For every successful digital marketing campaign, search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine advertising (SEA) has a huge role to play. So what do SEO and SEA mean? What’s the difference between these terms, and which is the best online marketing strategy? Read on to find out.
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SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a type of digital marketing strategy that grows the quality and quantity of a website’s organic traffic by increasing its visibility on a search engine result page (SERP).
SEO makes use of certain analytics and strategic tactics to increase visibility on a website’s page. By making use of certain keywords and having a website search engine optimized, your website will gain more visibility on the SERPs of Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others. SEO has proven to be an effective strategy to increase visibility and conversion rate. SEO also makes use of content marketing has a vital part of its strategy. Great content gets more people attracted to the website and increases the conversation rate. SEO is cost-effective, and when done right, the result lasts for a long time, even when payment for SEO has ended. SEO can be very complex to do because Google keeps changing its trends and tactics for organic traffic. In most cases, people use SEO experts and professionals to meet their SEO needs. Chorddigital has SEO experts to help give your website more visibility. clicked
SEA
Search engine advertising (SEA) is quite similar to SEO except, instead of creating visibility organically, it creates traffic through advertising. It is a type of digital marketing strategy that promotes a website and increases its visibility on search engine result pages(SERPs) through paid adverts. SEA revolves around paid advertising- it is also called paid search. SEA uses pay-per-click (PPC) tactics, so you only pay when your paid advert is clicked.
The adverts are shown on the search results and are usually above or organic results with the word “ad” written on it. SEA can be very cheap and are usually best for the launch of a new product, or to create brand awareness. They, however, do not last long. As soon as you stop paying for it, your advert will stop showing on the SERPs.
What is The Difference Between SEO and SEA?
Both SEO and SEA are result driven forms of online marketing, with the same goal- increase a website’s traffic and visibility. Although it seems like you need to pay for SEA and not SEO- SEO can be complex. There are a few activities that you’ll need to do to improve your organic visibility that will be purchased. So what are the differences between SEO and SEA? Here are a few:
Timing of Results
Both SEO and SEA are result-driven. However, SEA brings immediate results. Once the ads are paid for, you can see immediate results based on the number of people that visit your site and the conversion rate. SEO, on the other hand, could take a couple of months before it begins to show good results. It has a slow and more laborious process compared to SEA.
Longevity
SEO has higher longevity compared to SEA. When you stop paying for your SEA, your traffic and visibility will end. But with SEO, when you stop paying, the results remain. Your website will keep having organic traffic and visibility at the end of your SEO campaign.
AD marks
Another difference between SEO and SEA is that search engine advertising is usually marked as Ads while SEO does not have anything marked on it. Although SEA is still efficient, people generally do not click adverts as much as they click organic results. However, it is not quite much to worry about, because you only pay per clicks for your ads.
Which Search Engine Strategy is Better?
Now that we know about SEO and SEA, the question of which strategy is better comes to play. Both strategies are very vital in your digital marketing campaign. Before any strategy is selected, the goals and objectives of your campaigns need to be evaluated. You can then select the best strategy that best meets your goals.
However, we recommend a combination of SEO and SEA to increase your website visibility and traffic. Your website will have better results when you combine both strategies. We have SEO experts as well as professionals in SEA to help increase your website traffic promptly. Chorddigital also has professionals in social media marketing, email marketing, content marketing, and other digital marketing strategies. Contact us today or visit www.chorddigital.com to get started.
