In 2024 around 5.3 billion people worldwide use the internet. This makes having a strong digital presence vital for almost any business.
Setting up a website is a good first step, but you need to make sure that your site stands out from the competition. This can take some work, and there are various approaches that can help you towards this goal.
Both SEO and Google Ads are useful online tools that will help get more eyes on your business. Knowing how to use each effectively on their own and together can have a huge impact on your business.
In this guide, we’ll look at how this power duo can help you master the search game. Keep reading for more.
What Is SEO?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a practice that has the overall goal of improving the search engine ranking of a website. When people perform a Google search, 28.5% of people will click the top result. With each result down the page, this number drops significantly.
Most people won’t go past the first few results, and almost none will go as far as the second page. This means that you want to make sure your website shows up as high as possible.
Through SEO, you can get your website to show up higher so that more people are likely to click on it. This can have a huge impact on the amount of organic traffic you get to your site. This should then make it easier to generate more leads.
When working on SEO, it’s best to go by Google’s algorithms. It’s by far the most popular search engine in the world and where most of your traffic is likely to come from.
These algorithms can be quite complex. As it stands, there are around 200 different ranking factors that Google uses. This isn’t easy for the average person to get their head around, so it’s best to work with a professional digital marketing agency if you want to improve your organic SEO.
Improving Your SEO
With so many ranking factors, you may be wondering where to begin. Some of the most important ranking factors include:
- Keyword use
- Quality and consistency of content
- Page authority
- Website speed
- Mobile responsiveness
- Quality backlinks
It’s important to understand that SEO is an ongoing process and it can take a long time to see the effects. It may take several months before you notice the impact, and you need to constantly optimize your site if you want to maintain a good ranking position.
What Is Google Ads?
Google Ads (formerly known as Google Adwords) is by far the most well-known and popular pay-per-click (PPC) advertising solution available. You can use this as an effective way to market your business and you pay for each click that comes from a user.
The cost of each click varies depending on a specific keyword bidding process. These paid ads appear along with regular search results. Right now Google places these at the top and bottom of search engine results pages (SERPs), but they may change this with time.
Like with normal search results, some factors determine if your page will show up in these ads when a user performs a search. This includes the bidding price, ad timing, ad quality, and user experience of the page the ad goes to.
There are some vital benefits to using Google Ads, such as the ability to customize individual ad campaigns. This makes it easier to align with your budget.
You can distribute ads across other Google-owned platforms such as Blogger and YouTube. Google provides detailed analytics that will give you useful insights into how well your ad campaigns are performing.
The Difference Between SEO and Google Ads
There are some similarities between SEO and Google Ads. The main one is the purpose they serve of bringing in more traffic to your website. They are very different, however, in the way that they work.
SEO is a long-term strategy that can often take a while to generate results. It’s vital for building a loyal audience and a reliable network of customers.
Google Ads isn’t essential but is an optional strategy that you can use to gain results. It can start generating these results almost immediately and isn’t something you have to stick with if you don’t feel that it’s essential.
SEO is one of the most cost-effective methods of generating more organic traffic. Technically, it can be done for free if you’re willing to take everything on yourself, though this likely won’t prove very effective. Working with a digital marketing agency will get you the best results.
Google Ads is always part of a paid strategy. It’s often used by newer businesses that aren’t well-established enough to appear high up in SERPs so they can quickly gain more traffic. As such, you need to think about the initial investment and how it fits into your budget.
You can turn Google Ads on and off whenever you need to. SEO, on the other hand, is a consistent process that you need to stay on top of.
In general, Google Ads is best used to promote time-sensitive events and advertise specific products. SEO is more about building lasting authority and developing stronger relationships with your audience.
How Google Ads Helps With SEO
Despite their differences, a lot of companies can benefit most from using SEO and Google Ads alongside one another. There are several ways that you can use Google Ads to fortify your SEO strategy and make your campaigns more effective.
Use Google Ads to Quick-Start an SEO Campaign
If you have a new website or business, getting started with SEO is ideal, but it may take several months before it provides any benefit. Even the best campaigns won’t produce much straight away. It takes time to create quality content, build a social media following, and generate brand loyalty.
You may not want to wait that long or maybe you don’t want to rely solely on SEO to bring in more traffic. If it’s within your budget, you can use Google Ads to quickly drive traffic to your site.
This will help boost brand awareness while your SEO strategy is getting started. Once you begin seeing positive effects from SEO, you can then reduce your spending on paid ads.
Leverage Remarketing to Increase Conversion Rates
After some time, there will be some customers who have visited your site before and know what to expect. They’ve already shown some interest, but you may not have been able to convert them into paying customers yet. Users that fall into this group may not need much more to convert, so giving them a little push in the right direction could be enough.
You can use Google Ads to give them this push. With Google Ads, you can remarket your products for people who have already been on your site or engaged with your brand elsewhere. This can be a very effective method of reclaiming sales that could otherwise be lost.
Gain Valuable Insights and Data
Google Ads focuses heavily on data and analytics. You can gain a lot of valuable information that you can then use to improve your strategies.
For example, you may be able to identify gaps between the search terms that lead to your ads and your target key phrases. You can also identify and follow search trends that are relevant to your brand.
Such data will give you deeper insights into your customers’ mindsets and opinions. This information will make it easier to understand user intent which can then help you improve conversion rates.
Improve Your Content Marketing Efforts
Content is king, so it should be a key part of your SEO strategy. It can be one of the most effective ways to build brand awareness and create relationships with users.
Google Ads is ideal for figuring out which keywords work best for your brand. Through practical application, you can use this information to guide your content marketing efforts and make adjustments as time goes by.
After this, you can build landing pages that focus on conversions. This will help encourage your customers through the sales funnel to generate more conversions.
Build Your Local Clientele
Many people use search engines to find local businesses, so you want to make sure you’re targeting the local market effectively. Google Ads is a great way to do this.
You can effectively reach out to local customers and put your brand in front of them. Even if you don’t have a brick-and-mortar location, this can be a very useful SEO practice. Geo-specific Google Ads can improve the effectiveness of your regional and national SEO campaigns.
Growing Your Business Through SEO and Google Ads
Both SEO and Google Ads can be very beneficial, so you should consider the advantages of each for your strategy. SEO is vital, and while Google Ads isn’t, it’s definitely worth considering. It can support your SEO strategy and help you quickly generate traffic.
GHAX is a leading digital marketing agency that can design a custom strategy for your business to help you grow and succeed. We’ve received several awards from the likes of UpCity, Expertise.com, and SEOblog for the quality of our work. Book a call today and we’ll start working on your strategy.
