When it comes to marketing online, the internet is your oyster. The possibilities are endless when it comes to creative ways to attract new customers. The trick is determining which method is likely to bring you the best results. Two of the most popular forms of online marketing are SEO and Google Ads. Both have their merits and their weaknesses when it comes to marketing, so which one is the right strategy for your business? While you could always spend the time and resources testing out both avenues and monitoring results, here is a little insight into both forms of digital marketing to give you a helping hand when it comes to choosing which one is best for you.
What Is SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimisation, is about optimising your website so that it appears in search results. It goes without saying that it’s a very valuable strategy for any business, but it comes at a huge cost of time and resources before you even start to see the results.
A well optimised page that uses keyword research, has plenty of backlinks and contains high-quality information is more likely to turn up much higher than other pages in search engine results. There are many factors that contribute to SEO. These include:
- Keyword research: being able to look at the key terms people are searching for (related to your product) and working these into an informative post is key.
- Quality content: it’s not just about putting words on a page. These words need to add value to the audience. You want people to click through and stay on your page to soak up all the information you are providing as this will help with your ranking. Quality content is so important when it comes to on-page SEO strategies.
- Backlinks: the number of sites linking back to you can also boost your ranking. This involves writing guest posts for other relevant sites in your niche in order to build your business profile and gain those links.
- User experience: Google promotes sites that offer a positive user experience, which means they are easy to navigate, have plenty of headings and the text is broken up with images.
- Page speed: while videos and flash files look great on your website, they are slow to load and stop people from getting what they want: information. These can be damaging to your SEO.
An SEO campaign is a long-term commitment that can cost a lot of money if you are investing correctly. It’s not something that will happen overnight but will rather build up over time.
What Are Google Ads?
Google Ads are a form of pay per click (PPC) advertising. You have a number of different ads to choose from, such as:
- Search ads: these appear at the top of search results in Google, ahead of the organic results.
- Shopping ads: these appear as part of an image carousel at the top of the search results and include products and pricing.
- Local services ads: these are for local businesses, such as hairdressers, to attract local leads.
The idea of PPC ads is simple: you only pay when users actually click on your ads. This makes them an extremely cost-effective method of advertising. However, the more popular keywords will cost you more per click. It works on a bidding system, where you bid for the keyword you want to use in your ad. This bid amount is how much you pay when someone clicks.
Which Is Right For You?
At the end of the day, it comes down to your business goals.
Focused on increasing leads and sales? Then Google Ads should be your go-to. You can rank your products ahead of organic Google searches and encourage people to click through and buy what is on offer. Capturing these leads, you can also retarget website visitors down the track.
If you are focused on building your brand awareness and gaining a steady flow of traffic to your site over time, then you should invest in SEO. This strategy helps customers discover more about you and with a bit of time and effort can drive you a lot of traffic.
Of course, in an ideal world, you could invest both avenues and saturate the market when it comes to keywords for your business. SEO and Google Ads work well together, increasing your brand’s visibility, boosting traffic and making sales. You can even use PPC to test out keywords for SEO and see if they work for your business.
Ready to get started? The team at Design Point are specialists when it comes to both PPC and SEO and can help grow your business online. Simply get in touch with us today.