SEO or SEM: Which digital marketing strategy brings more leads?
Updated: Oct 9
Author: Georgia Tsernaki
Date of publication: 11/04/2022
Many companies rush to gain online presence so as to be sustainable due to the rapid changes pandemic has brought. This urgent adaptation is vital for them in order to remain active as businesses and not to lose their customers. However, this new world, the digital one, is totally unknown to many business owners.
For this reason, they don’t know which digital strategies to follow in their sites and social media profiles, focusing mainly on paid campaigns. This is very important in order to reach a wider audience and increase their sales. Therefore, this article will present the basic information that people should know before they invest their money only in Search Engine Marketing campaigns.
SEO vs SEM
Indeed, paid campaigns bring faster results and more leads but this strategy should be accompanied by the content optimization of a site. This is because optimizing content builds a solid environment in a site and this brings more frequent organic user visits.
If users like the content of a site, they will visit it again and again without clicking an ad. Consequently, in the long term run, the company will save money from this organic traffic. Based on this, it is clear that paid ads might help us drive more visits to our site. However, if our content is not of high quality, interesting and relevant to what users need, the latter will not make conversions and not visit the site again.
As a result, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaigns should be used in order to attract new users but Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is here to turn these visits into leads and loyal customers.
Practical Example of bad SEM and SEO
For example, a user wants to buy a woman's dress. They type in Google Search Engine the keyword “women’s dresses” and the first results are paid ads. Let’s imagine that the user clicks the first ad and they don’t find exactly what they want. This is a loss for the company as the ad is paid and it finally didn’t lead to a conversion. This might be because of a wrong keyword setting and irrelevant results to users’ query.
The other scenario is to click the ad, find what they want but the navigation in the site is so difficult that they can’t complete their order. In this case, users just exit the site or complete the order and don’t visit the site again which means bad user experience.
This is also a loss for the company as the goal is not only to make an instant unique sale but also to retain this new client. Also, don't forget the excellent user experience you should provide them with. So, to achieve an excellent user experience and create a loyalty scheme with online customers is vital to have optimized content and meet users’ needs.
Why do users trust more Google SEO results?
Research has shown that the majority of users omit paid results and scroll down in order to find organic ones. Are you surprised? You should be! Users trust organic results more and for a good reason. Google SEO algorithms scan and rank the pages, based on the users’ keyword, bringing the most relevant results first.
Users trust Google and also stay loyal to sites which provide them directly with what they are looking for. Online customers use the internet in order to save time and find what they need quickly. So, relevant content to users’ queries is valuable and always leads to users’ good experience. This means that they are likely to buy and if not the time of speaking, they will come back to purchase at a later time.
Next steps for a complete Digital Marketing Strategy
If you are a business owner or a marketer at the beginning of your career you should bear in mind that PPC campaigns are not enough for a successful digital marketing plan. The optimization of the site content is also essential in order to retain customers and build a consistent relationship with them.
Of course, SEM campaigns bring traffic to the site. However, this increases sales only if the keyword setting and the SEO of the site is high and relevant to what users search for. So, the ideal next steps for you are to invest your money in PPC campaigns but also take close care of the content you provide the users with. Vision Factory has a big team working on both SEO and SEM services in order to bring the best results for a company.
For more information don’t hesitate to contact us. There is always someone of us available to answer your questions and guide you to your next steps.
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