Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), AdWords, Online Marketing – so many terms to keep up with, it’s easy to bite your tongue.
Around 80% of Australian online businesses have implemented various strategies to enhance their online presence, but only about 30% of them report positive results. It can be frustrating, particularly when online marketing starts becoming a headache. Let’s clear the smoke so that we can see clearly and get you the search engine rankings you deserve.
SEO
SEO is a collection of techniques and strategies that enable you to attain organic traffic online. It is a long-term project, but one that is highly reliable and rewarding once it is well established and working.
AdWords
This tool is mostly useful on Google as a search engine. It enables you to explore various keywords to determine the most effective ones for using in your online marketing campaign. AdWords is essentially “keyword” oriented, and it will always cost you because every time a user clicks on your link from this approach, Google will charge you some.
SEM and Online Marketing are marketing strategies tailored for search engines and the online platform at large. They are not necessarily the same thing, but their definitions are not that important for this post, so, let’s forget about them for now.
SEO vs. AdWords
I won’t waste your time by keeping you in suspense, but I’ll just let you know, right of the bat, that SEO wins.
I wonder why people are even trying to separate these two because one of them is just a tactic or one of the elements of the other.
AdWords is just a tool used for SEO. Aussies are getting confused because some people are trying to separate the two when one is just part of the other.
Considering that AdWords is a paid for service, its results are often more instantaneous. Conversely, the results of SEO in general, take time to manifest, which makes some people want to make AdWords seem like a reliable way of getting traffic on its own. Yes, it somehow is, but the traffic you get through AdWords alone is not only draining your pockets, but it’s also temporal. The moment you stop using AdWords, there goes your traffic too.
However, SEO is generally long-term. Remember that AdWords is a tool that’s essentially used to facilitate SEO. According to TailoredMedia, aBrisbane SEO company, keywords are important because they help you understand your online market, and appease search engines. AdWords should be used for its intended purpose – to help you identify the most reliable keywords for your online marketing campaign.
SEO involves many other tools apart from AdWords. If you rely on AdWords as your main tool for gaining traffic while neglecting SEO in general, you’ll be giving up all these other essential tools. SEO is a strategy that takes some time to come up with, and AdWords is only part of that strategy, not the entire strategy in itself.
If you have been using AdWords as the key strategy for your online marketing campaign, you must have noticed by now that your strategy is flawed. The successful businesses in Straya use AdWords as a tool for their SEO strategy and not as the main thing for gaining traffic. Remember that SEO generates organic traffic, and this traffic is the most important. Combining AdWords with other SEO tools, techniques, and strategies is what will, in the long run, bring you the results you are looking for.
I hope by now you can see why your money should be on SEO and not necessarily AdWords. I also hope you have noticed that I haven’t implied that you should give up on AdWords. It is an invaluable tool if your online playground is Google.
Use AdWords as it was intended to be used, as part of your SEO strategy, and you will not be disappointed.
