by 81% of people do online research of some kind before making a large purchase. If you don’t have an online presence or a digital marketing strategy, you’re probably missing out on a lot of customers.
When working to market your business online, you may have discovered that there are two major strategies that you can use. Using SEO techniques and running Google Ads are two of the best options available.
But what are Google Ads and SEO and which should you use for your small business? In this SEO guide, we’ll tell you what you need to know about SEO vs Google Ads.
What Is SEO?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a strategy that includes optimizing a website to encourage search engines to link to it more often.
With SEO, you’ll use a variety of techniques. This includes selecting great keywords, writing high-quality content, improving the user experience, and ensuring fast page speed. As a result of using these techniques, Google will have an easier time recognizing the value of your site and its content.
Small businesses of all kinds can benefit from SEO including retail stores, dentist offices, and B2B businesses. It can also be a good idea to use SEO for lawyers.
What Are Google Ads?
Google Ads is Google’s online ad platform that allows users to launch pay-per-click (PPC) ads. These ads will appear in many different places online including within organic search results, in the Google shopping carousel, and on the websites of Google’s partners across the web.
Google Ads is cost-effective and offers various targeting options and features that can help you reach your ideal audience.
Which Should You Use?
It’s usually best to use a combination of both of these techniques to get the best results from your digital marketing efforts. However, if you have to choose one to use, your choice will depend on what kind of business you run and what your goals are.
Here’s what you consider when choosing which strategy to use.
SEO
Typically, SEO is a great option for small businesses that have a low budget and want to generate long-term traffic.
Once you perform SEO on your site and develop content for it, it will continue to help you get more traffic as time goes by. You won’t need to keep paying money to see results or pay for each click like you will when using Google Ads.
On the negative side, however, it can take a lot of time for SEO to start working and for you to start seeing results.
Google Ads
While SEO is great for long-term growth, Google Ads tend to be the better option for short-term results. You can start running ads and getting traffic from them immediately.
With Google Ads, you can target your ideal customer easily and can optimize your campaigns over time. As you continue to tweak your ads, you can end up getting a lot of new customers for a lower and lower cost.
On the other hand, the problem with Google ads is that once you stop paying for your campaign you’ll also stop seeing results.
Making the Decision Between SEO vs Google Ads
If you want to create a solid digital marketing strategy for your small business, you need to know the differences between SEO vs Google Ads. While SEO is useful for long-term growth, Google Ads is perfect if you’re interested in seeing quick results.
Searching for more digital marketing and SEO tips? Read over our blog now to find more useful marketing guides.
