Do I Need to Do Paid Search Advertising or Organic SEO?
Even if your business has a clear call to action, you need to establish various strategies to get potential customers to visit. Paid ads and organic search engine optimization (SEO) are two ways to drive traffic to your website, but many people have a hard time choosing between the two.
In this article, you will learn the difference between paid advertising and organic SEO, how they work, and how they can benefit your search engine results page (SERP) ranking.
What Is Paid Search Advertising?
Paid advertising, also referred to as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, is a form of marketing where businesses pay to have their ads displayed on top of SERPs. When a potential customer clicks on one of these ads, the business is then charged a fee.
Paid advertising is a great way to get your business in front of potential customers who are already searching for your products or services. It’s also a good way to promote special offers and drive traffic to your website. The best thing about it is you only get charged when a person interacts with your ads.
The main reason why many businesses choose paid ads is that it gets their content on top of the SERPs, giving them more visibility and opportunities to be seen by potential customers. When it comes to paid advertising, all advertisers typically bid for keywords that are relevant to their niche and target market which makes the cost of PPC ads dependent on your industry and the keyword search volume you want to target.
What Is Organic SEO?
Organic SEO is the process of optimizing your website to rank higher in SERPs without paying for ads. This is done by using various techniques, such as keyword research and link building, to improve your website’s visibility and authority in accordance with Google’s established ranking factors, like content length, internal links, site and mobile usability, and more.
While it can take longer to see results from organic SEO, it is a more sustainable way to grow your business in the long run. And once you achieve a good ranking, you will continue to receive traffic to your website without having to pay for it. It is a great way to build trust with potential customers and establish your brand. When people see that you’re ranking high in the SERPs, they will perceive your business as being more credible and trustworthy.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Paid Search and Organic SEO
Now that you understand what paid search and organic SEO are and their key differences, let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy. Knowing the pros and cons can help you determine which route is the best one for your business.
- Pros of Paid Search Advertising
- Cons of Paid Search Advertising
- Pros of Organic SEO
- Cons of Organic SEO
You get quick results.
One of the best things about PPC is that you can get quick results. Once you create your ad campaign and start running your ads, you can start getting traffic to your website right away.
You can accurately target your audience.
As we mentioned before, paid ads allow you to target a specific audience with your ads. This is a great way to ensure that your ads are seen by people who are most likely to convert.
You are on top of the search engine results.
When you run a paid ad campaign, your ads will appear at the top of the search engine results. This is beneficial because users are more likely to click on the first thing they see when they are searching for something.
It costs more than organic search.
Since you have to pay for your ads, this strategy can be disadvantageous, especially if you own a small business and have a limited budget.
It gives short-term results.
Paid ads are not a sustainable way to grow your business since you will have to keep paying for them. Once you stop paying, your ads will stop appearing and your traffic will drop.
Your growth is limited by your budget.
Another disadvantage of paid search is that your growth depends on your budget. If you want to grow your campaign, you will need to increase your budget.
It is more sustainable.
As organic SEO is more sustainable than paid ads, it will provide you with long-term results. You will continue to get traffic to your website once you rank high in the SERPs—without having to pay a lot. With this, you can enjoy increased online visibility, brand authority, and conversion.
You can focus on different funnel stages.
Organic SEO is a great way to reach different funnel stages. For instance, you can use blog posts to attract people who are in the awareness stage, and you can use product pages to attract people who are in the consideration stage.
Algorithms constantly change.
One of the biggest disadvantages of organic SEO is the constantly changing algorithm. And when it does, your rankings can drop. This means that you always need to be updated with the latest changes to ensure that your website is still ranking high.
You need to wait longer.
Compared to PPC, you will need to wait longer to see results with organic SEO. It can take months—even years—before you start seeing an increase in traffic.
You need an SEO expert.
Organic SEO is not something that you can do on your own. You will need to hire an SEO specialist to help you with optimizing your website, which can be a challenge if you have a limited budget.
The Qualities of a Good SEO Company
There are a ton of internet tools available to assist you in implementing SEO on your own, but it is still more beneficial to hire an SEO expert. Working with a professional is your best option if you aim to minimize problems, save time, and waste marketing money. SEO isn’t always the simplest thing to understand, so you need to know what makes a good SEO company.
There is a big difference between the costs of paid advertising and organic SEO.
The price of paid ads will change depending on your budget, the competition, and the quality of your advertisements as determined by the search engine. Some keywords can be costly depending on your business and other factors. On the other hand, organic SEO doesn’t require you to pay a lot. The traffic you’ll get from organic SEO is entirely free, but you will need to pay a digital marketing agency, outsource an SEO writer, or develop the web content yourself.
Developing an optimized content marketing strategy requires time and expertise for your website to rank and be successful in organic search. You have to make sure that you have the right structure, headers, keywords, and other technical elements along with ensuring your web content is better than your competitors.
Paid advertising allows you to be on top of the SERPs. This is because you are paying to be there, and the ads will appear above the organic search results. When users are searching for something, they will often click on the first thing they see, which is usually a paid ad.
Organic SEO can take time to achieve a high ranking, but once you are on the first page of the SERPs, you can stay there for a long time without paying a lot. But while organic search can get the most clicks, paid ads are still superior when it comes to conversion. But if you’re not after a quick return on investment (ROI), then organic SEO is better for you since it offers lasting power.
The results of paid advertising are almost instant; you can create an ad campaign and start getting traffic to your website within days, if not hours.
Meanwhile, organic SEO is a long-term strategy that can take months to show results. But once you rank high in the SERPs, you will continue to get traffic to your website without having to pay for it.
Paid ads allow you to target a specific audience with your ads. You can target people by their location, age, gender, interests, and more. You can also target people who have visited your website before, or are similar to your current customers.
Organic SEO, on the other hand, does not offer this level of audience targeting, but you can target a specific audience by developing the right content for your website. For example, if you want to target people in a certain location, you can optimize your web content for that location.
Paid advertising is not a sustainable way to grow your business since you will have to keep paying for it. Once you stop paying, your ads will stop appearing, and your traffic will drop. Organic SEO is a more sustainable way to grow your business since the results are long-lasting.
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Which Works Better for Your Business?
So what’s really better for your business: paid advertising, organic SEO, or both?
Now that you understand both strategies, all that’s left to do is decide which one will benefit your business the most. Paid advertising is better for businesses with a huge budget and who want quick results. On the other hand, organic SEO is the way to go for those who want a more sustainable and long-term strategy.
Think about your goals and objectives and decide which route will help you achieve them. If you’re still not sure which one to choose, look for a reputable digital marketing agency like Rohring Results to help you make the best decision for your business’s success.
