We wanted to go through how the 2 fundamental kinds of digital marketing we have covered resemble each other and how they differ. In this piece we will look at how the foundations of PPC marketing and SEO marketing stand in relation to each other.
Before you read this:
- What is SEO?
Search engine optimization is the name given to the work done to come up higher in the organic rankings. - What is SEM?
Search engine marketing is the general term for the work done around the paid advertising side of the search engines.
We assume you have read the content we shared earlier, or that you know exactly what SEO and SEM are.
The similarities between paid and organic search
The basic appearance of paid search and organic search holds many similarities in general terms.
Fundamentally, our paid search results sit at the very top of the page. They carry a small note saying Ad or something similar. That way users can easily tell what is really an ad, because even when we do not always see SEM as advertising, it is advertising. Your paid search results will have a small ad label right under the clickable heading, and despite these small markers there are a great many similarities between paid search and organic search.
Paid ads:
- have clickable headings
- have body content that is not clickable
- have clickable sitelinks (the small links under the main ad area)
The Google Ads label as of 2024 : Sponsored
The difference between paid and organic search
Now that we have looked at the similarities between paid search and organic search, we can take a look at the fundamental differences.
Traffic
Paid search advertising is a marketing method where advertisers pay to have their ads served; in organic search you do not pay for the visitor who arrives. The fundamental difference between organic and paid search in the pricing model is built on whether a fee is paid or not.
Speed
Winning a position and drawing visitors is far faster in paid search. Entering the rankings organically can take anywhere from two weeks to a few months, while paid search can go live in a short stretch of roughly 15 minutes to half an hour. You can see your ad in the top positions on Google, Bing or Yahoo! within half an hour, but placing in the organic results can take far longer.
Positioning
There are always a few paid search results at the very top of the SERP, or at the very bottom. (Current note : in 2024 Google was observed serving ads in among its organic results.) While the ads sit above and below the organic ones, the organic results are in the middle and less eye catching.
People may not click the ads at the bottom because those links sit far down the screen. The most productive place for ads is generally the upper part. The same holds for the organic results.
The label
Paid search carries a small ad label. That label stops paid search being confused with the organic results.
Organic search results carry a longer heading and a longer piece of text, while paid search results generally carry shorter headings and shorter text. That shows there is a character limit in paid search ads.
