SEO Vs Google Ads – Which is Better For Your Marketing

Learn the differences between SEO and Google Ads and the best strategy for your business.

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49 Comments

  1. amit khatkar says

    i think seo is better than adwords because with seo we don’t have to pay a bunch of money to anyone ,we can do seo at our own

    • Alex says

      Hi Amit

      While this is true, Adwords is a faster solution than SEO if you need traffic immediately. Of course, to create a sustainable online business, you need SEO traffic.

      Thanks
      Alex

  2. jashon says

    I think when you start early to test your offers adwords is a good tool but for better roi you need to concentrate on seo as there is nothing like organic traffic and the success one can have with organic traffic can’t be replaced with paid traffic.

  3. Bhim Rai says

    I think it depends on what your business is and some few other factors such as your budget in instance. Say you have 10k to spend on monthly ad and you spend that 10k in ad and on the other hand your seo is good too (you are in top 3). Now that is a win-win situation here.

    My point here is if you have the budget and good grasp of seo than that I called a good marketing.

  4. Stefan Martinez says

    Hi Alex,

    Great article!

    Both SEO and AdWords are great tools. They certainly compliment each other. I always encourage clients to take advantage of both as this will only give you additional “real estate” on Google and other search engines should you decide to go the paid route on Bing or Yahoo.

    I look forward to reading more of your posts.

    Cheers,

    Stefan T. Martinez

  5. Jan says

    Both tools are useful if used properly. Adwords is a great tool with branding and new products. SEO is more like a long term strategy. To test conversions, adwords is very useful and comes in handy while seo targets are not yet reached. It is costly but you get what you pay for. I agree too that seo – if it works could be the winner in the long run.

    • Alex says

      Hi Jan

      I agree with you that adwords is great for new products. It will give you an idea on what works (and what doesn’t), until your SEO starts to generate traffic.

      Alex

  6. Bryant J. says

    Great article, thank you for sharing.
    I think that SEO and google adwords are not competitors, but complements to one another. They should be used together to rank up your website. Adwords helps you chose the keywords you want and should use, while SEO is used to support your website and rank it up.As Jan said above in his comment “Both tools are useful if used properly”.

  7. Priscila says

    Hi guys thanks for sharing your knowledge. We really appreciate your advices about SEO. We are trying to get same good positions in Brasil. Your advices really helped us. Thanks again

  8. john says

    Thank u for sharing. Both search enginee optimization and AdWords are excellent equipment. They unquestionably compliment each other. But I prefer AdWords.

  9. Ming says

    This is very useful!
    Thank you very much!

    I’m like really new to SEO, Adword, etc. but your blog has enlighten my knowledge on the field.
    So it’s a good start 🙂

  10. Ganesh SARAVANAN says

    Yes both are important for a website , especially for a business’ traffic. But with so many changes happening in Google’s algorithm I wonder if Google is slowly moving towards showing only ads on page 1. What are your thoughts on it?
    Great post by the way, thanks.

    • Alex says

      Hi Ganesh

      It is true that Google Adwords Ads are shown above the search results (currently Google may show up to 4 ads), but still top positions organically are very important.

      As you said, both are needed especially for ‘business’ traffic.

      Thanks
      Alex

  11. Mark says

    This is a very valuable post and does a great job of explaining the difference between seo and adwords. Thanks for posting.

  12. Jens Lundgren says

    You’re definitely right, I get questions from clients all the time asking whether I recommend Adwords or SEO, the answer is almost always: both. Unless the rare cases where Adwords is too competitive to make a profit of course. Any business that wants to compete for real typically needs both though. Solid article.

    –Jens

  13. Paula Daniel says

    Good article and a question that my clients ask all the time. I tell them it is like salt and pepper – each is OK but together they are everything. Also adwords gives you the quick but expensive results whereas search engine optimization takes longer but also is more long lasting. good work. thanks

  14. Mike Wiseman says

    I find SEO to be a better way of marketing, you get long term results not like adwords. I find it especially better for conversion rates as SEO helps target consumers actively searching for a specific product or service.

  15. Chris Wyatt says

    Sometimes Adwords is good for immediate traffic, but SEO is always the best practice for a long-term business investment/goal. Only a fraction of all the Adwords campaigns are shared among them all, while a third of all clicks go to the top spot alone, so I’m on the same page it sounds like.

  16. Corey Hartmann says

    I should say that both Adwords and SEO are both useful tools in the internet marketing field. What matters more is how knowledgeable you are in using them.

  17. Alasdair Walker says

    I feel mixing both together yields best effects, being able to target specific key searches with your website through organic SEO, then from a branding perspective, you can have PPC working for you as well to target other searches.

  18. grant mcarthur says

    i think for more local terms, SEO is better in the long run and definitely more of an investment.

    Adwords work if you have a massive national budget and target. Also for selling products in an ecommerce store, rather than a service like a gardener or plumber!

  19. Ben McDavid says

    I think the marketer for a given firm really needs to consider the channels that are appropriate to the niche. Ad Words/Ad Sense display networks have an advantage that SEO does not, and that is showing people something they didn’t know they needed.

    If you released a new media product (Video/TV series, online game, etc.), fashion product, or another luxury item, the ad words display network gets the word out to generate the searches that SEO needs to produce revenue. It’s critical to keep this synergy in mind when developing an all-encompassing strategy.

  20. Nick P says

    Good article and very accurate.
    For all businesses it is important to have many channels to get customers. You don’t want to put all your advertising eggs in one basket. If that “basket” breaks or is not very effective then you are just throwing money away.
    Thanks

  21. Mike says

    I start off a clients campaign with PPC such as Google adwords or facebook advertising to get them immediate results and build an email list. While promotions and PPC campaigns I am ranking them organically for their keywords using SEO. Once they are ranking for their money keywords they do not need to spend as much, if anything on PPC.

  22. Todd Daugherty says

    Long term, we recommend to our clients SEO. We encourage to treat their digital properties as assets. Until built, PPC is great to get targeted traffic. Getting all of your traffic from one source be it PPC or search engine isn’t advisable. Proper SEO will allow your traffic to come from engines and other websites.

  23. Katongole Johnny says

    Thanks for the differentiation about these 2 words Adwords and Seo where we need both to build our business,for faster traffic need Adwords,long lasting traffic use Seo but need the combination of both for better results

  24. Grant Finlay says

    Like a lot of people have said in the comments (and I agree with) by doing SEO and Adwords at the same time, it can build more trust for a website and lead to better results

    Grant

  25. Garry says

    I believe using Adwords can help business owners test out if the keyword they want has a good search volume before they invest in SEO. Both these tools are powerful to increase your online presence.

  26. Jonathan says

    Thanks for this post! I’ve always pushed SEO and haven’t really taken the time to analyze the benefits of Paid Traffic. This article gave me a better perspective. Thanks again

  27. Stephen says

    Alex, thank you so much for sharing this.

    I often talk to potential clients about this, and generally, the message they have taken from so many sources is that they should just get SEO, or they should completely avoid it and use AdWords out of fear they will get their site de-indexed.

    It usually becomes a fairly long conversation, however, after sharing things in pretty much the same way as you have here they see the light and the advantage of doing both at the same time.

    Adwords is a great way to achieve a good increase in traffic and sales, and SEO provides a long-term win for ensuring success.

    Thanks for sharing this, great to know it will help so many!

  28. Janet says

    Alex, exactly my thought. We have been working with an SEO company and had been with them for a year. The traffic didn’t turn out great despite the improved content marketing in place. Through experience however, I noticed a sudden rise in Adwords placements, enough to convince me that for exposure Adwords works best (pay for visibility) for immediate results or short term goals, but continue with SEO for stabilized searchability ranks which is for the long term goal. Thanks for your valuable explanations that gives it proper conviction.

  29. John Smith says

    I can say that, clients must invest in Adwords initially along with SEO. And after some time, they must invest in SEO. Because SEO is more powerful tool that adwords.

    SEO is a long term and sustainable process. Where adwords depends on money.

    The biggest difference is – You can start SEO just from $100 USD per month, but you will have to spend huge money on adwords.

  30. Jayaraj Chanku says

    Hi Alex,
    Thank you for this awesome article. I think Adwords and SEO are complimentary and each of them have its own advantages. Your article enlighten my knowledge by making it more keen and clear about both.
    Thank you for this amazing post.

  31. Mohammed Saqlain says

    HI Alex,
    Thank you for taking out your busy time to write this article. Literally, I was confused between AdWords and SEO. Now I got to know what is the difference between AdWords and SEO.

  32. Gavin says

    Great post. This is a very informative post to understand the difference between SEO & Google Adwords and its impact on marketing platform. It will be more convenient to explain to the client about their benifit.thanks for sharing such an informative post.

  33. Alex says

    Hi

    Very hard to find a great SEO company. Over the past few years i have used few local & few international SEO companies with great reputation but the results were very poor. I don`t think a third party can help you out a lot. I manage to bring all my companies on the first pages on Google with tones of unique articles, good links & business postings.

    I found some very good Google Shopping companies that could help a lot with google ads but SEO is a different story

    Many thanks

  34. Sandeep G. says

    Hey Alex,

    A good read for new marketers and is an eye-opener for clients. Most clients either assume or fail to differentiate between paid and organic search results. This blog hits the bullseye mentioning how both forms of marketing are different and can be very beneficial when used in combination.
    Very simple and clearly explained content.
    Much Appreciated,
    Sandeep

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