Is Organic Traffic More Valuable than Paid Traffic?
It is a battle as old as internet marketing and it is one of the most frequently asked questions that we get from our clients.
When choosing the ideal online marketing solutions, the two most popular options usually consist of conventional Search Engine Optimisation and paid for Google AdWords. Both options definitely have their benefits and have in more ways than one helped businesses improve their profits, but there is one glaringly obvious difference between the two: price.
Now both SEO and AdWords are paid for marketing services, but one can offer a whole lot more bang for your buck than the other.
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The Benefits of SEO vs AdWords
SEO is a long-term technique that produces a more organic result.
While you are going to be paying out monthly (if you hire an SEO agency that is), the work accumulates over time, and eventually, your website is ranking high up on a search engine page with minimal effort and in some cases, if you are really strapped for cash, it is safe to stop SEO for a short period, although it is not recommended.
In a nutshell, SEO gives you results for longer and in the long run can actually cost less, because AdWords is known to be a little on the expensive side.
Now the results when you are running an AdWord campaign are instant. Your website immediately jumps to the first page of Google and you are likely to immediately have customers contact you. This can be great because the results are just about instant.
The downside is that the moment you stop paying for AdWord, your visibility is completely reduced and your website will not benefit in terms of rankings.
Which is a type of traffic is more valuable?
It can be difficult to determine which type of traffic is more valuable, as it will depend entirely on the site visitor and the company running the campaign.
But while there are plenty of variables to consider, the obvious needs to be stated.
AdWords place your website right at the top of a search results page, but there is a catch. Since AdWords are pay per click, and since the entire campaign is based on a budget, each time someone clicks on your Google ad, money is subtracted from your budget.
Although your budget is being spent as each person clicks on the link, there is no guarantee that the person visiting your site will actually become a paying client.
Now, when it comes to SEO, there is also no real guarantee that site visitors will become clients, but SEO does have a couple of advantages on its side, that increase the possibility of bringing in more clients.
For starters, the amount of exposure your website will get when using SEO is not determined by a budget that can run out. It is usually a set service that will only stop when you cancel with your marketing agency.
And then there is the fact that SEO is about so much more than just getting rankings.
It is about doing the necessary tweaks and changes that will make a website look more interesting and be more likely to convert visitors into paying clients. SEO takes user experience into consideration while AdWords is literally just about creating a budget and letting the campaign run.
So which method is better for your brand?
To figure out which method is the better one for your brand, you need to first figure out a few things.
Do you want leads now, or can you wait a while? Do you have a set budget or can you be flexible? Are your goals long-term or short-term? And do you want the results to be long-term or short-term?
Once you have your answers to this, working out which is better for your brand will be easier.
Start-ups, small businesses, and medium businesses generally don’t start out with big advertising budgets and so are less likely to opt for something like AdWords. So for this size of business, SEO might be the best option, especially if it is considered an investment into the company’s future marketing.
Bigger businesses and those companies operating in an insanely competitive industry, especially companies running e-commerce websites, will be more likely to benefit from running an AdWords campaign that will give them instant visibility. These sorts of companies are also more than likely going to have a bigger budget and so will be able to afford this option.
Besides that, businesses with online shops often have greater success in making sales via websites, because that instant AdWord visibility and buyer impulse tends to generate sales.
Both SEO and AdWords have their place in the marketing world and if you are unsure which will give you the best results, it helps to have a chat with a highly experienced SEO agency, like ours.
