Google Ads Vs SEO – How To Choose The Best For Your Business

Search engine results page is divided into two - organic listing and paid listings.

Organic listings is as a results of SEO while paid listings is as a result of using Google search ads

A lot of companies are confused on what type of searching engine marketing strategy to adopt.

They are constantly bombarded by digital marketing expert trying to convince them to adopt their area of specialization

This they do (marketing agencies) because they want to sell their services to a client.

In this article, I will show you which among them is best for you based on your goals

SEO is poor for targeting high intent keywords while Google Ads is the best

Are you surprised?

High intent keywords are keywords people who are at the end of the sales funnel (ready to contact or hire you) are using to search for your services on Google.

People searching with this keywords have their credit card in hand and are ready buy or hire now.

They are willing to fill your free quote request, free consultation request or contact form.

This type of keyword is very competitive both for SEO and Google Ads.

But is it worth it chasing this type of keyword with SEO or Google Ads?

As shown on the image above, Google Ads takes up the first 4 position on search results.

And according to wordstream, 64.6% of people click on paid ads when they are looking to buy a product or a service.

That means if you are banking on SEO to win on high intent keywords, you'd lose against companies using Google Ads.

Apart from that, high intent keywords is very competitive in SEO and it takes a very long time to rank high on search engine result page (that is if you'll even make it because of the stiff competition)

And not only that, for you to get any meaningful ROI from your SEO efforts, you need to be on the top two or three listings of the organic results.

Anything below that means you will hardly get website traffic because being a local business means the search volume for your target high intent keywords are low.

Another area that makes Google Ads trump SEO for high intent keywords is that all SEO webpages are built to carter for both low and high intent keywords.

While low intent keywords requires information heavy web-pages, high intent keywords doesn't require information heavy web-pages.

So, if you pit Google Ads web-page against SEO web-pages on high intent keywords, Google Ads web-pages will come out on top.

This is because Google Ads web-page is designed to convert high intent keywords to customers, while SEO webpages isn't designed for that.

When is SEO suitable?

SEO is only suitable if you are targeting people at the low end of the sales funnel (low intent keywords)

Not only is this type of keyword unattractive to Google search advertisers, they are easy to rank with little competition because every body is chasing after high intent keywords.

What is low intent keywords?

Low intent keywords are keyword string people are using to search for information or to answer a question regarding a situation.

People using this keyword string aren't ready yet to contact or hire you.

They are still in the learning face and are trying to learn all they can regarding their situation.

How to convert low intent keywords with SEO

Like I said, low intent keywords are people who are just searching for information regarding their situation and the only way to win them over is to satisfy that informational thirst.

This you can do by providing that information in exchange for their email address which you will then use to nurture them to a sales over a series of email marketing campaigns.

Note: The highest personal details this type of people will give you in exchange for the information is their name and email address.

Anything more than that and your conversion rate will be very poor.

To convert low intent keywords to sales, you need to build a series of email sales funnel.

Google Ads gives faster results than SEO

With Google Ads, you can create a campaign and start getting new leads and customers almost immediately.

SEO requires time to blossom. It takes three month, six month to a year or more for you to see any significant impact depending on your competition.

Even that is not an assurance you'll get to the first page of Google.

Not only that, you still stand a risk of being penalized by Google for using unethical SEO approach.

Did you say unethical SEO approach?

Must SEO expert brag about using white hat SEO technique but if you dig deeply, you will discover they all use shoddy SEO tactics.

The truth is, the real white hat SEO tactics is very time consuming and very expensive.

Building backlinks through the legal route means you will only be able to build few backlinks and in order to outrank your competitors, you need lots of it.

Building lots of backlinks through the legal route is very slow, time consuming and ridiculously expensive.

Must local business won't be able to afford the price of a real white hat SEO which is why must SEO expert go for the cheaper and easier alternative.

Shoddy SEO technique will only last for a short while until Google catches up on it and penalize your website for unethical SEO activities.

Let me give you a shocker. You have to pay another SEO expert to help you clean up the mess and apply for reconsideration from Google.

Conclusion and Verdict

SEO and Google Ads are great for generating customers for your business.

But choosing one over the other depends on your business goals.

If your goal is going after those that are ready to hire you, then Google Ads is your best bet.

If you want to market your business without fear of being penalized by Google, then Google Ads is your best choice.

If your goal is to start booking customers immediately for your business then Google is your best best.

But if you want to catch your potential customers when they aren't ready to hire you and then gradually nurture them to sales through a series of email marketing campaigns then SEO is for you.