It goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyways:
If you want your business to succeed, you have to invest in promoting it.
Otherwise, how will people even know it exists?
You can tell your friends and family about your business… but unless they’re all social media influencers (a tweet from Elon Musk wouldn’t hurt), an online campaign will always cover more ground than word of mouth.
What’s the best place to promote my business online?
In general, the best place to promote your business online is going to be Google.
Considering that it’s the 2nd biggest website in the world (next to TikTok), it already has traffic in the billions. What makes it better is that this traffic consists of people actively searching for answers to questions.
And when the question is where they can find a specific service, what better answer to give them than your business?
Because of this, promoting on Google is extremely effective and well worth the investment.
There are two ways you can promote your business on Google:
- Paying for Google Ads
- Doing SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on your website
But which is better – SEO or Google Ads?
As an SEO agency, we’re obviously a little biased. But we’re going to give you 5 solid reasons why SEO is better than paying for Google Ads when it comes to promoting your website.
1. SEO can give a higher ROI than Google Ads
This might seem crazy at first, considering that
- SEO can take months of investment to kick in
- Google Ads works on a pay per click basis, meaning you only pay when someone clicks on your ad
However, when you look at the big picture, it makes perfect sense.
If you’re going to pay for Google Ads, depending on the search phrases (referred to as “keywords”) you choose, you can actually find yourself spending a LOT of money.
This is because the cost per click depends on the competitiveness of the keywords. Depending on the volume, it can be VERY expensive. Paying to rank for certain keywords can cost you as much as $54 USD per click.
This is obviously not a problem if your conversion rate is good enough. But your ROI is also limited by the PPC model. Whether 100 or 1000 people click on your PPC ad, you’ll be the same percentage of what you make to advertising.
Because of this, even if your traffic increases, you won’t benefit from it as much as you’d love to.
This is where SEO shines.
A successful SEO campaign that puts you on the front page of Google will generate more organic traffic to your website than a PPC campaign and ultimately more sales.
Not only that, but you’re also going to be paying the same fee during the increase in traffic as you were before.
So for the same monthly fee, not only are you paying considerably less for the increase in exposure and potential sales you’re going to get, but you’re also going to get more value from the investment as a result.
Especially if your website makes it to the first page.
This makes SEO a much better long term investment.
2. Pages ranking with SEO get more traffic
It may come as a surprise, but even though websites paying for Google Ads are the first search results you see, they’re not the ones that get clicked on the most.
In fact, the average Click Through Rate for a website using Google Ads is 2%.
Compared to the organic search results (the non-sponsored results), that is half of what the last result on the first page will usually get.
Why do PPC listings bring less traffic than organic search results?
The reason for this is because of the credibility an organic search result is expected to have.
When people see a website promoted with Google Ads, they know it’s only the first result they see because someone PAID for it to be there.
Search results page for “Physiotherapists Toronto”. As you can see, Google makes it clear which result was paid for. Can you guess which one gets more clicks?
On the other hand, people understand that a website has to provide legitimate value to rank at #1.
Even IF accomplishing that was still a paid effort. (and it usually is.)
SEO may take longer than Google Ads, but it has the benefit of getting you more clicks for this reason.
3. SEO can make your website more valuable
When you run a Google Ads campaign, you’re basically paying to have your website be the first thing people see when they search for specific keywords.
Nothing more, nothing less.
However, when you run an SEO campaign, even though you’re still looking to have your website be the first thing people see, the process is very different.
Making your website rank naturally on Google involves adjusting it to make what you’re selling more clear to people, creating content to promote it, increasing your presence through link building, and improving the overall user experience of visiting your website.
Even though your goal is the same (increase traffic), the process can also lead to having a richer, more user friendly website as a result.
4. SEO can increase your online presence beyond advertising
There’s a lot more to SEO than just increasing your rank on Google.
Even though that’s the end game of the campaign…
There’s a completely different process to getting there because you’re going to be ranking ORGANICALLY.
A part of the process involves making content people will want to read, and this can increase your reach significantly.
How can content make my website reach more people?
Putting out fresh content on your website will increase your reach for 3 reasons:
- It helps you rank for more keywords
- Answering people’s questions can lead to them discovering your website.
- People who enjoy your content enough will usually repost and link to it on their own, exposing you to a larger audience.
All of this can be accomplished by a good SEO campaign.
Paying for Ads won’t do this for you.
5. The positive effects of a successful SEO campaign can last longer
A successful Google Ads campaign can have a significant impact on your company’s exposure. So will a successful SEO campaign.
But there’s one major difference between the two:
When an SEO campaign is over, your company will still benefit and see results from the outcome.
This is because of how a Google Ads campaign gets you exposure vs an SEO campaign.
When your Google Ads campaign is over…
Your ads stop being shown. Your page is no longer promoted. When someone googles your keywords, your website is no longer the very first result they’ll see.
But when an SEO campaign is over…
Your website will continue to get exposure.
Why?
Because now it naturally ranks higher for your keywords.
It’s not there because you bought the position, it’s there because your site has been deemed valuable enough to rank it as such.
As a result, you’ll continue to gain tons of exposure to people making a Google search for your keywords every month.
However, don’t expect this to last forever if you don’t continue to do SEO.
Most competent businesses are also running campaigns of their own. They can and WILL take your spot in due time if you’re not making any more efforts to maintain or increase your rank.
In conclusion:
SEO is better than paying for Google Ads because:
- It generates a higher return of investment
- Pages ranking with SEO get more traffic
- SEO services can increase the quality of your website
- SEO can increase your online presence beyond advertising
- The effects of a successful campaign last longer
But don’t be confused by the overall message.
Google Adwords is a great short term strategy and well worth the investment.
In fact, there are situations where you’re better off investing in Google Ads and sometimes even skipping over SEO work altogether.
We’ll be covering these situations in a future article.
If you’re interested in having SEO work done for you, put in a request on our website and we’ll get in touch with you right away.
Till then, good luck with your rankings!