Weighing the tradeoffs between organic SEO and paid search, and when each one wins.
There are two different ways to market online and that is with organic or paid search engine strategies. Organic searches focus on results from using strategies that do not require any money to start and maintain, while paid searches focus on paid rankings that can be altered, monitored, and controlled via a custom budget.
Starting off with the most popular strategy for most marketing teams in the early development of a business. Using organic strategies for search results is beneficial in many ways. The obvious being the most cost efficient due to no budget is necessary to implement organic strategies. Some other advantages include: impressive return on investment, boosts credibility, attracts relevant users, supports other marketing channels, and provides useful analytics (WebFX 2022). The best part is that all of these benefits are compounded when attractive content is being provided, all without your company paying for it.
Everything comes with some disadvantages as well and this can be said about organic strategies. Since there isn’t any way to pay for better positions in search results, going for organic results requires a constant upkeep. Someone with a background in SEO that has the skillset to manage the campaigns is also required. Without knowledge in SEO and how to effectively use certain keywords and tools, being organic could end up bringing in very little to no traffic at all. You are also going up against all of the other similar businesses using organic AND paid advertising strategies.
Now that we’ve discussed organically generating traffic using SEO strategies and keywords, it is a good time to discuss paid strategies. Paid users allow users to pay for a better spot in search results instead of relying on the optimization of their site alone, although optimizing along with paying is highly recommended for better results. Between paid and organic, paid strategies have the advantage with its fast turnaround time on generating traffic. The data gained from paid advertising is also very beneficial because you are able to see what is and isn’t working live and make quick adjustments to maximize the ad’s effectiveness. The traffic generated from paid advertising is different from organic in a sense that these consumers didn’t search very long to reach your higher ranked ad, which tends to mean they are more eager to buy than the average.
While effective in its own right, there are also some cons to using paid advertising strategies as well. Paying only allows for your ad to be more visible in simple terms. It is still going to be your responsibility for what is shown to the consumer, which means the ad would require some management. Going this route doesn’t exempt your business from the maintenance required to create and manage the ad itself with similar attention to detail as organic users. Of course, the main downside to paid strategies is the upfront cost of advertising on each platform.
My recommendation would be to consider the budget that the business is willing to allocate to advertisement and if it is not enough to maintain a long campaign then going organic would be the best option. Using paid strategies is costly and with the right tools and knowledge, organic advertising could produce the same or even better results without the monetary investment.