Choosing between SEO and Google Ads can be tricky- on the one hand, both are essential for getting your website seen by potential customers, but on the other, they can be quite different in how they operate. SEO is all about optimizing your website so that it appears higher in organic search results, while Google Ads allows you to pay for placement in search results.
🔸SEO
Firstly, make absolutely sure that your website is optimized for search engines. This means ensuring that your site is mobile-friendly, uses relevant and keyword-rich titles and descriptions, and has a fast-loading speed. You should also create fresh and unique content on a regular basis, as this will help to keep your site visible in the search results.
🔹Google Ads
As well as optimizing your website, you also need to create effective Google Ads campaigns. This involves research into which keywords are most likely to convert, and then creating adverts that target these keywords. You should also make sure that your adverts are relevant to your landing pages, as this will help to improve your conversion rate.
Here are some differences between SEO and Google Ads-
Pros and Cons of SEO
✅ Pros:
- Takes less money to sustain in the long run: Once your SEO campaign is successful, it will take less money to maintain your position on SERPs. Builds trust and credibility: Over time, as you rank higher for certain keywords, people will begin to trust your website more. This can lead to an increase in organic traffic even when you’re not actively working on your SEO.
- Can eventually lead to organic traffic even after you stop investing in it: Even if you stop working on your SEO, you may still get some organic traffic from the rankings you’ve built up over time.
- Builds brand awareness: The higher you rank in organic search results, the more likely people are to see your brand and become familiar with it.
❎ Cons:
- Takes longer to see results: SEO can take months or even years to show results, depending on the competitiveness of your industry and the keywords you’re targeting.
- Needs constant work: Once you rank for a keyword, you need to continuously work to maintain that ranking. If you stop working on SEO, your rankings will eventually drop.
- Can be unpredictable: The algorithm updates can cause your rankings to fluctuate, and it’s often difficult to predict why or when these changes will happen.
Pros and Cons of Google Ads
✅ Pros:
- Can produce results more quickly than SEO: You can start seeing traffic and leads almost immediately after your Google Ads campaign goes live.
- More controllable: Unlike SEO, you have more control over when and where your ad appears.
- You have more control over your results: With SEO, you can only do so much to influence your rankings. However, with Google Ads, you can directly control your results by setting a budget and bid.
- Your results are more predictable: Because you’re in direct control of your Google Ads campaign, your results are more predictable than with SEO.
❎ Cons:
- You have to pay for results: With Google Ads, you have to pay for each click on your ad. With SEO, you can get traffic without paying anything.
- Can be expensive, depending on your industry and the keywords you’re targeting: With Google Ads, you can control your budget and bids, but depending on your industry and the keywords you’re targeting, it can be expensive.
- You need to constantly monitor and optimize your campaign: If you want to get the most out of Google Ads, you need to constantly monitor and optimize your campaign. This can be time-consuming.
Traffic
Website traffic is important for your website for many reasons. The number of visitors on your website determines your website’s popularity. If you have a high number of visitors, it means that your website is useful and popular. This can lead to more sales and conversions as people are more likely to buy from a popular website.
🔸SEO: The kind of traffic SEO generates is different from that of Google Ads. The main difference is that SEO brings in organic traffic, which is users who find your website through search engines. Although this takes time, it is worth it as it is high-quality traffic. This is because users who find your website through search engines are usually looking for something specific and are thus more likely to convert.
🔹Google Ads: Google Ads generate paid traffic. Paid traffic is the traffic you get when you pay for ads while organic traffic is the traffic you get without having to pay for it. It differs from SEO in that you don’t have to wait for your website to rank high on search engines before getting traffic. You can start getting traffic as soon as your ad is live.
The main advantage of Google Ads is that it is immediate. You can start seeing results within a day or two while it can take months for SEO to start working.
Cost
The cost of marketing will differ depending on the approach you take. The main factors that determine the cost are the competitiveness of your keywords and your marketing budget.
🔸SEO: SEO is a long-term marketing strategy and generally requires a larger budget than AdWords. However, once your SEO campaign starts to generate traffic, it will continue to do so for the long term without additional costs.
🔹Google Ads: Google Ads is a paid marketing strategy that allows you to bid on keywords so your ad appears in the search results when someone enters those keywords. AdWords is a pay-per-click system, which means you will be charged every time someone clicks on your ad. The amount you pay per click depends on how competitive your keywords are. The more competitive they are, the more you will have to pay per click.
Conversions
A conversion is a visitor who takes the desired action on your website, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. How conversions happen can vary depending on your website and business goals, but they usually involve someone completing a form or taking some other action.
🔸SEO: Organic traffic has a lower conversion rate than paid traffic because it takes longer to get results from SEO. However, organic traffic is more likely to convert in the long run because it is more targeted. This is because people who find your website through SEO are already interested in what you have to offer, whereas people who see your ads may not be.
🔹Google Ads: Paid traffic has a higher conversion rate than organic traffic because you can get results more quickly. However, paid traffic is less likely to convert in the long run because it is less targeted. This is because people who see your ads may not be interested in what you have to offer.
Placement
The placement is another big difference between SEO and Google Ads. The main purpose behind the placement in marketing is to make sure that your target audience sees your content.
🔸SEO: With SEO, your content appears organically on search engine results pages (SERPs). This helps you avoid the cost of Google Ads while still getting your content in front of people who are looking for it.
Organic traffic is also more likely to convert than paid traffic because it is more targeted. This is because people who find your content through a search engine are already interested in what you have to offer.
🔹Google Ads: Google Ads, on the other hand, is a paid advertising platform. This means that you will have to pay for your content to appear on SERPs. The main advantage of Google Ads is that it allows you to get your content in front of people who are already interested in what you have to offer.
In terms of placement, Google Ads generally appears above organic results. This means that your content is more likely to be seen by people who are looking for it.
Time
Marketing is highly dependent on time. You need to be able to commit the necessary time to see results from your marketing campaigns.
🔸SEO: SEO generally takes longer to see results than Google Ads. This is because SEO is a long-term strategy that focuses on building up your website’s authority over time.
🔹Google Ads: Google Ads, on the other hand, is a shorter-term strategy that can produce results more quickly. This is because you are essentially paying for your website to be seen by people. The advantage here is that you can turn your campaigns on and off as needed, which gives you more control over the durations of your campaign.
Effectiveness
Both approaches can be effective in their own ways. Effectiveness can be judged by looking at some key metrics. These include :
- The number of impressions (views) your website receives
- The specific click-through rate of your website (CTR)
- The conversion rate of your website
- The overall cost per acquisition (CPA)
🔸SEO: Based on the above factors, SEO can be more effective than Google Ads in certain situations. For example, if you have a low budget and you need to generate leads over a long period of time, SEO might be a better option. This is because it can take some time for your website to rank high enough in the search engines to start receiving significant amounts of traffic.
🔹Google Ads: If you’re looking for immediate results, Google Ads may be the better option. Based on the above options, it’s clear that Google Ads can be more expensive than SEO. However, you will get guaranteed results much faster with Google Ads. In the end, it really depends on your specific needs and goals as to which one is better for you. I
So, which one should you focus on in 2023?
Well, the answer may surprise you- a recent study by Microsoft found that, while SEO still has its place, Google Ads is actually becoming more important for businesses. In fact, the study found that Google Ads now accounts for 63% of all clicks on mobile devices, while SEO only accounts for 27%.
So, if you want to make sure your website is seen by potential customers in 2023, you need to focus on both SEO and Google Ads. Investing in a good SEO strategy will help you to improve your organic search results, while also making sure that your Google Ads campaigns are as effective as possible.
Here are a few tips to use SEO and Google Ads together:
- New businesses should focus on SEO first: If you’re just starting out, it’s important to focus on SEO before turning to Google Ads. This is because it can take a while to see results from an SEO campaign, but your organic listings will be more sustainable in the long run.
- Use keyword research to inform both your SEO and Google Ads campaigns: Keyword research is essential for both SEO and Google Ads. By understanding which keywords are most valuable to your business, you can create content and ads that are more likely to be seen by your target audience.
- SEO and Google Ads complement each other: While they are two separate strategies, SEO and Google Ads can actually complement each other quite well. For example, if you’re running a Google Ads campaign, you can use SEO to help improve your Quality Score, which in turn can lead to lower costs per click and higher ad positions.Investing in both SEO and Google Ads can help you achieve your marketing goals more quickly and effectively than relying on one or the other.
Conclusion
No matter which you decide, or if you use both, the important thing is that you’re investing in marketing your business so you can continue to grow and succeed. If you’re trying to decide whether to invest in SEO or Google Ads for your business, it’s important to understand the difference between the two.
SEO and Google Ads are both important tools for marketing your business online. They both have their own strengths and weaknesses, so it’s important to understand the difference between the two before deciding which one is right for your business.
At Pixel Street, we offer both SEO and Google Ads services to our clients. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you grow your business.
