SEO vs Google Ads – what should you do? A tough question. Do you want instant results and go for the Adwords option, or are you prepared to stick it out for the long haul and go down the SEO path?
Either way, the following explanation will help you understand your options and guide you down the often confusing path of internet marketing.
Writen by Steven Waldberg 20 July 2020
You firstly have to ask yourself what is going to drive more leads, revenue and offer a higher return on investment. Finding the balance between all your online marketing options is the key to online success. Putting all your eggs in one basket can be very expensive and yield little returns.
For this reason, whether you go SEO or Adwords will depend on the type of business you have and the kind of returns you want to get.
Adwords and SEO are both different beasts with their own set of advantages and disadvantages. Most businesses will, however, find that a combination of both is their preferred online strategy. To fully understand what your options are, I will outline the pros and cons of each. After reading this, if you have any questions or are still uncertain about what’s best for your business, give me a shout, and I’ll be able to point you in the right direction.
Google Ads: tell me more
These are the top and bottom 4 ads that appear on Google’s search results and other Google sites. Adwords is Google’s primary business and offers businesses an opportunity to display their business offering very quickly. If you set up your Google Adwords campaign, your ads can be live within a couple of hours. And, if you make any changes to these ads, they are in real-time.
These Google ads are a pay per click, so when someone clicks on your ad, you have to pay. To get your advert to the top of the search results page, you have to outbid the person on top of you. It’s like an auction system where the highest bidder gets their ad to the top position.
You have total control over how much you want to spend per click, your daily budget, your targeted geographic location, the keywords you want to and not want to appear and the times to display your ad. There’s an easy to understand console panel that you can sign into and watch in real-time you well your ads are performing, how many impressions and clicks they are getting and most importantly; the cost. Hubspot details what AdWords are like in 2020.
How does Adwords Compare with SEO?
SEO or search engine optimisation is the lengthy process of getting your website to appear on Googles search results organically. It’s all the content on the page under the Google Adwords. The idea behind SEO is to be visible online for many keyword searches. The aim is to increase your online visibility for your businesses niche.
The main difference between SEO and Adwords is the time involved. While Adwords is more or less instant, SEO is a long term strategy that is ongoing and can take many many months. SEO is an ongoing process where you are continually improving the performance of your website, through content marketing, link building and a host of ‘on-page’ optimisation techniques.
A significant difference between SEO and Adwords is the click-through rate. Websites that appear organically through SEO have built up a certain level of trust as Google will only display trustworthy sites as opposed to Adwords, which allow anyone.
SEO vs Google Ads: the main differences
> Having your website optimised for SEO means that you can appear on other search engines such as Bing or Yahoo. While not such a massive concern for many people, these sites do occasionally bring in customers.
> Adwords is for the short term. You may have an exclusive product or launch or even a sale that you want o to promote quickly. Adwords are a great medium for this. You can be marketing your product within hours to millions of people – great if you have an eCommerce site. SEO, on the other hand, takes time, planning and strategy. If you are planning to launch a new product or service in 3 to 6 months, then you can start an SEO campaign now.
The key takeaway here is timings. Adwords is immediate while SEO is for the medium to long term.
> Adwords can get very expensive. I have a client who was spending around $20,000 per month on Adwords for a competitive niche. Once we started the SEO campaign, he could see his online visibility improve for a whole bunch of keywords which meant he could begin to reduce his Adwords spend. Like this client, it would be best if you started with an Adwords campaign to get the business in and cut this spend over time as your SEO kicks in.
> If you stop, you’re Adwords, that’s it. You will stop getting calls and inquiries. If you ignore SEO and only focus on SEO, then you’ll be committed to Adwords indefinitely. Unless you have a huge marketing budget and deep pockets, then this is unsustainable. Eventually, you’ll have to start considering SEO.
> SEO delivers a much better ROI. The issue with Adwords is that browsers will click on your ad and may not buy. They might be getting prices, doing their research, and when they are ready to buy, they will click on the organic trusted results. Each click costs you money eroding your daily budget, leaving you with no online presence.
> Adwords are immediate. Any change you make to your Ad will render on Google within minutes. SEO can take weeks for changes to happen. For some business owners, this can be frustrating as they want immediate results.
> Adwords have a very nifty console so you can work out your ROI very quickly while with SEO, many variables come into play.
What should I go with: Google AdWords vs SEO?
Both SEO and Adwords are great for your business. Key variables such as budgets, time frames, expectations, business goals, the economic position of your company will affect which direction you want to go in. If you have a large budget and you want quick results, then Adwords is the best option. But, for long-lasting online visibility, SEO is the better choice.
In 2020 and 2021, we see customers become a lot savvier and about Google’s search results and can easily see the difference between paid and organic search. Organic results are more trusted and have a higher click-through rate. You don’t ant users put off clicking your website because they perceive it as a paid ad.
Also read: 10 SEO trends we are noticing for 2021
The perception of trust is the main reason that we are the leading advocates of SEO and trumpet the message loudly. SEO is the future of internet marketing. While Adwords is still effective, don’t get me wrong here. SEO is, by far, the better option for your business.
I believe that SEO will deliver the best results for your business. If you want to punch above your weight and compete with the big boys, then SEO is the way to go.
If you’d like to learn more about how SEO can boost organic traffic to your business, get in touch with me; Steven, your expert SEO consultant.
This post was written by Steven Waldberg who has been working with businesses of all sizes and helping them with their SEO and making sure they get the most out of their internet marketing. When you work with SEO Sydney Experts you work with one person and not a bunch of account managers. Steve will be there the whole time managing your site and making sure you get the best Google rankings and website traffic possible.
