In digital marketing, one of the most important factors is visibility in search engines. SEO and SEM are both essential for that. The two acronyms can be confusing. Which is better for my business, and how do I put them into practice? Every agency has its speciality and recommends one or the other, often without explaining how to combine SEO and SEM campaigns for the strongest results.
Before you can put SEO and SEM to work together, you need to understand each one. SEO is search engine optimisation — earning positions in the SERPs organically. SEM uses paid ads to gain positions. Below, we walk you through how to combine SEO and SEM campaigns for outstanding results.
Benefits of SEO
The benefits that come from SEO are powerful enough in a digital marketing strategy that you can't afford to ignore them.
Most clicks go to organic links
Are you one of those people who never clicks on PPC ads in search results? If so, you're in the 70% of the population who doesn't — they use only organic search results.
That's why websites that occupy the top organic positions receive an enormous volume of traffic, and why that's the goal every business wants to reach.
SEO results hold over time
Excluding highly competitive niches where every competitor is actively working on SEO, once you reach the top positions you tend to stay there for an extended period.
As an agency, we use SEO to improve website visibility in Google's organic search rankings.
Drawbacks of SEO
When planning your digital marketing strategy, it's worth keeping some of SEO's limitations in mind.
SEO is slow
This means a fair amount of time will pass before you start seeing results. Making a few changes won't be enough to land you in first place. It takes time and sustained effort for search engines to adjust your ranking in response to your improvements.
If you've just launched a business, or you're trying to grow it and want new customers quickly, SEO positioning may not be the right tool on its own right now.
Quality SEO demands serious commitment or budget
Doing SEO well and to a specialist level takes many hours and resources. If you don't know where to start or don't have the time, you'll need to hand it over to an SEO consultant like the team at Gecko Studio.
Also, because of the delay before results come through, you'll need to commit a budget to SEO over a long period until you reach the position you're aiming for.
Advantages of SEM
SEM means placing paid ads on search engine results pages (SERPs) to appear at the top.
Top position immediately
While SEO requires time and effort to climb the SERPs, a SEM campaign can get your website appearing at the top of search results within hours.
The practical result is that you can start generating traffic and winning new customers to drive sales almost immediately.
Full control over your ads
When you pay Google to show an ad, you get much greater control over what you publish. You can also run special offers, display your location, highlight key pages within your site and many other things in your Ads campaign to help you deliver better results.
You only pay when someone clicks your ad
The greatest advantage of ads on Google is that you only pay when someone clicks your ad. That means you're not wasting money — you only pay for potential customers who are genuinely interested in what you offer.
You can also start and stop your campaign whenever you like — run it for a week, a day or even an hour.
At Gecko Studio we are a Google Partner and we help businesses like yours boost their positioning through paid ads on targeted keywords.
Drawbacks of SEM
A SEM campaign has some drawbacks, but they're not major ones.
You pay for the traffic
It's the most obvious downside. That said, you only pay when someone clicks your ad, which means the costs don't spiral.
When the budget runs out, traffic stops
As you'd expect, once your budget is exhausted, your ads stop showing. As we mentioned, 70% of people don't click on ads — so only the remaining 30% will click.
It's worth keeping in mind that even though 30% may sound modest, it could represent more customers than your business can actually handle. It's more than enough.
How to combine SEO and SEM campaigns
The next question is: SEO or SEM — which is better? The answer is to combine them. Here's the best way to do it:
Step 1: Use an SEO strategy to build sales volume
SEO is a long-term investment capable of securing strong top positions for your main keywords. You'll see traffic grow month by month. That said, it's also subject to any seasonal dips in your market.
If your business has a quiet season in the summer months, you may experience a traffic slump. That's exactly where SEM steps in.
Step 2: Use SEM to cover slower periods
Every business wants a steady, consistent flow of revenue throughout the year, avoiding peaks and troughs. Running a SEM campaign can help by generating additional traffic directed at people searching for keywords you're not yet ranking for organically.
For example, dolphin-watching in Ibiza sees high demand in winter. Boat hire, on the other hand, peaks in summer — exactly when dolphin-watching is at its quietest.
To level out the slow winter season, a boat hire company could run a SEM campaign targeting dolphin-watching searches to boost bookings.
With tools like Google Analytics, you can identify the landing pages with the highest conversion rates across both PPC campaigns and your SEO strategy, and see which keywords are playing a key role in that success. You'll find important business opportunities.
Step 3: Use SEM to capture leads from competitors
When a user has decided on a business to buy from, they'll most likely search for that company's name. When that happens, your site can appear at the top of the results and you can try to win them over with a well-crafted ad.
Step 4: Use SEM to protect your own customers
Conversely, when the business a user has chosen is yours, you can prevent a competitor from intercepting that potential customer with their own SEM ad.
Step 5: Always hold the top position in search
If your SEM ad campaign is always active, no one can push you off the top of the search results. That means benefiting from all the advantages of being first that we've described above.
SEO and SEM are often treated as entirely separate strategies, but when you know how to make them complement each other and use them correctly, the results can be remarkable. If you have any questions about how to combine them, get in touch — we'll answer everything.
Our SEO agency is dedicated to increasing your website's visibility. We also offer positioning consultations for a more detailed strategy.