When you first get into online marketing, it’s important to know the various terminology related to internet marketing practices. The two primary ones are “Search Engine Optimization” and “Google Ads”.
They may seem intuitive, but the two concepts have many similarities. However, these are separate practices, so it’s important to understand each one before you start making progress in SEO.
In this article, we will describe the difference between SEO and Google Ads by giving you some insight that should help you with your marketing campaign.
Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an attempt to create a website that performs well on Google’s results pages. This is done by understanding Google’s search algorithm and adapting the website and its content to the algorithm.
The algorithm uses over 200 ranking factors to determine which sites are most relevant. Additionally, sites are ranked according to the specific keyword phrase entered in the search bar.
Slight differences in the keyword phrase will produce different results. For this reason, it’s important to base your SEO on carefully selected keywords that are popular in your niche.
You cannot select a keyword for optimization without doing this research. It may seem obvious to pick those phrases that fit your niche. You may not find the best results.
Keyword research is very important as you will be optimizing your site for multiple key phrases throughout your campaign. New pieces of content, unique pages and everything you publish on your website should be optimized with your own keyword phrase.
The benefits of optimization
Over time, your website optimization efforts can lead to high search engine rankings for your target keywords. You may also find yourself in Google’s “snack pack”, which is a choice of three or four companies that are shown at the top of the results in some cases.
Once there, you have one of the best free marketing items you could ever dream of. Anyone who sees your site in search results has expressed interest in your product or service through a keyword search.
Additionally, a place at the top of the results expresses a sense of authority. You will have great chances of attracting customers and visitors to your website. The more people visit and engage with any of your pages, the more authority your domain will have.
Domain authority is the overall importance that Google gives to your site in your niche. Increase in authority gives better rankings to all pages on your site.
So there is a snowball effect that occurs when you see success on any of your pages. Maintaining great rankings requires managing your site and keeping up with a sustained optimization campaign, but it gets easier when you start improving your rankings.
What are Google Ads?
Google Ads are similar to the end goal of SEO Optimization, but achieving them requires a completely different process.
For Google Ads, you research your target keyword, bid a bid to search for that keyword, then track and place your ad.
There are also many other online options on which you can position your ad. There is a network of sites that Google has partnered with that allows businesses to post their ad to various sites all over the internet.
That said, a lot of Google ads land somewhere near the top of the search results for a variety of keyword searches. In many cases, these ads are at the very top of the list.
The beautiful thing is that while Google ads claim to be ads, they don’t really look like ads. This makes them seem much less intrusive than a typical online promotion.
Additionally, advertising is similar to websites in the search results. It has the same target keyword, and the subject matter is related to what the user was looking for anyway.
So, if you have an ad for a new line of running shoes that you are selling, you can place a Google ad for the keyword “new running shoes”.
The Benefits of Using Google Ads
The key benefit of Google Ads is that you tend to get a favorable position in the results without having to invest time in the process. You can put your content right away, which you can’t say about SEO.
SEO takes time, often months, for a website to be positioned where you will notice more traffic.
At the same time, Google Ads costs money and SEO is free if you do it yourself. The amount of money may vary depending on the popularity of the chosen keyword.
Very popular keyword searches require advertisers to pay significantly more than the less popular ones. Note that the payment is in the “PPC” format.
“PPC” stands for pay-per-click and means you only pay when a user clicks on your ad. Each click has a specific cost, and you pay exactly what you get in terms of user engagement.
If millions of people watch your ad but don’t click it, you don’t pay to see it. If millions of people clicked on your ad but you don’t have the budget, you can be safe because you can set budget limits for your ad placement.
These two online marketing methods are just different ways to achieve the same goal. You want to attract new visitors to your website – both SEO and Google Ads can do it for you.
You have to make a choice based on your budget requirements , goals, and marketing preferences.
Online Marketing, Need Help?
The best way to increase your online marketing success is to work with professionals. Professionals can streamline your process and provide the best content, online marketing tips, and website features to improve your search engine rankings.
We’re here to help. Contact us for a consultation and see what digital marketing services can do for your business.
