SEO, SMM or PPC: what does your business need?

We brought together teams of seo, smm and ppc specialists and asked them to answer the most important question: SEO, SMM or PPC: which promotion method to choose in 2021? This article will help you understand which promotion method is right for your business.

What our experts say

In our practice, we often encounter a lack of understanding of clients, what kind of specialist they need. Due to ignorance of all the subtleties of specialization, misunderstandings arise, in some cases even accusations of the incompetence of a specialist. In this article, we want to explain to you, dear customers, who is an SEO, SMM, PPC specialist in more detail.

Quick sales – PPC Specialist

If your main goal is to get orders as soon as possible but you don't have time to create and develop social media pages, professional photo shoots, content manager or seo website promotion. Then you need to contact a PPC specialist.

PPC-nickname specializes in creating advertising campaigns and tracking traffic (result). You need this particular professional, because only he knows and does everything in order to reduce the cost per click / click / lead for his client and increase the conversion. This is his main and main goal of work!

There is one caveat, even if you have time to develop social networks, but you sell wholesale. It is more profitable to turn to a PPC than to an SMM manager. Because social networks sell wholesale only from large and well-known brands. If you are a start-up company and only a limited number of people know about you. It is better to put all your strength into wholesale sales through the site (it will be cheaper and many times more effective). Again, with the help of the knowledge and skills of a PPC specialist. After you become a more famous store, then you can enter the social media market.

Therefore, if your business needs a quick start in sales - a PPC specialist — this is your promotion method

SMM promotion – long term

Why everyone thinks that SMM sells, we don't know. Perhaps, having heard a lot of smm-men in "quotes" who promise a million customers for 1000 rubles. You must understand that the goal is smm promotions NOT sales. An SMM specialist does not work for sales, but for development of brand popularity among social network users. That is, with the help of the same targeted advertising, the sms manager does everything necessary to ensure that your product / store / company is seen by as many people as possible.

If ppc – these are direct sales, then smm – it is the popularity and recognition of the promoted brand.

Of course, thanks to the correct targeting of ads by a smm specialist, your page will start selling. But this is not a priority! Do not blame the SMM manager if, after 3 months of starting, you had only 10 orders, and you wanted 2000. This is not his mistake, but the wrong promotion method.

SMM – this is an increase in interest in your product, and it, in turn, leads to various actions on the part of the client: like, comment, save, subscribe, repost, etc. Among these reactions there is also a purchase, but as you can see, this is not the only reaction of the client, unlike the goal of PPC.

SEO – necessary component

Speaking for seo website promotion, then this is more a business prospect than a quick sale . All because SEO is divided into so many small goals that take time to complete. And sometimes, the time spent on the implementation of some item does not depend on the seo specialist. Since search engine bots are not subject to the forces of specialists.

Not convinced, then let's describe in detail the process of seo promotion in the days of fruitful work on your site:

1. Correction of errors of your programmer. As practice has shown, they are always there. Starting from errors in w3c and ending with the lack of pagespeed optimization (7 days). Sometimes, the situation is even more critical - incorrectly selected cms. Let's say Wordpress for an online store (the chances of reaching the top and getting around competitors are zero). In the case of such a file, the correction will take from 21 days. The programmer of our web studio will create a new site on the adaptive and secure Yii2 frame (it will be much better than the buggy Wordpress). And then the site will have a chance to reach the top and beat the competition.

2. Selection of the semantic core of the site (keywords). And pagination. (3 days)

3. SEO optimization of each page. This includes: title, description, alt, etc. (from 10 days)

4. Writing SEO articles for the website. This is necessary to increase the content mass of the site (from 3 days)

5. Sending the necessary files to the search engine so that the bots go through the site and include changes (1 day). But when they pass through the site does not depend on the specialist (on average, from one day to 14 days).

6. The first analysis of site positions after SEO optimization (1-2 days)

7. Drawing up a website promotion strategy (note that before that there was only optimization). Based on what positions the SEO optimization of the site will bring, the future promotion strategy depends. And if those occupying positions do not sell (that is, 3 and below the search page), you need to buy links, connect activity in social networks, more SEO articles, etc. To get the first result from SEO, you must spend at least 31 days and all this in order for the site to start selling.

Without seo optimization and promotion, your site will not be able to take the first positions. Therefore, seo – it is an essential part of promoting your business. But, if your goal is to sell from the site now and immediately – contact PPC.

SEO – does not sell quickly!

But, even if the site is in the first positions, this does not mean that it will sell. Sneaky, but that's how it is. Visitors buy where it is cheaper, more profitable (discounts, promotions, a savings system, etc.), where the design is more convenient and the site loads faster, the company's popularity and many more nuances. Which either encourage the client to buy, or force them to go to competitors.

To summarize:

• Fast sales - PPC
• Expansion of brand awareness in social networks (the prospect of large sales) – SMM
• Raising the site to the first pages of the search engine (the prospect of big sales) – SEO

Practice has shown that the greatest success in business promotion appears when all methods are combined: seo + smm + ppc. Thanks to this strategy, the company can reach as many target audiences as possible. Which in turn will bring demand for the promoted product/service.