What’s the difference between Google adwords and SEO?

Over two billion people are now using the Internet on a day-to-day basis, and 90% use search engines to find what they are looking for.

So any business looking to promote itself online it needs to know how to get found.  There are many different ways to boost the performance of your website in search engines, but two very different methods often get confused… namely search engine optimisation (SEO) and Google Adwords.  So, what’s the difference?

 Google Adwords:

Google Adwords is one of the main ways Google make money.  It works by paying to get your website up the search rankings, as an advert. But you only pay if your ad gets clicked on, which its why it is also known as pay per click (PPC). How much you are willing to bid for Keywords along with the relevance and quality of the page your ad links to, will all effect how successful your ad is. Here’s an example of how ads are placed in Google:

 SEO:

SEO is about climbing the search engine rankings “organically”.  This should be mainly done through the additional of good quality, useful and informative content, regular updates, pro-active social media presence and intelligent keyword research, among other things!  But unlike when using adwords, you don’t pay to get your website to the top of the search rankings… you have to work at it!  Here’s how they would appear in a search:

Which one’s better to use?

In my opinion the most effective online marketing strategies utilise both techniques, and I understand that Google itself sees it as an “embarrassing truth” that using Adwords is a boost to your organic SEO.  If you are just starting out it may be worth using adwords a bit more as it is an ‘easier’ method of moving up the rankings, where as SEO takes time.

However for an established business I think it’s is essential that they pay attention to their SEO and are regularly doing activities to boost it. Even though I think SEO should be the main focus, if the budget is there, investing in Google adwords will almost definitely have a benefit.

A word of warning…

Some marketing companies may offer you a monthly SEO package, which sounds great and can be well worth investing in, if they actually do SEO! Many will do no more than simply manage an adwords account for you (which doesn’t take much time)… in short you aren’t really getting what you are paying for!  So make sure that if you are paying for SEO services you are getting a proper service that includes the regular addition of good quality content to your website and social media pages.  Our mantra is “if you want more people to visit your website, then you should focus on making it a website worth visiting!”