SEO or Adwords? What is best for my business?
Many of our clients want to increase and improve their website’s traffic, and some want results fast. We often use paid online ads as a quick and effective strategy to achieve this for the client. But this is only a quick fix. To see lasting improvement, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can be a much better choice but it’s by no means fast. Check out the pros and cons of both below.
Should I Use paid ads or SEO?
Paid ads have their place and can be a great starting point to quickly boost traffic, but clients shouldn’t settle for only a paid strategy. Why? Because the minute you stop paying for ads, traffic will drop, leaving you back where you started.
A client’s Google ranking should be the main focus when considering how best to increase traffic and, in this case, patience is a virtue. Google rankings allow your business to be found organically, and traffic will naturally increase over time with an effective SEO strategy. But it does take time and continued SEO adjustments.
It’s much like the girlfriend-wife conundrum: a paid-ads strategy, like a girlfriend, is great for testing the waters, but you really want the stability, commitment and fulfilling relationship of a marriage. In this instance, the good wife in your marriage is SEO and content marketing.
Let's compare the Pros and Cons
Paid Ads
Pros
- Great for quick results and instant traction to your website
- You will see an immediate increase in traffic
Cons
- Can get expensive very quickly: Your statistics may show that your website is a top performer in the industry, but this will disappear the moment you stop spending on ads
- No impact on Google search results: This means potential customers are just as likely to find their way to your competitor’s website if they use similar keywords
SEO
Pros
- Great for long-term lead generation
- Ensures a permanently higher position in Google search results
Cons
- There are ways to utilise SEO that are against the rules set by Google. If you break them, your rankings will be severely affected.
Whether you choose to use paid ads or SEO depends on what you’re trying to achieve. Here is one example of when you might use each:
When to use paid ads?
When you want immediate results, have a specific target market in mind and a set budget you want to spend
When to use SEO?
When you are willing to invest the time it takes to build up the rankings of your website and amass the large number of backlinks required to increase it
Of course, paid ads and SEO are not mutually exclusive and I have some clients who have used both strategies with successful results.
Whether you want fast or lasting results, we can help. Speak to us now about how you can best increase traffic to your website.
