A Comparison: Organic SEO vs Google Adwords

Guest Post by Brianne Walter

A high ranking on the Google Search Results Page (SERP) is the dream of most online businesses which are looking for a break.

But what if you’re not looking for a permanent high rank on the SERPs, and are simply promoting a seasonal offer at your otherwise busy website / shopping site? Then the sudden hype created by Google Adwords may just do the trick of generating some quick traffic to serve the purpose.

Depending on whether you are looking for short-term or long-term benefits, you can go with either of these advertising modes basically. SEO is free and Adwords is a paid campaign. Let’s take a look at how well they fare against each other.

Organic SEO

What’s so organic about it?

SEO is a tried, tested, and cultivated effort to rank high on the SERPs and stay there indefinitely. It is not a simple hurried one-time effort to gain prominence.

Pros:

Organic rankings can be achieved by adopting certain optimization techniques that find favor with search engine’s indexing algorithms, which constantly scan the websites, evaluating them on predefined criteria and ranking them accordingly.
It is more natural for users to visit organically ranked sites as they indicate the credibility of a site, achieved by strong, consistent adherence to content relevance, inbound links from authentic sites and a steady stream of traffic.

Cons:

Big players are always ranked high by virtue of their seniority in the sector and online space. New entrants will find it quite difficult to compete for the high ranks.
The time and effort involved in quite high and it may take a while to reach the required ranking.
Indexing algorithms are prone to constant changes and website contents need to be refreshed/updated to meet the latest guidelines, making the process a continuous one.
Probably more cost-effective than Adwords.

Google Adwords

Google Adwords is actually a Pay-Per-Click sponsored service where the website owner chooses the keyword and position, basically when, where and how his/her advertisement will figure on the top or left of the Google SERP. The owner/you will be paying a fixed amount to Google each time a visitor clicks on your ad on the SERP. Irrespective of whether you are a veteran or novice, your ad ranks high above or alongside the natural search results, provided you can fund the operation.

Pros:

Instant attention once you pay up for the Ad position and keyword selection.
Probable sudden spurt in visitor traffic, if your offer is interesting enough.
The process is active as long as you can continue to fund it.

Cons:

Not advisable to those with budget constraints. Bid amount will vary based on keyword and position. Top positions and competitive keywords come with a higher price.
It takes time to experiment the process if you are looking to monetize the effort.
Traffic drops as soon as the ad is taken off the SERPs.
Sponsored links are hardly accessed except when they are exceptionally unique or interesting.

Both Organic SEO and Google Adwords are means to capture the attention of the online user looking for specific information using the Google search engine. If you want to stay in the lime-light forever then Organic SEO is the way to go.

However, a combination of both techniques will be ideal to promote a new website, Adwords to get the initial attention and then followed up with a well-designed SEO process to build a brand name in the long run.

About the author: Brianne is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology and luxury. Beside this she is fond of gadgets. Recently an article on steam support attracted her attention. These days she is busy in writing an article on grand marnier.