2 Options to Getting Found Online – Pay or Not to Pay
You have a killer product with a top-notch sales team… but no one is buying yours from your business. Does this sound familiar to you? That’s because people can’t FIND you online. I can hear Google quoting Shania Twain, “OK, so you’ve got a website…that don’t impress me much”.
Businesses have 2 options when it comes to being found and establishing a presence online, optimizing organic search and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising.
We will discuss what each term means along with the strengths and weaknesses of both options.
1. Organic Search
When we say organic in online marketing terms, we aren’t talking about the overpriced produce aisle in the grocery store. Organic content refers to the pages of a website that populate by users typing words into a search engine like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is organic content’s best friend because it works by optimizing the number of visitors to a particular website driven from a search engine (suddenly the name makes sense)! Websites will be tagged with ‘keywords’ that users are likely by building up the content on your site, optimizing for keywords on which to rank, publishing your NAP (name, address, and phone number), and more, Google is more likely to think your site is relevant and push your link higher up on a keyword’s search results page.
What does organic search bring to the ‘online’ table?
- Content found in an organic search is considered ‘more trustworthy’ because the user is seeking out the information
- Stands the test of time: Users can grow their online presence for longer.
- “Just Google It”: Google has basically become a verb and is still the #1 driver of traffic to content sites.
- It is inexpensive or (our favourite word) FREE.
Things to keep in mind with organic search:
- Platforms such as Facebook are actively trying to limit organic search results. It is estimated that 2% of your followers will see your organic post. Not to mention these are people who are already following you and expressing interest! It can be difficult to crack into new audiences.
- Keeping up with the times: Google reported that they had updated their algorithm 3,234 times! If you’re using the SEO method, you have to adjust your content optimization to rank better according to the updated algorithm requirements.
2. Pay-Per-Click
PPC, or pay-per-click, is another form of search engine marketing (SEM) where an advertiser pays the platform (such as Google or Facebook) every time the ad is clicked. The underlying difference between organic and PPC is that this method requires you to spend ad money to get your content in front of an audience- Hey big spender!
Benefits of a big budget:
- Targeting marketing: This model allows advertisers to only pay when consumers interact with their listing and you attract people who are interested in your specific business.
- Businesses make, on average, $3 in revenue for every $1.60 they spend on Google AdWords. PPC is a relatively inexpensive way to experiment, and there is a solid average ROI for investing in paid search ads.
- PPC Ads can boost awareness by 80%. In spite of ad blockers, PPC is still effective in increasing your brand’s reach and awareness.
Things to keep in mind with paid advertising:
Research shows that the top 3 paid advertising spots get 46% of clicks on the page. So unless you have deep pockets or are selling to a less saturated market, the big players often claim the top spots.
So what does this all mean?
Understanding Organic vs Paid Searches
- Paid search is all search engine results that came from advertisements.
- An organic search is all search results that came from anywhere except an ad.
- Search engine optimization (SEO) on a website is crucial to receive higher organic search engine results and yields a better return on investment than paid search engine advertising.
- Paid search engine marketing (SEM) can be expensive but increase immediate traffic. Once the budget is spent the ad will no longer bring traffic to your website.
- Organic search results will increase traffic over time as long as you continually conduct effective search engine optimization on your website.
Often a mix of both PPC and ensuring your website content is loaded with proper keywords is a good bet. There is no one magic answer or quick fix that fits every situation. Consistently updating your website and posting on your social media accounts is a great tool to add ‘longevity’ to your business.
We like to think of organic search like weight lifting. After a solid pump, your body continues to burn calories long after the workout is complete. With organic search, you can continue to stay relevant in searches by constantly updating your content, or in this analogy, continue to ‘burn calories’. Alternatively, paid advertising provides a short term, immediate solution by reaching audiences you ultimately wouldn’t have access to organically.
