These days we rely on Google most of the time for almost everything, don’t we? Come to think of it and you’ll realize that you search for it the moment it crosses your brain. We don’t use dictionaries anymore because it’s easier to ask Google and we get the answer in a moment. It’s easy to get a skill online or clear your doubts. You don’t need to stop by to ask directions to a stranger on the road anymore. Google maps has already made it easy. You need not worry before you buy anything; product reviews are all over the internet. There are plenty more you can say like these. We do numerous things online and so, aren’t we almost dependent on the internet? We are.
When you search something online, you might have plenty of results among which the top most results say “sponsored” or “ad” and the remaining doesn’t. By now, you might have understood which ones are paid results and which ones are organic or regular results. Not just Google, but you might have also seen them on other platforms like Yahoo, Bing, facebook, YouTube, etc. Want to understand them well for your business? Keep reading.
Organic Search
All the natural results which don’t mention “sponsored” underneath are called organic search results. The search engine algorithm analyzes all the pages on the web and provides the most relevant information in order. Businesses work on organic SEO to improve their page rank constantly and this takes time and effort. Various things like title tags, meta tags, meta description, URL, keywords in the content, etc. are all scanned in the process to decide the page rank. Some companies have in-house SEO specialists while others hire SEO agencies who work on their webpages to improve page rank.
Organic traffic is the most valuable due to various reasons:
- Visitors that come from organic search are usually the most trusted ones and Google directs the highest amount of this traffic.
- Google is very particular about page ranks and thus, being on top 5 means your content is of very high quality.
- No doubt, it takes a lot of time to reach top 5 page ranks but once you’re there, you get the benefits for quite a long time and keeping it up is easier than reaching while competing others.
- 92% of the traffic goes to the first page results which means websites with top 10 ranks. Only 5 – 8% of the traffic moves to the second page and the number reduces for the next pages.
- Among these all the clicks on the first page, 33% goes to the page with first rank itself.
Paid Search
The top most ad spaces, usually 3 say “Ad” or “sponsored”. These are nothing but paid search results on SERPs. Businesses pay some amount to bring their business to the top level to get leads quickly. Marketers put some money into search engine marketing (SEM) to promote their website on the first page of SERP using some keywords.
Ads are made using keywords and right text and visuals, and businesses bid on the placement opportunities in the auction. This is called paid SEO. The business that pays highest has the most visibility on the SERP; at least that’s what the assumption is. Yet, Google has its own rules. It still would do some quality check on the website, its content, etc. and would rank the ad based on the keyword search made by the user. Imagine giving an irrelevant ad to the user. Isn’t it a waste of money and time? Google always puts user-experience on top priority.
However, there are many people who lose money after investing on paid search yet don’t get any result. Why? This is due to the lack of knowledge and experience. In order to get a good ROI (Return on Investment), it’s important to work on it carefully by either gaining some knowledge or hiring an expert.
The benefit with paid search is that you get results instantly as you get the top ad space on SERP which would take a lot of time and effort with SEO for organic search. You start getting leads soon after investing in it if done correctly.
You should consider paid search for various reasons:
- You start getting results and leads in no time if used correctly with strategy.
- You set a budget and there’s no risk of crossing it unless you move your scale up.
- Analytics and other measuring tools help you track and observe the pattern of traffic and other things like bounce rate, how much time a visitor spends on a page, etc.
- You can plan your strategies based on the reports developed from analytics.
- You can plan short term and long term campaigns and even schedule them.
What Should You Choose?
If you don’t have much budget and have enough time, you can definitely go for organic SEO. It is always best to improve page rank naturally and get valuable traffic through organic search. This is very cost-effective. Digital Catalyst provides organic SEO services and the experts here will help you achieve the top page rank with time using right strategies.
Want quick results and have some budget? You need to take some time to set the budget and plan it so that you hold the campaign effectively and invest without crossing your budget and get the most out of it. We still can help you with that. Digital Catalyst experts are here to help you with this. If you haven’t heard of it yet, then we’re happy to introduce it. Check out our PPC catalyst for more details. We work on both organic and paid search services.
But we suggest you go for both because time is money and you can’t afford to lose time by just focusing on organic search SEO and forget paid search SEO. Similarly, you can’t neglect organic results and focus only on paid results. Work on both of them simultaneously for your short and long term goals.
Reach us now.
