If you are in the field of digital marketing, you should be familiar with two popular marketing tools which are Search Engine optimization (SEO) and Google Ads. Both of these tools can help your business to drive traffic. The question is: Which should you choose for your marketing campaign?
Let’s Start!
What is SEO?
First, let’s introduce SEO, it involves optimizing your website and content so it appears higher on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). For example, when users type in keywords on Google search engine, countless of website links will appear on the search results. Your goal is to optimize your website so that it appears on the first few results for higher visibility, this is where SEO comes into play.
Here are the factors on how Google rank your website:
Keyword Selection: You need to select relevant keywords for your website because Google uses keywords to search for relevant topics. The higher the relevancy of the keywords, the higher your rank will be.
Content Quality: High quality content is essential for Google to rank your website. If your website provides lengthy and useful information for users, they will stay on your website longer. Thus, increasing your website rank on Google.
Site Security: Cybersecurity is important to both internet users and Google, so you have to make sure your website is safe and secure for users to browse through.
User Experience: Google will better promote your website if you can provide a positive experience to users. User experience features include easy navigation, organized content and engaging visual aids such as images.
Mobile Compatibility: More people are using mobile phones or other electronic devices other than their usual desktop computers to browse information online. Your website will need to be mobile-friendly to rank higher on search results.
Page Speed: No one enjoys slow processes, that’s why your website must load as quickly as possible to ensure users don’t leave your website or else it will heavily affect your ranking.
What are Google Ads?
Google Ads, previously known as Google Adwords, is a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platform from Google which allows advertisers to reach targeted audiences. As the name PPC suggests, you only pay when users click on your ad which is very cost-effective compared to traditional advertisement on television or newspapers.
In addition, you need to bid for the keywords you want for your ads, the bid amount is the most you are willing to pay when people click on your ads. Your ads positioning will depend on your bid price and quality score and how long you want to run your ads depends on your budget.
Here are the types of PPC ads:
Search ads: Once you pay for search ads, these ads in text format will appear on top of search results according to relevant keywords. There will be a tag with “ad” to show that they are search ads.
Google Shopping Ads: These ads are in carousel format including images prices of products from different online shops and brands. They provide a visual comparison for users when searching for items to shop online.
Local Services Ads: These ads are for service companies such as plumbers and electricians. They are similar to shopping ads but they promote services instead of items.
SEO vs Google Ads
Now that you have understood the basics of these two marketing tools, you will realize that both of them can help increase traffic to your website and increase sales effectively but there are still some differences in their strategies:
Traffic: SEO generates traffic continuously after optimization, while Google Ads generates traffic for the campaign duration.
Placement: SEO can only show your website on search results, while Google Ads can be shown on other websites as well.
Cost: SEO doesn’t have any cost, while Google Ads require you to pay when people click on your ads.
Keywords: Both SEO and Google Ads work well for long-tail and short-tail keywords.
Time: SEO results take time, while Google Ads have faster results.
Tracking Metrics: SEO tracking analytics and results take time, while Google Ads provide instant tracking analytics and return on investment.
Which is better? SEO or Google Ads?
Whether you should choose SEO or Google Ads for your marketing campaign ultimately depends on your business goals.
Why choose SEO:
If you are looking to generate a steady flow of traffic over time to increase brand awareness. SEO may be a better strategy for you because this allows more people to find your brand on search results over the long run with no cost required.
Why choose Google Ads:
If you are focusing on generating immediate leads and sales for a specific period, Google Ads would be a better strategy. It provides faster results with instant tracking analytics to monitor your campaign, although it requires a little cost.
How do SEO and Google Ads work together?
While SEO and Google Ads have their own unique offerings, who says you can’t use them together? The good news is no one has to force you to choose one over another, you can easily combine both strategies in your marketing campaign to achieve maximum exposure and traffic.
Here are the reasons why you should run these strategies together:
Increase brand visibility: As both of these methods increase your business visibility, using them together doubles the number of opportunities people come across your business.
Boost Traffic: As SEO focuses on long term traffic while Google Ads focuses on short term traffic. Combining them allows your business to enjoy both long term and short term traffic to pull in sales leads.
Use Google Ads keywords to optimize SEO: As both SEO and Google Ads rely heavily on the relevancy of your keywords to work effectively, you can actually test the keywords on your Google Ads to figure out which keywords are most effective through instant tracking analytics and use them again for your SEO campaign as well.
Finally, now you know the answer to SEO vs Google Ads and the conclusion is to combine both strategies to achieve maximum results. Ready to start investing in both strategies but don’t know where to start? Cloudix is here to assist you!
Cloudix is a highly experienced digital marketing agency with experts in keywords management and ads optimization to allow your business to stand out among competitors. You can definitely rely on Cloudix to start successful SEO and Google Ads campaigns.
Click on the “Get Free Consultation” button below and let us share more exclusive marketing strategies with you!
