Organic Search Engine Optimisation versus Google Pay Per Click
Organic SEO versus Google PPC is what everyone wants to know! This blog dives into both strategies and creates comprehensive pros and cons. When it comes to online marketing, two strategies that businesses often consider are organic search engine optimisation (SEO) and Google pay per click (PPC) advertising. Organic SEO involves optimising your website and content to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) without paying for ads. On the other hand, Google PPC allows you to place ads at the top of SERPs and pay each time someone clicks on them. Both strategies have their advantages and disadvantages, and choosing between them can depend on various factors, such as your budget, goals, and target audience. In this blog post, we will discuss the differences between organic SEO and Google PPC advertising, and the pros and cons of each.
Organic Search Engine Optimisation
Organic SEO refers to the process of optimising your website and its content to improve your search engine ranking (listing position on page 1, page 2, etc). This means that you will not pay for any clicks or impressions (Pay Per Click – PPC which we will outline next), but your website will appear in search results for certain keywords ‘organically’. Organic SEO typically involves optimising your website’s content and structure, using the ‘key phrases and key words’ in the text content and body of pages and blogs. So you need to create high-quality content that refers to the search terms that you think a potential customer will type into google when they are searching for something they are looking for information on. So, if you write a blog or general information page about a specific subject, then google will find that content written about that ‘specific subject’ and index it on their search engine database, as reference to that specific search term.
For example because we have written this blog about ‘search engine optimisation information’, google will crawl this page and index it, as information about ‘search engine optimisation’ and then in turn… this blog post will list on google as a reference for people searching for information on SEO Search Engine Optimisation. In short, it is very beneficial for us to write this blog about Google SEO information, as we gain a listing on google for the search term ‘search engine optimisation’. So when anyone searches google for this information, we should show up as a reference page… Which is most likely the reason that you are currently here now and reading this article. Let me guess… you were searching for the best information on how to optimise your website for better search engine page ranking and this page ‘showed up’.
Another reasons google ranks websites higher is backlinks. If your website is referenced by other websites talking about the same subject, in this case ‘how to optimise your website for SEO‘ then google will give it ‘more credibility’ (more important and more valuable information). So it is important to build backlinks to your website from other quality websites (not rubbish websites) that google ranks as a high quality websites with good information. Thats said, building backlinks is a time consuming and laborious job and it can take a long, long time to get listed on other quality websites. So all in all, making any website list well on google through organic SEO  is an expensive and time consuming job, that can have varying results. The fact that google also change their ‘rules’ and search ranking criteria (algorithms) almost every other month, means that it is very difficult to maintain high google listing positions without constant work, and remember first page ranking is never guaranteed as the algorithm can change and your first page ranking from yesterday, can drop to page ten today.
Pros:
Cost-effective: Organic SEO is a cost-effective method for driving traffic to your website. Although it takes time and effort to optimise your website, it can bring long-term results without any additional cost.
Trust: Organic search results are seen as more trustworthy by users than paid ads. Users often skip over paid ads and look for organic search results when they are searching for information.
Long-term results: While it may take time to achieve a high ranking in organic search results, once you achieve it, it can bring long-term results (until the algorithm changes significantly again).
Cons:
Time-consuming: Organic SEO requires a lot of time and effort to achieve a high ranking in search results. It can take several months or even years to achieve a high ranking for competitive keywords.
Uncertain results: While you can optimise your website to improve your search engine ranking, there are no guarantees that you will achieve a high ranking. Search engine algorithms are constantly changing, and your competitors may also be optimising their websites for the same keywords and doing it more efficiently with more time and budget.
Limited control: While you can optimise your website to improve your search engine ranking, you have limited control over how your website appears in search results. Search engines may choose to display different information in search results than what you have optimised for.
Google Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Google PPC advertising refers to the process of paying google for each click or impression your advert gets, when your advert is displayed by Google for the specific search terms that you have chosen to be listed for. With Google PPC advertising, you bid on certain keywords/phrases and create ads that will appear at the top of search results that are relevant to specific search terms a user inputs into Google when searching.
Setting up a ‘good advertising‘ campaign, by making a correct advert structure, is vitally important. Creating smart adverts with the correct wording that encourage users to act and click on your advert for information on the specific topic they are searching for, is key. You also need to be very focused on the correct visitor type you want to click on your advert (you don’t want bounce clicks). Keeping in mind, that it is a total wast of money having a person click on your advert (NOTE* that you have to pay for) when is not going to result in potential business (when it’s not what they are actually looking for). These ‘wast of time’ click are what are referred to a bounce clicks and are a total wast of money. If a user goes to your website after clicking on your badly composed advert and the user is not actually looking for your products or services,  then they have been misguided by your advert wording and thats a waste of a click. They may be looking for a completely different product or service, but because your advert was ‘ambiguous’ or misleading, then this mistake on your behalf has resulted in a waste of your budget. With a ‘correct advert structure’ in mind, please remember it is equally as important to be selective in the ‘key words’ or key phrases’ that you are asking google to display your advert for. Listing for search terms that are not relevant to your products or services is also a total wast of your money.
A good example of this is a recent project that we worked on with a client. The objective was to audit their PPC campaign in an effort to get the best value out of their PPC budget. They specialised in printing on ‘drinking glasses’ (for the bar and restaurant trade). They are leading suppliers of the service of printing logos and branding on drinking glasses for bars and restaurants throughout Ireland and are using PPC as one part of their overall annual marketing budget. They had assigned part of their budget in their PPC campaign on the search term ‘Glass Printing’. But during our audit it became obvious that this search term was bringing a bounce rate of 80% of their monthly spend with Google PPC. The reason for this, is because people looking for ‘glass printing’ were mostly looking for glass window printing, not ‘drinking glass printing’. By changing the PPC search term settings and removing the term ‘Glass Printing’ as a key word entirely, resulted in a reduction in the bounce rate to 5% (down by 75% budget waste). This in turn resulted in their adverts running for longer, due to the fact that the budget assigned wasn’t being wasted on bringing the wrong people to their website. The PPC campaign increased sales directly related to their PPC campaign by 60% compared to their adverts pre our campaign audit. Simply put, they ended up getting a better bang for their buck…
Pros:
Fast results:Â With PPC advertising, you can start seeing results immediately. Once your ad is approved, it will start appearing in search results almost instantly.
Control:Â With PPC advertising, you have complete control over your advertising budget. You can choose the keywords you want to bid on, create advert copy, and set your budget and bidding strategy day to day, week to week and month to month.
Targeting:Â With PPC advertising, you can target specific audiences based on location, demographics and other factors. This can help you reach your target audience quickly and effectively.
Cons:
Cost:Â PPC advertising can be expensive, especially if you are bidding on highly competitive keywords. You will need to set a budget and bidding strategy to ensure that you are getting a return on your investment.
Competition:Â With PPC advertising, you are competing with other advertisers for the same keywords (generally your competitors). This can drive up the cost per click and make it more difficult to achieve a high ranking. Those with the bigger budget have better exposure (adverts running longer and higher positions for higher bids per click)
Short-term results:Â While PPC advertising can bring fast results, it is a short-term strategy. Once you stop paying for ads, your website will no longer appear in search results as opposed to organic listing.
In conclusion, Organic Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Google Pay Per Click (PPC) both have their respective advantages and disadvantages. Organic SEO is a long-term strategy that requires consistent effort and investment in quality content, technical optimisation, and link building. It can take time to see results, but the benefits are sustainable and can lead to increased visibility, credibility, and traffic to your website. On the other hand, Google PPC allows for immediate results and can be a great way to reach a targeted audience quickly. However, it requires a budget and ongoing tweaking to maintain a successful campaign. Ultimately, the choice between Organic SEO and Google PPC depends on your goals, budget, and resources. It’s important to carefully consider both options and develop a strategy that aligns with your overall marketing budget and goals. Contact Insight Multimedia today to gain more knowledge of how to improve your ratings!
Getting high ranking listings on Google, whether it’s via organic SEO or PPC has become an expensive part of modern day business. Business owners see it as a “Must Have’. It is natural that every business owner wants their business to be at the top of page one. But the fact is NOT EVERYONE CAN BEÂ … only the ones who are willing to pay one way or the other.
Credit: Bob Stokes (Insight Team)
