The Difference Between Organic Search and Paid Search Results
When search engines like Google or Bing return search results they display two types of results, organic and paid results. Organic search results are sometimes called natural search results and are much harder for your website to acquire.
Organic search results are based on a search engine’s rankings of your website and it’s content. Ranking high for searches and keywords related to your business or product is the primary goal of any successful search engine optimization campaign. Having your website appear for keywords in paid search results is related to pay per click advertising and digital marketing.
The Long Road to Organic Search Rankings
When it comes to building your website’s rankings in organic search results, it takes a consistent and focused approach. Organic rankings are dictated by on-site content (blog posts, web pages, internal links) in addition to off site optimization (backlinks, directory listings, social media).
Often when discussing organic rankings with new clients we compare the process to running a marathon. There are no shortcuts to SEO and building your website’s natural rankings. Sometimes we meet with clients who have skewed views of what SEO does or how it works based on past experiences with unscrupulous digital marketing companies. SEO is not a one time thing or a short term 3 month project.
Building rankings or improving rankings is an ongoing process, and true SEO is like any marketing that must be budgeted and accounted for. Like any other marketing expense your results and return on investment should be tracked.
The Sprint to Lead Generation
To use our race analogy again, if gaining organic search results are the marathon, paid search results can be likened to a sprint. With paid search results you Identify keywords important to you business, company or website and bid to appear in the search results on a per click basis.
With platforms like Google Adwords, You determine a daily budget you are willing to allocate, and adjust what you are willing to spend per click for a specific keyword. Paid search results appear above organic search results on results pages. You only pay for traffic to the website when potential client or visitor click on your ads.
It is important with paid search advertising to determine how much a qualified lead on a particular service or product is worth to your business. Depending upon your industry, the cost of keyword bids vary greatly. If you are interest in discussing your digital marketing, SEO or PPC advertising goals, please contact us for a Free consultation.
