget visitors without much hassle.

PPC gives you a lot of control of your online marketing campaign, and you'll be able to share your business with potential customers from across the globe. 

However, one big con here is that PPC is not free. If you're on a tight budget, running a PPC campaign may be hard to justify. 

PPC can be pretty complicated to grasp at first, and once your campaign ends, your ads disappear. Plus, despite all the hard work you're putting in, PPC isn't a sure way to get sales and remains a gamble for many businesses.

Perhaps the biggest pro of SMM is the relationships. You get to form genuine connections with your audience members and expand your network around the world, allowing you to truly get to know your customers. 

Your fan base will be loyal and help you achieve higher conversion rates, not to mention that SMM can be much cheaper than other marketing campaigns.  

Unfortunately, SMM is also incredibly time-consuming. You either need to spend a lot of time creating content and engaging with your audience about it, or you can shell out some extra money to hire a social media professional for your business. 

Social media accounts are no strangers to security breaches, and one seemingly simple post could destroy your brand reputation in an instant. Your ROI can be hard to measure with this method, and if you have a post go viral, it can quickly get out of control.

SEO, PPC, and SMM each have their place in a well-rounded marketing strategy for your business. Semalt is here to help you with all your SEO needs. No matter how big or small your business is, Semalt has all the tools you need to craft a personalized and effective SEO campaign.

Semalt is proud to serve customers around the globe thanks to their multilingual team that will respond to you right away. Ready to learn how an SEO strategy can take your business to the next level? Contact Semalt today for a free website performance report or complimentary SEO consultation.