Without good and meaningful content, it’s hard to rank for SEO. Content does, however, go hand in hand with other important measures, like keywords and link building. And once your site or piece of content is published, there are two main ways for it to gain traffic – from organic searches or a paid search.
Around 3,5 billion searches are made every day on Google and this is how over 90 % of online experiences begin.
Is one of these options more superior than the other, and what are the key differences between these two? Let’s break down paid and organic search and see which one is best suitable for your marketing and advertising strategy.
Organic or paid – the difference
The biggest difference between these two types of searches is the price. While organic traffic is free, meaning it focuses on unpaid search results and rankings, a paid search is based on paid rankings. With organic searches, companies can control their visibility and rank with SEO and with paid searches the main focus is to buy an elevated spot in search results.
So, which one is more beneficial for your company? Well, there are pros and cons with both types of searches, and they have equal benefits.
Benefits with organic search:
- No cost
- Great ROI
- Boosts the credibility of your site
- Helps attract fitting users
- Can be linked with other marketing channels
Since organic search is the cheaper option, it is a strategy that fits all companies but more so the ones with a tighter budget. However, the downside of organic traffic is that it can take some time before you see any results. This is because you are waiting for people to click on your content after a search rather than leading them straight there with a paid strategy.
When it comes to ROI (return on investment), organic search by using SEO can be very successful. As long as you have a smart strategy for your organic traffic via SEO, there are many ways to see results.
With great SEO you can also boost your credibility, for example, if your site is shown at the top of a search result it is more likely people click on this, rather than click on a paid search result since it sometimes looks a bit invasive.
Another thing that many claim organic search is better at, is to attract relevant users. This is because you can build a presence across many search results as long as you have relevant content, and therefore find bigger audiences.
You can also link your organic content to other channels in terms of marketing. For example, with video, social media and PPC.
Benefits with paid search
- Gives you instant results
- Great ROI
- Can provide keyword data for SEO
- Suitable for many budgets
- Great to find ready-to-buy users
- Can be linked with other marketing channels
The downside of organic searches is that it can take time before you see any results, with paid searches you have the complete opposite. The unique advantage of this method is that you can generate instant results. With paid channels, there is a possibility to see results right after an ad goes live and you can track clicks, views, purchases or whatever it is that drives your business.
Even though organic searches are beneficial for ROI, so are paid ones. By using sources like Google Ads, businesses can earn 8 dollars for every 1 dollar spent, according to studies. However, all campaigns are different so this is not set in stone. It can nevertheless be a strategy that generates an impressive return and can help for long term growth.
With paid searches the goal is to attract audiences within a certain age group or nationality, they can also be made strategically to find so-called ready-to-buy users. By targeting these people your business can generate instant revenue and results.
As well as with organic searches, paid traffic can also be used with other channels, for example, email, social media and organic searches.
Which option is better?
As proven, paid and organic searches have many similar benefits but also some major differences. With that being said they complement each other fairly well and it is hard to choose only one when you create a marketing strategy. Therefore, a combination would be the most beneficial.
The things you can’t do and the audiences you can’t with organic traffic, you can achieve and reach with paid traffic, and vice versa. To help you reach your goals with your company it is smart to create a master plan and set up goals and then create a marketing strategy with both organic and paid traffic to be able to reach these milestones.