Digital Search – Organic vs. Paid

What’s best for my business? Organic or paid social search?

In today’s day and age, it’s important for your business to have a digital presence. Without one, it’s almost like your business doesn’t exist! And it’s not just about websites. If you have a site, that’s great. But what about social media, and a Google Business page? And how do you expect people to find you online? That’s where organic and paid search come in.
 

What’s Organic Search?

Organic search is what comes up “organically” when you search a keyword or phrase. They aren’t paid for. The results are determined based on location and relevance to the words you typed in. When working with organic search, your goal is to be on the first page of Google because most people won’t go past that first page. You can accomplish this via a basic keyword analysis of your industry to determine which words to incorporate, then write relevant content targeting those keywords. Injecting keywords into your headers and meta descriptions is an excellent start.
 

What’s Paid Search?

Paid search is just that- paying to be at the top of the search engine results page. These advertisements are the main way that search engines like Google and Bing make a profit. Ads are found at the very top of a search result or in the left/right sidebar. You’ll be able to tell which search results are paid because they have a little box with the word “Ad” in them next to a result’s website URL. Paid search works on a pay-per-click basis. This means that every time someone clicks on your ad, you have to pay a small fee. The major downside to using paid ads is that your ranking on search engine results pages may disappear once you stop paying for them. Another drawback is that this type of marketing can be very expensive, especially if you’re unsure what keywords to target.
 

So, back to Organic SEO…

If you’re a small business or just don’t have the budget to do paid ads then great SEO is your saving grace. When doing organic SEO, keywords that are related to your business can help you start ranking and will continue to climb over time with small adjustments. Great organic SEO can do the same work as paid ads, but it will take upwards of 6 months to climb the rankings. That’s the only downside to organic search. All you need is the time!

There are tons of blogs and how-to’s that you can refer to in order to get started on your own SEO. However, if you don’t have the time, Eyecon is here to help. Our digital professionals know what it takes to help your business get noticed online!

Email us today at info@eyecongraphics.com to learn about how we can help your website and SEO

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