SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – closely related to the concept of Inbound Marketing – and Search Engine Advertising (SEA) – comparable to pay-per-click advertisers such as Google AdWords – have the same goal, namely: attract new visitors to your website from the search engines. That being said, there are two very different approaches, but they do not become mutually exclusive, on the contrary.
The purpose of this article is precisely to detail the peculiarities of each of these two methods, which can completely complement each other because if certain mobilized techniques prove to be almost identical, the motivations and the results they imply cover the broad spectrum of SEM (Search Engine Marketing).
The search engines – which, obviously, foremost among which Google – have taken such a place in our approach to the Web that a company that really wants to use digital as an asset can not ignore these concepts of SEO, SEA and SEM.
Now, if you do not mind, let’s get right to the point.
Some small reminders…
For the record, natural referencing is based on hard work of integration of keywords (including long tail, for that matter) to position the website of his company as high as possible on the organic results of engines page. The goal is, of course, to increase the visibility of the site in question, but for such a method to produce tangible results, a delay of several months is required.
Such an expectation appears indeed incompressible to allow Google to index the pages of your site and use its algorithms – as powerful as mysterious, by the way – to compare the results so generous to those of your competitors’ sites. Among the most important tools for SEO, include netlinking, technical optimization (both “On-site” and “Off-site”), and of course content marketing, because the production of qualitative content figure at the top of the list of criteria taken into account.
Regarding paid search, it involves the acquisition of sponsored links in advertising gaps available for this purpose, so as to position a site favorably against a series of specific keywords. Concretely, after having listed these keywords – which must be the ones that “speak” the most to your buyer personas – you participate in auctions that allow you to improve your visibility when users perform the corresponding searches.
Three types of campaign are to be distinguished:
“Search only”, in which your advertisement will appear next to the other results, or above them;
- “Display only”, with advertisements on search engine partner sites and advertising-for-sale space – this may include YouTube in the case of the Google giant;
- Finally, the “search including selective display”, which is, for simplicity, a combination of the two types of campaign mentioned above.
- Paid search is frequently used as a catch-up to fill gaps in SEO, or to improve search engine visibility in a fast and easy way.
- Advantages and disadvantages of each solution
- As mentioned above, so-called “natural” SEO requires that you give it enough time before it can be really useful, delivering the results you expect.
In addition, if only for the crucial role played by the regular production of quality content, the effectiveness of a natural referencing strategy requires long-term work. On the other hand, if SEO with paid advertising involves a slight adaptation time, the duration of each campaign is much shorter. However, this brevity requires to repeat the operation on a regular basis, and while conducting frequent analyzes on your conversion rates, to measure the return on investment.
In this connection, let us now turn to the subject from a pecuniary point of view.
The cost of a natural search strategy is almost static, not really changing according to the number of clicks, while the amount allocated to each paid search campaign depends on the volume of clicks expected, and can quickly considerable sums – especially in the most “tense” sectors. Since the Search Engine Advertisement sometimes drains resources that could have been used for other, equally – or more – effective inbound marketing efforts, the ROI should be closely monitored.
Fortunately, the results are immediate, so it’s easy to see how many visitors have been attracted to a particular campaign. For Search Engine Optimization, do not expect to conduct such an analysis as easily, as the results will only appear in the long run. Another essential point to consider is the different impact of each type of SEO on your audience – or, more precisely, depending on what visitors are looking for at a moment.
Thus, during a “simple” search on the Web, a site listed among the “natural” results will be perceived as more reliable than if it were in the sponsored links.
Once a site is well ranked, the company it represents automatically enjoys a gain of confidence.
Do not, however, deduce that paid search would systematically encourage suspicion, but its impact is more significant among prospects most likely to spend quickly on the purchase. This also explains the targeting of paid advertising traffic at the sales page level.
Finally, since referencing intrinsically depends on the algorithms used, a significant update of Google, for example, can have serious consequences. With natural referencing, it is becoming more and more difficult to adjust to criteria that are getting tougher and more complex.
While we do not veil the face, the techniques of ” black hat” SEO have not disappeared, but using them is to make an extremely risky bet on the future, which we can only advise against. In terms of Adwords campaigns, Google has no interest in penalizing those who generate a comfortable income, so there is little chance that a modification of the algorithm will dry up the flow of visitors.
In the end, it’s impossible to decide in a firm and definitive way on the choice between Search Engine Optimization and Advertisement, for the simple reason that everything depends on your goals at a given moment for your website. In order to allow you to choose with full knowledge of the facts, note however that the site “moz.com” has compiled some relevant statistics.
If 70% of Internet users prefer a natural link rather than advertising, they are ¾ not to exceed the first page, and while 26% of clicks from an organic search are focused on the first result of the list, this rate is of 18% for paid search.
In the end, know that if you still hesitate between these two forms of SEO to attract visitors and generate qualified leads, the acronym SEM may well be the answer to your expectations, because the Search Engine Marketing combines the two methods to take advantage of advantages of each and cancel out their respective disadvantages.
And to go further, I invite you to visit our listing that combines both SEO and SEA agencies to enable you to acquire faster results and increase your traffic and generate a maximum of leads.
