Sep 11, 2020

Why and How do we balance Organic and Paid Search

SEO comparison to PPC for start with a low budget.



This is an outcome out of a friend's issue, from Dhaka. He is launching an ERP software. He always emphasized and use the word SEO. 

He has a very limited budget and without any strategy, he is relentlessly developing the ERP...he is too busy that even overlooking my free advice. Thank you so very much that enabling me to brainstorm this post... here is your FREE Consultancy ON !!!!

Reasons why I have been trying to reaching out through this post that might helps other startups to take a lesson...

The most important issue is that in marketing product launce or any promotion must have a plan and strategies in the first place.

But most cases reverse promotion first...this is not the process... this a drawback!! This is not a debate Egg or hen which comes first! The reality of investing your time and money in a venture to get the ROI... after a certain period of time...

SMART GOAL ROI is a must...so plan and matrix comes no. 1


When it comes to digital marketing, especially if you’re just starting out, there’s always the question about SEO vs. PPC. What are the advantages and disadvantages of both? And, more importantly, which one is better for you?

 The general consensus is that PPC costs money and it brings immediate results, while SEO is free, but takes time. So it’s a simple trade, time for money. Well, the truth is that it’s more to that than you might expect. I’ll clarify everything below.

No. 1 Position in Google Gets 33% of Search Traffic [Study]

Organic search rankings relative to traffic, and shows the importance of being on top in order to get the most clicks. This is the latest study to demonstrate the huge power of Page 1, Position 1.

 

But reaching to Page 1, Position may take time. SERPs Search Engine results page is too tricky, which I least understand the Google tricks!!

 

Although SEO might be considered a cheaper way of promoting your website and products, that can actually be far from the case, depending on the niche you’re in and the toughness of your competition. SEO involves content, which is not cheap to create (at least not at a high level).

 

For example, creating a high-quality article on cognitive SEO can take up to one week (if not more if you count in proofreading and editing). Remember, time = money. But, while ads are an easier way of promotion, we earn a lot more trust by ranking and generating traffic organically.

 


 

Organic traffic is free but to manage although a cost involvement. It takes time to see results and is Hard to Master. Requires technical know-how, and it will take at least 6 to 12 months to come to SERPs page 1 ranks 1 to 10. Pages 2, 3, 4 maximum overlooked

 

So you have to hire a professional to manage all accurately with surgical precision.

You have to bear the one year of compensation to get the results.

As an owner, if you have all the expertise then you may go for SEO marketing.

 

AS a Small Business owner you don’t have time to wait and need immediate results then paid traffic is better. In this regard, I would like to point out the important SEO cons first. At large SEO is king.
 

SEO Cons

It takes time to see results: For some, 6 months to 1 year might sound really good, but for others, it might sound like an eternity. You need results and you need them fast, now. If that’s the case, then your focus should be on paid search. However, it’s a good idea to put the basis of SEO as soon as you start. Remember, it takes time to see results, so the sooner you start, the faster you’ll see them. If you postpone SEO, when you do decide to start, you’ll just hear the same 6 months story again.

 

Hard to master: If you really want to call yourself an SEO expert, you’ll need to learn a lot more than just basic keyword research and link building. HTML and CSS skills might be required, at least at a basic level and JS and PHP come in handy as well. Those don’t include all the other technical things you need to master like sitemaps, indexing, URLs, redirects, multiple language issues, and many others. With links getting harder and harder to obtain without a lot of $$$, your content creation and persuasion skills also need to improve significantly. There’s just so much more you have to master with SEO that it can actually be overwhelming. There are even categories, such as Technical SEO and Content SEO. Mastering these both can be very challenging. If you think of PPC as playing an instrument, then SEO is sort of like conducting an entire orchestra.

 

 Fewer buyers oriented: People search a lot on the web, but most of the time they search for information. Even they search for things to buy. That’s why it’s a good idea to also build an e-mail list, to be able to bring clients back on your website. 

 

You may have a less marketing budget for starting a new business. You can’t spend enough money on marketing purposes. So what will be the wisest steps that you can follow? Lift Up Your Business with the Help of SEO.

You should start doing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as SEO is rapidly becoming one of the strongest marketing strategies available.

 

Extensive Keyword Research:  

Before starting a proper plan on SEO, you need to do extensive research on Keywords about your business. An SEO expert or A Digital Marketing agency may help you out regarding keyword research. You have to find the core keywords out of those selections. Other than that, you may research your competitors & keywords based on that. Competitors those hoes are in the leading position you may steal their keywords and strategies. 

Quality Content:

Always keep in mind that ‘Content is the King’. So you have to publish quality content regarding your business & context. Here are a few tips on How to Lift Up Your Business with the Help of SEO that you may explore:

  • Tips & suggestions type content & blog post
  • BlogSpot regarding business trends
  • Relevant & attractive visuals for blog posts
  • Statistics based on the topic

Let’s discuss the pros and cons of SEO, to better understand what you’re dealing with when you get started.

SEO

Advantages

Disadvantages

It can be ‘free’

It takes time to see results

Gradual learning curve

Hard to master

Good ROI

Hard to scale

Long term results

High uncertainty

Good for brand awareness

Less buyer oriented

More control over content

Hard to A/B test



Organic search responsible for 53% of all site traffic, paid 15% [Study]

Key Points

·         According to Google’s Economic Impact Report, organic search is 5X more valuable than Google Ads.

·         Paid search is a good short-term marketing solution, but organic search creates long-term, compounding ROI.

·         Social media helps you build your brand, but organic search is what helps you target high-intent consumers.

·         Organic search doesn’t just drive qualified traffic and conversions, it also improves brand perception.

Clearly, SEO can deliver massive ROI. But, although digital marketing spends has steadily increased over the years, so have your options. As a result, online marketing dollars are split among various activities.

Let's say you have an amazing new product -- you've created software that recommends the perfect pizza toppings for your personality, and you're excited to share your business with the world.

Unfortunately, you have no idea how to share this revolutionary product with as many of your target users as possible.

Many small businesses are faced with a similar problem of getting found by the right audience -- it doesn't matter how accurate your pizza but is in determining whether or not you like pineapple on your pizza if users can't find you.

There are two popular search strategies by which organizations solve this problem -- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC). But which method is right for you and your pizza software company? Is it better to pursue an organic-first approach and find consumers through the search engine rankings, or is it better to invest in an advertisement at the top of a keyword results page?

Here, we've explored what each of these two acquisition strategies does and provides some descriptive statistics to help you decide whether your business is best suited for SEO or PPC -- or both.

Now, every business has a website, most webmasters are at least vaguely familiar with SEO, and Google has cracked down on keyword stuffing and many "Black Hat" SEO methods (against their rules and sometimes illegal) that some marketers use.

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:

·         33% of clicks from organic search results go to the very first listing on Google.

·         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 the U.S. internet users researching products and services online

 

Organic traffic connotes visitors who arrive to your site via search engines – without you directly paying for this pathway. By clicking on organic listings that appear in search engine results pages (SERPs),

Which types of content are best for organic traffic?

Organic traffic is generated through search engine optimization. You write search-friendly content, it appears in SERPs, users find your page and they click on it.

The practice of SEO is to produce the most comprehensive, practical, and useful page so that it ranks high in SERPs and organic users are able to find it as seamlessly as possible. And while this pathway represents organic traffic as a metric, SEO is not a fixed, static tactic that guarantees that 1,000 site visitors today equals another 1,000 site visitors tomorrow.

 

At any given moment a competitor can produce a more effective piece of content and siphon away traffic from your site to theirs. So the primary focus of content for SEO should be outranking competitor pages and keeping your pages updated.

 

This is typically accomplished through:

·         Blog articles, often evergreen.

·         Landing pages, product- or service-focused.

·         Videos.

·         Infographics.

 

As you can see, organic traffic is often top of the funnel, and searcher intent is informational. The key is to draw traffic to pages that will live on your site for a long time (or forever), that is optimized around a single seed keyword and that provides information in a UX-adapted environment.


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, but you can learn more about that here


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

Your Budget

In order to determine what to invest in PPC vs. SEO, consider your total budget for search marketing. If you have no budget to commit to paid ads, you’ll need to stick to SEO optimization.

If you do have some budget to dedicate to paid ads, it’s worth incorporating it into your SEM strategy. Some benefits of PPC advertising include:

Testing: If you want to test a new layout, UX, or product on your website, you’re going to need a lot of A-B testing traffic to get the results you’re looking for. PPC ads are a great way to drive that traffic immediately. If you’re just implementing SEO, it takes a lot of time and resources to drive the same volume of traffic.

Immunity: Search companies are constantly thinking up ways to update their algorithms so that searchers are getting the content most relevant to their needs. While SEO strategies, which rely on the algorithms already in place, must adapt and change with these search engine updates, PPC campaigns are totally immune.

Bottom Line: If you have some budget to dedicate towards PPC campaigns, it’s worth giving it a try in the right circumstances.

Industry CPC

If you’re interested in implementing PPC as well as SEO, consider how much the competition in your industry spends on these ads, too.

PPC platforms hinge not on fixed prices, but on bids. Marketers bid for what they’re willing to pay for a single keyword click. Some industry words are much more expensive than others. The more expensive the word, the more likely you should rely on SEO to deliver traffic and leads to your organization. To find average industry CPCs, you can use Google’s keyword planner tool.

Bottom Line: If the average CPC is really high, lean more on SEO to deliver results for your organization. If it’s manageable, bid away!

SERP Competition

Competition for keywords in hot industries can be fierce, and is often dominated by leaders in the space. Trying to displace these big fish through your SEO efforts alone will require significant resources and strategy, and May, in the end, is impossible.

To understand SEO competition for your target keywords, refer back to Google’s keyword planner tool. This tool not only helps you research competition for your target keywords but gives you ideas for terms that are relevant to your product or services.

Bottom line: If competition for your keywords is relatively small, lean on your SEO strategy to do the heavy lifting. If the competition is raging, pay for traffic via your PPC ads.

Short vs. Long Term

When deciding whether to use PPC, SEO or a mixture of both for a search marketing campaign, first consider your goals. Are they mainly short-term goals like increasing traffic immediately? Or are they long-term goals like building a consistent body of traffic over time?

In the short term, PPC is generally your best bet. The minute your ad runs, it delivers results. But when the budget stops, so do the benefits. Because SEO relies on your website’s content, linking structure, and metadata, developing a thorough strategy that delivers real results takes more time than setting up a PPC campaign. However, SEO’s results may be more valuable to you and your organization in the long run.

Bottom line: If you’re looking for quick results, invest more in PPC. If you’re interested in building a more valuable traffic base over time, lean on SEO.

Quality vs. Quantity

PPC campaigns and SEO campaigns drive different kinds of traffic to your website. Which way you lean depends on what your traffic goals are.

Are you primarily interested in short-term conversions, testing, and/or product sales? PPC is the way to go. 50% of people arriving at a retailer’s site from paid ads are more likely to buy than visitors who came from an organic link.

Are you more interested in building a lot of traffic over time and establishing trust with your visitors? A solid SEO strategy should be your go-to strategy.

Bottom line: In general, SEO promotes more valuable long-term relationships and trust with visitors, while PPC drives more traffic and immediate conversions.

·          70-80% of users ignore paid ads and focus on organic results (Search Engine Land)

  • Organic search drives 51% of all visitors to B2B and B2C websites, trumping all other non-organic search channels including paid (10%) and social (5%) (BrightEdge)

https://www.highervisibility.com/blog/organic-vs-paid-search-statistics/

ORGANIC SEARCH STATISTICS

  1. 67,000 searches are performed on Google every second of every day.
  2. 93% of digital, online experiences start with a search engine.
  3. 46% of all Google searches are local.
  4. 95% of all searchers click on one of the links in the first SERP.
  5. Search traffic converts 10x better than social media traffic (on desktop).
  6. The first position on SERP collects around 30% of the clicks. Second gets 15%; third gets 10%. By the time you get to the ninth and tenth positions, click-through rates have fallen to about 2%.
  7. 50% of search queries are at least four words.
  8. Google owns 96% of all mobile searches, and 93% of all desktop searches
  9. SEO is the single biggest factor in lead generation, according to 57% of B2B marketers.
  10. 82% of marketers report the effectiveness of SEO is increasing, and 42% report effectiveness is increasing significantly.
  11. Updating and republishing old blog posts with new content and images can increase organic traffic by as much as 111%..
  12. Google’s answer box is triggered by 25% of all searches.
  13. The top ranking site is, on average, 17% faster than sites that rank in the #10 spot.
  14. The top ranking pages have 8.7% lower bounce rates than sites that rank in the #10 spot.
  15. The top ranking pages have almost 6x more links than sites that rank in the #10 spot.
  16. The top-ranking page contains, on average, 1,890 words.
  17. The highest-impacting SEO factor remains link signals (29%), with on-page signals a close second (24%).

 

Email Marketing Benefits

·         There are 3.8 billion email users worldwide, so if you’re looking for a way to reach your customers, email is the perfect place to find them.

·         On average, email generates $38 for every dollar spent, which is a 3,800% return on investment.

·         Two-thirds of customers have made a purchase as a direct result of an email marketing message.

·         Only 20% of leads that are sent directly to sales are qualified, meaning they need to be nurtured via email and great content.

·         When it comes to customer acquisition, email is 40X more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined.

·         Perhaps the best reason to use email marketing is that you own the channel. Outside of compliance regulations, there is no external entity that can impact how, when, or why you reach out to your subscribers.

 

Email Marketing Stats by Industry

Email marketing rules change based on your industry and who you’re marketing to. Below are some email marketing trends for B2B, B2C, eCommerce, and real estate companies that can inform your email marketing strategy.

Email Marketing Stats for B2B

·         Emails that are triggered by an action perform 3X better than nurture emails or drip campaigns

·         For 86% of professionals, email is their preferred communication channel

·         60% of marketers believe that email marketing produces a positive ROI

·         Clickthrough rates are 47% higher for B2B emails than B2C

·         Subject-line emojis accounted for increased open rates for 56% of brands

Email Marketing Stats for B2C

·         78% of consumers have unsubscribed from lists because a brand was sending too many emails

·         Over 90% of consumers check their emails daily

·         Email subscribers are 3X more likely to share social content than others

Email Marketing Stats for eCommerce

·         86% of consumers would like to receive a promotional email from brands, they subscribe to at least once per month

·         Segmented emails generate 58% of company revenue

 


Final Conclusion:

 

How do you grow startup search traffic fast?

Neil Patel, noted SEO expert, gives the answer in one of his most comprehensive posts: “Adwords, dude!” It’s an obvious answer. But it’s not the only component you need, as Patel explains in the same piece.

Google Adwords and paid search are great tools for getting a company off the ground fast. But they aren’t the only components needed, and they aren’t a replacement for rock-solid SEO and link-building.

Paid search will build traffic fast, but to really capitalize on the long-term traffic that you need to keep your business going, you need the foundation of a good organic search. Anything that builds up that organic traffic is going to pay dividends long-term, especially with the move towards voice search.

You need both, and they work together in any sort of digital marketing strategy.

 

So how do you balance the two?

Keep PPC and SEO Teams On the Same Page

This might seem like an obvious point, but not everyone stays in close communication.

Your PPC and SEO should be working together to form a seamless marketing strategy. Coordinating efforts between the two, particularly on a seasonal basis, will help you maximize traffic and keep your site at top of SERPs. Make sure both teams have access to data for both PPC and SEO and make sure they have access to the right metrics.

 

Seek Balance In All Things

Paid search and organic search are both important components of your digital marketing strategy. Are you blending the two together, or focusing on one to the detriment of the other?

Make sure you’re optimizing your website traffic, and balance your efforts.

 


Remarks and Recommendations: 

 

  1. 1.   In both cases cost is a must: for organic traffic hire professionals and paid traffic bids for PPC ads.

    2.    You need some quick results and in the long run to drive quality traffic. So the combination of both is better. Low budget daily $5 PPC for 3 months suit well.

    3.    In addition Google My Business “near me” is so important in recent days due to pandemics. You must try the GMB listing which is totally FREE! Local SEO impact on more…

    4.    Email Marketing is best for B2B Marketing. You may go for to build an email list of customers out of market research, develop  pitch and go for automation with free apps like MailChimp

    5.    Social Media is also a source to drive traffic. But depends on B2B or B2C. B2B and most tech-oriented businesses go for LinkedIn pages, ads, and B2C friendly Facebook pages, ads. 

   
    Acknowledgment:
 
    Aheref, SemRush, HubSpot, MOZ are the king of SEO and inbound marketing blogs posts and tools that enlighten me totally to steal this post.