Pay per click (PPC) is an advertising strategy that businesses use to place their content at the top of the search results pages for certain keywords. Usually, these are high-volume keywords that a target audience is searching for, and each time someone clicks that PPC ad, the company pays Google or Microsoft for the click.
PPC is distinct from SEO, which helps encourage organic search traffic. Both SEO and PPC comprise the principal parts of search engine marketing (SEM).