When people find links among search engine results it is acknowledged as organic traffic. Paid search accounts are those which companies have paid to appear at the top of search results.
Now lets learn about this in detail:
Organic Search
Whenever we type a question or anything in a search engine, the list of links that appear in front of us (below the ads) are known as “organic search results”.
Organic results are purely based on the quality of content of the page.
Traffic that comes from people finding your links among these results is classified as “organic search” traffic or just organic traffic.
Organic traffic is widely considered the most valuable traffic source for several reasons:
- Google directs the highest amount of traffic and they are the most trusted source for people researching a purchase.
- Google is very, very particular about their rankings and ranking in the top five results for a keyword indicates that your content is high quality.
- Moving up in the rankings is difficult and takes time, but once you’re there you get to reap the benefits for a long time.
- 33% of clicks from organic search results go to the very first listing on google.
The downside to organic search is that it takes time to get indexed and really start generating traffic from this source.
Increasing organic traffic and earning top rankings takes time, persistence, and more effort than in the past — but it’s well worth it. Take the following facts into consideration:
- 57% of B2B marketers say SEO has the biggest impact on lead generation
- On average, organic search leads have a 14.6% close rate, compared to 1.7% for outbound marketing leads
- The highest spenders are more likely to turn to organic search for information
- Every month there are more than 10.3 billion Google searches, with 78% of U.S. internet users researching products and services online
Google is en grained not only in our buying behavior, but our lives in general. Unless another robust, global method for searching the internet comes along, the importance of search engine optimization and organic traffic is unlikely to slow down.
Paid Search
Paid Search accounts are those that companies have paid to appear at the top of search results (above those that earned their page-one spots organically.)
Despite the little yellow box next to their title reading “ad,” many consumers are unaware that these are even advertisements. The ads feel native and fit seamlessly into the results to be less obtrusive.
For these reasons, paid search has been more popular in recent years as organic search has become more competitive.
Rather than having to wait patiently for your SEO to build up, you can pay for the chance to get seen on page one of Google immediately.
To give you an idea of just how much money is being spent on paid search, take a look at Google. Google’s AdWords program is the most used pay-per-click (PPC) advertising program available today. While the tech giant owns YouTube and Android, among hundreds of other profitable brands, AdWords accounts for roughly 70% of their revenue — which speaks wonders for its effectiveness.
When starting your first campaign on Google Adwords, you need to be tactful. When done right, you can start getting a ton of targeted traffic to your landing pages much quicker than you would be able to get from organic search.
Conclusion: Organic Search vs Paid Search
Traditionally, inbound marketers have avoided paid search as we viewed it as more of an outbound method for marketing, but with social media ads and tools like HubSpot Ads, it’s becoming far more common for the two to work together.
Realistically, it takes three to six months to start seeing movement in search rankings and most people just don’t want to wait that long. Paid search helps you get visitors to your website today and also speeds up the process of optimizing your landing pages for higher conversions, which pays off exponentially in the long run.
So, if you are weighing the pros and cons of organic search vs paid search, sit down with your team and examine your timeline and budget.
If you’re looking for the quickest results, paid search is better, but if you’re looking for the most cost-effective results, the answer becomes less clear cut.
In general, organic search is more cost-effective in the long run. However, with the right tweaking to your campaign and attention to landing page optimization, paid search can be very cost-effective as well.