SEO or PPC.

What the difference actually is

Search engine optimisation gets a site into the ordinary, unpaid results. You do not pay for visits: the work goes into page content, site structure and the site's reputation with the search engine.

Paid search is the ads in Yandex Direct and Google Ads that are shown in response to a person's query or their interests. Here you pay for every click and get visitors immediately after launch.

The difference is not which channel is better, but what you are buying: with ads you rent attention; with optimisation you build an asset.

Strengths and weaknesses of SEO

What you get. Organic traffic is usually more motivated: the person was looking for a solution themselves rather than seeing an ad. The flow is stable and does not stop when the advertising budget runs out. Over the long term one visitor costs noticeably less.

What you pay with. Time. Results do not come straight away and require ongoing work: algorithms change, competitors do not stand still. In crowded niches, reaching the top positions is not a one-month task.

Strengths and weaknesses of paid search

What you get. Speed. The campaign launches today, traffic arrives tomorrow. The audience can be targeted precisely: city, age, interests, behaviour. Ideal for a new product launch, a seasonal promotion and any task with a date attached.

What you pay with. Money, continuously. In competitive niches a click is expensive, and as soon as you switch the ads off, the flow stops the same day. No cumulative effect remains.

How to choose for your situation

Start with ads if you need results in the coming weeks, you are launching a new product, testing demand or running a promotion with a specific deadline.

Start with SEO if demand for the service is already established and people search for it, if you are prepared to invest for several months before the return and want to reduce your dependence on the advertising budget.

In practice the choice is rarely either/or. Usually ads cover the need for leads right now, while search promotion runs in parallel and gradually takes over part of the flow.

Why it pays to combine them

Advertising is also a quick way to test hypotheses. Within a couple of weeks you can see which queries bring buyers, which wording catches, which pages lead to an enquiry. All of this is data on which search promotion is then built — without months of waiting.

The feedback works the other way too: when the site reaches the organic results for its key queries, the advertising budget can be moved to the areas where there is no organic traffic yet.

What it costs and how to count

Comparing channels by cost per click is pointless. What you need to count is cost per lead and, if the data exists, cost per customer. Advertising with an expensive click that brings buyers is more profitable than cheap traffic that leaves without acting.

Search promotion is calculated differently: the budget is constant while the flow of visitors grows over time, so cost per lead falls month by month. In the first months it is inevitably higher than in advertising — and that is normal.

Do you need a specialist

Setting up ads looks simple right up until the first budget is burned through. Then it turns out the money went on irrelevant impressions, negative keywords were never collected and the ads lead to the home page instead of the service page.

A specialist's work is not a line of expense but a way not to waste the budget: they know which settings and tools produce results and see mistakes before they cost money.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get by with ads alone?

You can, but you will forever remain a tenant of traffic. As soon as the budget ends, the visitors end too.

Can I get by with SEO alone?

If the business can survive several months without additional leads — yes. If leads are needed now, there is nothing but advertising to cover that period.

Do ads hurt organic rankings?

No, they are independent mechanisms: buying ads neither raises nor lowers positions in the ordinary results.

What to launch first on a small budget?

Ads on a narrow segment — they will show faster whether there is demand and whether the offer works. Investing in long-term promotion before that check is risky.

What to do next

Answer two questions: how soon you need leads and how much you are prepared to spend each month. The first determines the channel, the second the scale.

We work in both areas: SEO promotion and advertising setup. Next, our guide on how to increase traffic to a site will come in handy.