Kolkata, the city famously known as the “joyous” city, blends its culturally rich tradition with modernity. Businesses, ranging from bustling street markets to those in real estate, are often facilitated by this city’s enormous digital potential.
However, this also poses fierce competition for emerging businesses. If you’re a business owner who’s looking to set foot in the competitive market of Kolkata, then credible digital marketing agencies in Kolkata might help you out. But how? SEO or PPC- which one would be better? This blog aids you in making the right decision.
SEO and PPC: A Quick Primer
Before we conclude what would be the proper digital marketing strategy for you, let’s dig in and know a bit about these strategies.
What is SEO?
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is quite prevalent as a strategy in today’s era. As the term suggests, it is primarily focused on improving your website’s visibility by optimising it for the requirements of search engine results. This includes optimising the content, building high-quality backlinks, improving loading speed, along other processes.
What is PPC?
PPC, or Pay-Per-Click, is a modernised form of advertising where you pay for each click that your ads get. In simpler words, personalized digital marketing agencies create ads on your behalf, which boosts your website’s popularity within your potential audience, while driving results faster. Prominent PPC platforms include Google Ads, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
The Kolkata Factor: Why It Has Potential
It would be foolish to implement a generic digital marketing strategy in Kolkata without studying the factors that would amp up your business’s growth. That being said, let’s take a peek at the potent factors of this market.
Population
You would be surprised to know that Kolkata’s population stands- and no, we aren’t talking about the entire city! The estimated urban population of Kolkata is over 15 million.
Digital Audience
The vast urban population of Kolkata comes with a perk- more than 70 percent of the urban population is adept at digital content, thus making them a potential target audience for your business.
Search Behaviour
A digital audience isn’t useful enough unless you get your hands on their search behaviour. The majority of the urban and digital population of Kolkata searches in English or Bengali.
Prominent Industries
The prominent industries that are on the rise in Kolkata are education, real estate, healthcare, retail, and tourism. These sectors often rely on digital marketing agencies in Kolkata to grow.
With the immense potential Kolkata has, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the city of joy is not lagging in the digital race. Local companies are increasingly collaborating with digital marketing agencies to get results tailored to the factors associated with the city.
SEO: The Long Game with Compounding Results
Time to evaluate SEO practices through pros and cons. This would help you picture how or how not your business can benefit from SEO services.
The Pros of SEO
- Highly Cost-Effective: Unlike other digital marketing practices, SEO is comparatively cost-effective. It helps you fetch plausible results without straining your pockets.
- Trustworthy and Credible: Organic results, such as higher SERP rankings, are more likely to be trusted by users than ad pop-ups. This gives SEO an edge over other methods like PPC.
- Sustainable Rankings: Once you secure your rankings on the SERP, you can maintain visibility easily. This may or may not require minimal costs, based on your preferences.
- Higher ROI: SEO offers a higher return on investment than other marketing processes. A survey showed that more than 50% of traffic for websites is derived from organic searches.
The Drawbacks of SEO
- Results take Time: Results from SEO take a fairly long time to appear. This can range from 3 to 6 months, depending on the sector of your business.
- Constant Supervision, Frequent Maintenance: One of the hindrances that SEO teams face is the frequent updates to Google algorithms, compelling them to remap their plans.
- Skill Intensive: Implementing SEO for your business requires a team that knows techniques. This includes a firm grip on technical SEO, content strategy, and analytics.
SEO in Kolkata
Kolkata consists of a highly competitive arena within sectors such as education and retail. Organic visibility is a crucial necessity in these sectors, and thus, businesses in Kolkata are shifting towards AI-driven digital marketing tools that automate content creation, keyword research, and competitor analysis.
PPC: Instant Results, But at a Cost
Pros of PPC
- Immediate Visibility: Unlike SEO, PPC ads show up instantly, as soon as the campaign is live. This results in an almost immediate result by drawing the attention of potential customers.
- Precise Targeting: PPC can be anchored according to the area in which your business is based. This includes factors such as demographics, location, interests, and more.
- Heightened Scalability: The scalable trait of PPC campaigns makes it quite credible in digital marketing. You can increase or decrease the budget based on the performance of the ads.
- Measurable ROI: You can track every single penny that you spend on PPC ads. This makes the return on investment easier to track and manage.
The Drawbacks of PPC
- A Bit Costlier: Contrary to SEO, PPC campaigns tend to be a bit costlier, thanks to the rapid results that they provide.
- Short Shelf-Life: PPCs are short-lived, which means that you shall stop getting traffic once your budget runs out.
- Risks of Click Fraud: Although click fraud is less common in today’s world, it still exists. PPCs are always at the risk of being perceived as potential fraud.
PPC in Kolkata
PPC works wonders for new product launches, seasonal offers, or event promotions. Many digital marketing companies in Kolkata use PPC to test different markets before launching full-scale SEO campaigns, taking full responsibility for raising the bar of your business.
The Role of AI and Personalisation
Kolkata’s digital landscape is now set for innovation. The use of AI-driven digital marketing tools is now revolutionising how marketing campaigns are executed. Let’s have a brief look at some of the features that AI-driven SEO and PPC have to offer.
AI in SEO
- Predictive Keyword Analysis: AI tools like Surfer SEO and Clearscope help you find keywords based on user intent and search trends instead of blindly relying upon keyword volume. Don’t shoot in the dark anymore, drive in results with AI.
- Automated Technical Audits: SEO platforms, such as Ahrefs and SEMrush, run regular crawls that help you detect issues with AI. These issues include broken links, content repetition, or crawl errors. Sort these problems before they hinder your present ranks.
- AI-Generated Meta Descriptions: With tools like Jasper or ChatGPT, you can auto-generate optimized meta descriptions that stay relevant and click-worthy- no manual slogging, just top-notch results.
AI in PPC
- Smart Bidding Strategies: Google’s machine learning calibrates bids in real-time to maximise conversions, not just impressions. Your money is still being spent, but for a greater output.
- Ad Copy Testing: AI tests numerous ad variations simultaneously for you, and then picks the one that seems ideal enough (based on click-throughs and conversions). Skip the guesswork!
- Dynamic Search Ads: AI auto-generates headlines and landing pages based on real-time searches. Thus, you’re always relevant, even if users don’t search exactly how you expect.
Which Strategy Should You Use?
Now that you’ve got a rough image of SEO and PPC in your head, you must have figured out which one to implement in your business. In case you haven’t, then let’s help you out.
Go for SEO if:
- You’re a local business looking to build brand equity.
- You have a long-term vision.
- Your budget is limited but consistent.
Choose PPC if:
- You want instant visibility.
- You’re promoting time-sensitive offers.
- You’re launching a new product or service
The Solution
So, what now? Looking for a trustworthy list of digital marketing companies in Kolkata? If yes, then Skyram Technologies is the helping hand you need. With close to 10 years of working experience, innovation, and real results in SEO or PPC, we make sure that your establishment not only survives but thrives as the market evolves in Kolkata.
We have:
- Served 200+ clients worldwide
- Ensured an 80% surge in average ROI for digital campaigns
- Certified experts in SEO, PPC, and AI marketing tools
Think Smart, Act Smarter
Essentially, it is not SEO versus PPC. Rather, it is about deploying the right tool at the right time, as the Kolkata market is showing no sign of slowing down anytime soon. Be it a startup or a retail chain, you should try to make informed decisions and associate yourself with agencies that comprehend the market, something that we at Skyram Technologies are very good at doing. Collaborate with one of the best digital marketing companies in Kolkata today.