SEO vs PPC in 2025: Let’s Discover Which Marketing Channel Is the Best

Visitors that arrive on your page can be categorised into two types of traffic: organic or paid. I’ve explained the differences below:

Paid traffic

• Visitors that enter your website by clicking on a link you’ve paid for.
• This form of traffic often comes from paid ads, including PPC ads or Facebook ads
• Paid traffic is extremely targeted, since you will specify which audiences see your ads in search results to reach your desired demographic.

Organic traffic

• Visitors that enter your website from sources you haven’t paid for.
• SEO is the primary way to bring organic traffic to your site, since it helps visitors find your page in search results
• You can also get organic traffic from content marketing, such as social media posts
• Because organic traffic is free, small businesses often use SEO to increase brand visibility online while keeping their total costs low

While SEO is an effective way to improve your site’s visibility online, there are some key pros and cons to consider:

✔️ SEO Pros

• SEO is less expensive. With this method, you don’t need to pay to get your site’s pages seen online, which will save your business money.
• It builds trust and authority with your audience. If Google users consistently see your website in search results, you’ll gain a reputation as an authoritative voice in your industry.
• You can bring relevant traffic to your site. If you target the right queries from your keyword research, you can bring engaged users to your site who find your content genuinely helpful.
• It’s a better strategy than PPC for long-term growth. Though PPC brings instant results, SEO can provide you with a significant increase in traffic as your site grows.

❌ SEO Cons

• SEO doesn’t deliver immediate results like PPC. You need to put consistent time and effort into your website’s SEO before you see results.
• New SEO practices can be difficult to keep up with. Because of Google’s constant algorithm updates, you need to tweak your strategy over time to maintain your rankings.
• Some SEO keywords are highly competitive. If you want to rank for “best jogging sneakers” but big brands are already ranking for it, it’ll be tricker to rise to the top of the search results.
• It can be time consuming. From finding the right keywords to optimizing your content correctly, SEO will take up a significant chunk of your time.

As we saw with SEO, PPC also comes with some pros and cons to consider. Take a look at these before you start spending your money:

✔️ PPC Pros

• PPC drives immediate results. If you’re a new business and want to attract new customers as soon as possible, PPC is the way to go.
• It’s much easier to reach your target audience. PPC has less trial and error than SEO, since you can specify what audiences search engines will show your ads to.
• PPC ads have prominence on search results. When a user searches for a query, paid results labeled as “ad” or “sponsored” tend to show up before any organic results.
• You can use A/B testing on your PPC ads. To maximize your PPC strategy’s effectiveness, you can test different versions of your ads to see which ones work better.

❌ PPC Cons

• PPC campaigns aren’t effective on a long-term basis. Unlike SEO, which tends to perform better over time, PPC ads tend to see fewer clicks the longer they’re up.
• PPC is more expensive than SEO. Because you have to pay each time someone clicks on your ad, the overall costs of PPC can start to build up.
• Similarly to SEO, PPC can also be competitive. You will be competing with other businesses for a top spot in search results.
• Your visibility can instantly disappear. If you ever stop paying for an ad, it’ll be removed from search results, leading to a significant drop in page traffic.

Now that you have a better understanding of the difference between SEO and PPC, it’s time to work out which method is right for your business overall. I’ve outlined a few pointers to get you started.

How Much Time Do You Have?

Ask yourself: do you need instant results? Or do you have enough time to work on a long-term strategy?

PPC is best if you’re under time constraints, since ads will immediately appear on search results once you’ve set them up. This speed may come in handy depending on your priorities – for example, if you’re holding a limited-time promotion and need to drive immediate traffic to the page that’s advertising it.

On the other hand, SEO won’t provide you with immediate results, but it can help you build a stronger foundation for improved page rankings over time. While keyword research and creating SEO-friendly content may take time, it can lead to fantastic search engine visibility in the long run.

🏃 Need some tools to speed up SEO tasks? Refer to our guide to the best free SEO tools around.

What Is Your Budget?

SEO is the cheaper option, so it’s the best choice for you if you have a limited marketing budget to work with. If used properly, SEO can lead to fantastic digital marketing ROI too, with the average ROI for SEO being approximately 2,200%.

But if you have more money to spend, PPC is a viable option. Depending on how much you bid for each ad, estimated PPC costs can range between $100 and $5,000 per month for small businesses. Just remember to monitor how much you’re spending to make sure that you don’t start overspending.

💸 Though SEO is free, you may encounter a few additional costs depending on your goals. Read our guide to how much SEO costs to find out why.

What Are Your Business Goals?

Whether you opt for SEO or PPC, your chosen method must contribute to your business goals.

PPC is recommended for:

• Businesses that want leads straight away. By sending targeted ads to specific demographics, you can reach the individuals that are most interested in your products or services and optimize your conversion rate.
• Businesses that need marketing data fast. With PPC, you can conduct A/B testing to see which ads are doing best, and use Google Ads or Google Analytics to see how your ads are performing in real-time. If you need marketing data quickly to make immediate, informed decisions, PPC is best.

SEO is recommended for:

• Businesses that want sustainable growth. As you start ranking for specific keywords, you should continue to see sustained traffic to your website from organic search. That said, you’ll still need to monitor your rankings effectively in case you see any dips in visibility.
• Businesses that need to build trust and authority. Want to stand out as an authoritative business in your industry? SEO is the best option. If your site has a high SEO visibility score and is consistently at the top of the SERPs, it signals to audiences that your brand is one they can trust.

Though SEO and PPC have their strengths and weaknesses, you may encounter the best results when you combine both methods. When you use these channels in tandem, you’ll find various benefits, such as:

• Improved keyword targeting – You may rank best for some keywords with SEO, while PPC may bring you more success with others. Monitor the performance of both channels to see which keywords are better suited for each method.
• Search domination – If you’re appearing in organic search results and PPC ads, you’ll amplify your visibility online.
• Effective user retargeting – Did a user access your page through organic search but not convert? To retarget them, you could set up a PPC ad to remind them of your product or service. That way, you have another chance to secure a conversion.

Now that I’ve covered the difference between SEO and PPC, you should have a better understanding of how each marketing channel can benefit your website’s rankings. However, let’s quickly recap the main points covered:

• Use PPC if you have a bigger budget, but use SEO if you want to increase traffic for free
• Use PPC if you want instant results, while SEO is better if you’re forming a long-term strategy
• When used together, PPC and SEO can maximise your traffic, reach, and conversions

Above all, the best channel for you will depend on your business goals. Think carefully about what you want to accomplish, since your chosen channel should help you reach your targets.