If you’ve done any form of keyword research for your business, it’s probably more than just jumping into Google Ads’ Keyword Planner, you’ve also taken a look at the Google results pages for these keywords.
If you’re like a lot of business niches you’ve probably worked out that search results look a whole lot different than just a couple of years ago, and realise maybe it’s not necessarily thinking about whether you should be focusing on SEO or Google Ads (sometimes referred to as pay-per-click or PPC ads)…. It’s working out what is the right mix.
For a lot of search results you see the organic (free) search results that used to be at the top of the page are some distance down the page. Therefore a pure SEO Focus could actually put you out of contention even if you do rank 1 for organic results.
For the same search on mobile, organic results started at the bottom of the 3rd screen of scrolling I had to scroll!
Here’s the basics of what you need to know when deciding on your search strategy, and thinking about what the right mix of “old-school” SEO, Local SEO and Google Ads should be.
What Is SEO?
SEO is short for search engine optimisation. To put it simply, it is a method of getting more traffic to your site by including words those potential clients use to search for your products or services in the content on your site. Think of SEO as an organic method of increasing site traffic.
How It Works
Search engines like Google and Bing use crawl bots to gather site information and place them on indexes. An index is similar to a library where sites that are most relevant to what a person searches pop up in results first.
To determine the order that these pages appear in results, algorithms analyse the pages for many factors to determine where they will fall in the search results. SEO success is determined by how closely your website matches what the searcher is looking for.
The search engines also consider the number of links from other websites, and the quality of those websites, to help determine how you should rank. Good quality links are like votes for how good your content is.
How to Use It
SEO is unlike Google ads because you cannot pay for a higher ranking. This means that SEO rankings come organically. In other words, to get ranked high with your site’s SEO, you must have lots of quality, relevant content.
There are several factors that go into your SEO. It is more than just keywords. Quality of content, as well as keywords, are important factors. You also need to factor in speed and crawlability for your SEO quality.
At first, site owners could just put a few buzzwords in specific areas of their content and a site would start ranking. However, algorithms are advancing and keeping relevant sites at the top of search results. As such, you need to put in more effort.
That effort often goes beyond producing quality content, and building domain authority because of that. It’s also considering how you may encourage other sites to link to you – business directory listings that you can create may have some impact (depending on the competition in your niche), but links from authority sites particularly those associated with your business niche will have more value – these, of course, are harder to get!
There are also multiple SEO categories, including local SEO, e-commerce SEO, and news/publishing SEO.
Google Ads or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing
If you are looking for ways to get more people to notice you online, you have likely come across pay-per-click marketing. This is where you pay a fee each time one of your ads gets clicked on. It is basically a way of purchasing visits to your website rather than getting those visits organically.
How It Works
This allows a client to bid for placement in the sponsored links when a search is done. When bidding on a keyword such as “dog grooming,” your ad may get prominent placement.
When this sponsored ad is clicked, you will pay a fee. When used well, it is a nominal fee because you will make more in traffic and conversions than you pay for the marketing. For instance, if you pay $3 for a click and convert 1 in 10 clicks then $30 might yield a $300 sale.
How to Use It
At first glance, PPC may look like a simple option, but you still need to select and research quality keywords and get those worked into great campaigns and advertisements. While it may seem like busy work, Google and other search engines reward you for creating relevant content that is targeted (they see you are adding value to the search experience which is important to their business model). With these ads, you will pay less for your clicks. This discount means it truly does pay to know what you are doing with PPC.
Differences Between PPC and SEO Campaigns
To help consider which is best for your campaign, think about your budget and resources, your objectives and goals, your industry, the search result pages for your keywords, as well as how your site is currently doing.
With all these in mind, should you use PPC or SEO? It depends, as they are different ways to drive traffic to your site. Most companies will use both to get the advantages of each.
SEO Benefits
- It is cost-effective
- Sustainable and stable results
- Organic clicks are free
- Content can be targeted for different funnel stages
- Organic results may be perceived better than paid results
- Higher traffic volume
SEO Drawbacks
- Time-consuming and work-intensive
- Requires continual improvements to keep at the top of searches
- Needs attention to link-building, content creation, and other factors
- No guarantees
- The learning curve can be overwhelming, and there are regular changes to algorithms
- Ranking is a long term commitment… you might finally rank a focus keyword and find it is not a “buyer keyword”
Advantages of PPC
- Nearly instant results
- Ads are placed right at the top of search results
- You can make your presence better with address and phone numbers in search results
- Smaller base of knowledge needed
- Google experts offer support and assistance
- You have access to tons of data
- You can have test runs
- Data from keyword performance may give you the information you need to identify the keywords you should focus on for SEO.
Drawbacks of PPC
- Price per click can add up
- With more competitors advertising, price increases
- Higher initial investment
- You need to have someone manage the campaign
- You can’t just stop; will your site continue without these leads?
The best approach is a combined approach
When we’re putting together campaigns for clients, we prefer to use both traditional SEO and Google Ads.
Google Ads gives us immediate results – for businesses that means they are generating leads and sales in the short term.
It also means we get to understand exactly what people are clicking on and what search terms will convert…. That means when we go after buyer keywords as part of your long term SEO strategy we know we are investing in ranking buyer keywords so you will get real business results when you start ranking.
Want to implement a strategy for search into your business? Book a discovery call to get started