Google PPC VS. Organic Search

At the core of every businesses online marketing strategy is search engine marketing (SEM). Some businesses choose to pay for their search results using a method called PPC (pay per click) while others choose to generate free, organic results.

But what does each option involve and which one provides better results?

Organic Search

Organic searches rely on SEO, or in other words, how well your website is search engine optimised. The more content your website has, the more optimised it will be. The more optimised your website is, the more likely it is to appear as the first search result on Google.

The best way to optimise your website is by writing and adding blogs to it. Blogs should add value to your consumers. They should answer questions that your consumers may be asking Google and they should attract and encourage them to click on your website. So, it’s important to have content that is relevant and of high quality.

Blog writing gives you the opportunity to show off your expertise. Not only should it encourage clicks on your website, it should also communicate to your target market that you know what you’re talking about, which will encourage them to do business with you.

However, the chances of your blogs achieving a high SEO is based on your choice of keywords. Essentially, the keywords that appear in your metadata (hidden descriptions in the code of your website) should match what your consumers are searching. Therefore, they should be specific.

For example, if you’re a psychologist located in Brunswick, it’s beneficial to add the keywords “psychologist in Brunswick” rather than just “psychologist.” It may sound trivial, however you can’t just assume that your target clients in Brunswick are going to navigate your website to find that information, if it isn’t already provided straight away. Likewise, you can’t assume that Google will bring your website to the top of the search, “psychologist in Brunswick,” if you don’t emphasise it more than once on your website.

Another way to be more specific is to detail what you, as a psychologist, target. For example, “psychologist for anxiety” or “psychologist for work-related stress,” rather than just “psychologist” again.

It’s important to note that SEO takes time. There’s so much other content (and competition) on the internet that you can’t simply rank number one overnight. However, although it takes time, it is very much worthwhile. When can you expect to see the results from SEO?

Organic results tend to generate more traffic. In fact, according to Rand Fishkin, co-founder of SEOmoz (a leader in SEO), organic results are 8.5x more likely to be clicked on than paid results. That’s because consumers deem organic results more respected and trustworthy, because they know that someone hasn’t paid for it to appear on the first page of their Google search results. (If you search Google, you’ll notice that the PPC results have “Ad” written below the search result title, while organic results don’t.)

However, organic results will only generate more traffic, as long as they appear on the first page. Everyone knows that you almost never click on the second page of Google to find results. It’s expected that you always find what you’re looking for on the first page.

Generally, businesses have a whole team dedicated to improving their SEO. If you’re a beginner in the field of SEO, it’s usually helpful to hire an SEO Expert to take care of this area of marketing.

Google PPC

While organic results rely on how well your website content is optimised, PPC (pay per click) relies on how much you choose to pay for an advertisement. The most popular PPC system is Google’s AdWords.

While organic results generate much more traffic, PPC usually has a greater chance of converting leads into buyers. An example of a conversion is if somebody has purchased a product, booked an appointment for a PPC service, or signed up for a newsletter via your website.

Conversions usually occur because the advertiser ensures that your ads are highly targeted. However, the more your ad is targeted to your market, the more expensive it will be. As its name suggests, you only pay per click that you receive on your website.

So, while you’re usually converting more leads into buyers, you’re technically paying for those buyers to make a purchase. In other words, you’re paying them to pay you. Of course, this is worthwhile considering that the consumers are usually giving you more money than what you’re paying Google for the advertisement, but it’s just something to consider. That’s why most marketers will advise businesses on using a mix between organic and paid search marketing to get them started.

The good thing about paying per click is that you can set yourself a budget and will only be required to pay if someone clicks the search result, and not if someone just views it (views are always a lot higher than clicks). PPC results also tend to appear above organic results on Google. 6 Google AdWords and PPC Mistakes You Need to Stop Immediately

Whether SEO, PPC or a mix of both will work best for you, depends on your business. A marketing expert will be able to give you the best advise on how to improve your search engine marketing strategy.

Check out: SEO and PPC Blogs & Ideas

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