SEO or AdWords PPC Consulting – What’s the Difference
To give a quick outline, SEO refers to the organic search results. These are the results on Google’s search results page (commonly referred to as SERP) that the website owner didn’t have to pay for directly. Google “crawls” the web and the websites at the top were determined to be most relevant. Google uses a variety of metrics to determine what shows on the first page. And a whole industry has developed to help businesses reach this goal.
Google Adwords or PPC are the paid placements on the Google search results page. These will likely be at the top of the page and are marked as an ad with visible notation. Ads show not only on the search results, but in the shopping section, maps, as image or Youtube ads, and on search partner networks. A Google Adwords consultant or PPC management service will help place these ads across the web.
Google Adwords or SEO for Business Owners
I commonly hear the question , why invest into Google Adwords at all ? Why not just focus on SEO and get to the top page of Google organically? This would eliminate all ad costs.
While SEO is immensely valuable, PPC (pay per click) is just as important. It may seem biased coming from a Google Adwords consultant and expert, but it would be hard to argue with the reasons below.
Why you need Google Adwords and SEO
Many people will simply click on the first link they see. As a business owner or marketer, you are at least vaguely aware of how PPC and SEO works. But to many consumers, these terms are just alphabet soup they’ve never heard before. People simply click on the first result they see on Google. And this is commonly taken by a paid advertising spot. This means that your competitors can even bid on your brand term, gaining that 1st position above your organic listing. A Google Adwords agency can work with your SEO strategy to make sure you always cover the most relevant terms.
Getting that top spot in SEO can take weeks if not months of deliberate work, often by a professional. Some keywords are so competitive that you will simply never be able to outrank them on certain searches. A PPC consultant will allow you to start driving traffic to your website right away. This allows you to test pages or offers much more quickly than building up the organic ranking. The last thing you want is to invest so much time and energy into building up your SEO rank only to find out the page doesn’t convert.
Let’s say you already have a solid SEO presence across multiple keywords. Most likely, you do not rank #1 for all these keywords and all the related keywords. With Google Adwords, you can cover a wider range of keywords and drive traffic from a wider audience. This can allow you to push different products or services.
Google Adwords allows you to remarket across the display network. Even if you are driving tons of traffic through SEO, you only have that one chance to capture their attention and get that conversion. With Google Adwords, you can leverage your already existing SEO traffic and show your ads to those visitors across the internet.
Google Adwords Agencies and SEO services are not rivals
Finally, even with a strong SEO presence, if Google Adwords is profitable for your business, there is no reason not to maximize your real estate on Google. SEO and PPC do not have to be like rival teams, but actually work together to bring more profits to your business. As an experienced PPC consultant, I would never downplay the importance of SEO, but don’t think that it will replace your website’s Google Adwords traffic.