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Search results, whether paid or organic, are how users can find your website. As a marketer, you know that paid ads and organic listings are essential. Nowadays, 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine. Paid search ads grew by $132 in 2022.
You should also know about search engine marketing advantages and disadvantages properly. Therefore, your digital marketing strategy should leverage both paid and organic search. If you are struggling to make your brand visible in the online marketplace, you’re not alone.
It is normal for business owners to acquire visitors and leads in the beginning. Balancing the cost and results of a search engine marketing campaign is not easy. But most of the time, you can integrate SEO and PPC into your digital marketing strategy. But how much endeavor and resources should you put into each? Let’s explore the pros and cons of each campaign type to assist you in implementing smart choices.
Difference between Organic Listings and Paid Search- Things to Know
The main difference between organic search and paid search is the cost. While paid search ads focus on paid rankings, organic search focuses on unpaid rankings in search results. With organic search, brands leverage the latest SEO strategies to optimize their website’s visibility.
On the contrary, paid search ads allow users to pay for a prominent place in the search results. 54% of all website traffic comes from organic search. Paid ads like Google Ads can increase the awareness of your brand by 80%. When the context is about organic versus paid ads, each has its own benefits. Let’s assess the pros and cons of each of them.
Overview of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the process of enhancing your website’s visibility to make it rank. The best SEO strategies will let your website get organic traffic from search engines. If you want to rank organically, leveraging the best search engine optimization strategies is necessary.
SEO refers to the practice of optimizing content so that search engines can discover your website. By making your website discoverable in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), you’re increasing its likelihood of getting high-quality leads and visitors.
Investing in SEO ensures that your customers can find you when they initiate a Google search for specific keywords. There are an estimated 4 billion searches conducted on Google each day. Therefore, developing a clear SEO strategy is imperative to rise above your competition.
What should you know about other Search Engines Besides Google?
A vast majority of SEO strategies are focused on Google and its algorithms. This is because it occupies 93% of the total search engine share. Other search engines like Yahoo and Bing have a low market share. And as Google holds a large portion of the search engine market, you need to know about its ranking factors. By 2022, there were almost 200 Google ranking factors essential to rank your website organically.
Pros of SEO
Here are some of the advantages of SEO.
Higher ROI
Contrary to popular belief, SEO is not free. For instance, you have to spend for optimizing your website to rank well in organic results. But when the work is complete, and your website gains visibility, there is no cost to rank it.
Improves Credibility
The best SEO strategies help your website with search engine positioning. The top-ranking website on Google SERPs gets the most search traffic only 49% of the time. It is a common tendency among users to adhere to the first page of the results.
Traffic from Search Engines is more Stable
After ranking your website on Google, you can plan based on various strategies. Even when your marketing budget is low, you can continue targeting your audiences with search engine optimization strategies.
Cons of SEO
Some of the disadvantages of SEO are as follows:
- Search engine algorithms are ever-evolving
- Organic traffic can be slow to build
Search Engine Marketing Advantages and Disadvantages- Aspects to Consider
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a digital marketing strategy that augments your website’s visibility in SERPs. While SEM covers more than just paid marketing, it’s often referred to as PPC marketing. Nowadays, almost 96% of brands are spending money on Google Ads.
PPC is a type of search engine marketing where the advertiser pays a publisher for each click on an ad. The paid search model lets companies pay only when consumers interact with their ads. The paid search ads appear alongside organic search results.
The total cost of the PPC ads typically depends on your industry and the search volume of keywords. One of the key highlights of paid search ads is their ability to help your brand gain recognition online. With paid search ads, you can attract ready-to-buy users.
The Working Mechanism of Paid Search Ads
80% of all companies focus on Google Ads for paid search advertising. Therefore, it is essential to know about the working mechanism of paid search ads. The paid search ads appear through an auction with brands bidding on keywords. Note that the keyword should closely match the user’s search query for your website to rank higher. Your search ad plan should also comprise the following parameters.
- The usability and relevancy of the landing page, including its load time and responsiveness
- The relevance of the Google Ads
- The expected Click-Through Rate or CTR
The average CTR is higher with Google Ads. The CTR of a paid ad on the first page of Google is 7.1%.
With these things in mind, let’s take a glance at the search engine marketing advantages and disadvantages.
Pros of Paid Search Ads
Here are some of the paid search ads to be aware of.
Increased Brand Visibility
After setting up your ads account and selecting the relevant brand-specific keywords, the ads will appear on the first page. On Google, you will come across ad spaces below and above the organic search results. Based on keywords, ad rank, and budget, you could see ads on Google’s first page.
Allows you to Target Audiences with Pinpoint Accuracy
While setting up a PPC campaign, you can select who to target with the ads. If your brand wants to target specific individuals, PPC ads are the preferred option. You can select the geography, time, language, etc., with PPC ads.
Stability in Rankings
It is relatively easier to gain stability in rankings with PPC ads. More than 93% of modern marketers leverage PPC ads because of their ability to get stability in rankings. Much like organic search results, PPC ads want to depict valuable content on top of search results.
Cons of Paid Search Ads
Some of the cons of paid search ads are as follows:
- PPC ads are expensive, and without a proper budget, you can’t run campaigns
- PPC ads require ongoing management and expertise
Use Organic and Paid Search to your Advantage
When you delve into SEM, there are a lot of terms and acronyms to understand. But in the end, it comes down to where your website shows up on SERPs. In the debate of organic search vs. paid search, you cannot pick a definitive winner.
Both tactics offer immense value to brands. In digital marketing, you will encounter several situations where PPC is better than SEO and vice versa. You should leverage SEO strategies if:
- You have a low marketing spend
- You want your brand to be credible in the target markets
- You want to develop content to reach audiences at different stages
You should be using paid search ads or PPC if:
- You want quick visibility
- Your product and service offerings are unique
- You want to direct your audiences to landing pages
Assessing the search engine marketing advantages and disadvantages is the best way to cut through the noise. When used together, SEO and PPC ads can augment your website’s visibility and increase leads. Therefore, to gain a foothold in the market, you should use organic and paid search.