A good Internet marketing strategy includes a variety of channels and tactics that work together to generate leads online. This includes SEO, PPC, content marketing, email marketing, social media, and many others, all of which contribute to your overall success in slightly different ways.

As you begin to develop a plan, one of the biggest challenges is determining which of these channels is the most effective and should receive the largest portion of your budget. It makes sense, then, that our team is often asked to compare the advantages of two of the most widely-known: SEO and PPC.

The truth is, both of these strategies deserve a place in your strategy, because they achieve very different results. That being said, there are a few key distinctions you should know when determining your approach to Internet marketing.

SEO produces lasting results

Considering that SEO refers to anything you do to improve your site’s organic rankings in search engine results, it actually involves a variety of separate tasks. An SEO’s responsibilities typically include keyword research, copywriting, and link building, just to name a few.

As a result, optimizing a site is a time-consuming process. It can take weeks – or even months – to see substantial results, and even then, the SEO’s job is not finished. It’s an ongoing process, and one that requires at least a few hours per week to do well.

It’s certainly not an easy endeavor. However, it’s entirely worth it once you start to see results. A solid SEO strategy involves writing and creating useful site content, building relationships with other site owners, and engaging with potential clients. So not only will your rankings begin to climb, but the efforts you’ve taken to achieve them will build upon each other to create a steadily-improving online presence.

As you continue to optimize your site, your online reputation and awareness of your rehab center will only continue to grow. When it comes to SEO, the results tend to be slow and steady.

PPC produces instant results

In contrast to SEO, you can create and launch a PPC campaign and have your ads displaying in search results in a matter of hours. Selecting keywords and creating ads doesn’t necessarily require the same ongoing approach (although we certainly recommend it), and with high enough bids, your ads could have thousands of impressions by the end of the day.

When done well, these campaigns can be a huge help to your overall strategy. This is especially true within the first few months, because they’ll allow you to reach clients even though your SEO strategy hasn’t yet started to produce results.

The main drawback, however, is that unlike SEO, your PPC efforts don’t produce any sort of lasting results. As soon as you stop your campaign and stop paying for ads, your business will vanish from search results without a trace. And unless you’ve also invested time and resources in other channels, the leads could stop entirely.

Interested in using SEO and PPC for your rehab center?

At WebFX, we believe that the best approach is a combination of both SEO and PPC. If you’d like to learn more about how we use the two together to achieve results, don’t hesitate to contact us! Our strategists are more than happy to discuss how we can create a full-service Internet marketing plan for your rehab center.