When considering how to generate additional website traffic, there are two primary options. Knowing the difference between paid ads and organic traffic, and which situations call for each, will empower you to make the best decision for your business’ marketing goals.
Organic Traffic
We’ll get to an overview of how to pay your way into the top position on any search engine, but is there a way to get there without paying?
To some degree, the answer is yes.
Benefits of an Organic Traffic Strategy
What makes organic traffic so great, is that once it’s coming in, outside some basic maintenance, you have what some may consider free traffic.
Attaining a consistent, dependable organic search traffic flow is a goal for nearly every website owner. If your website is used, as most are, to promote a business or service then you want it seen. That’s why you delve into the study of SEO and in some cases, pay for an SEO consultant to analyze your existing content and charter a roadmap towards eventually improving your site’s overall search ranking.
Organic Traffic’s Downside
Organic traffic doesn’t quite live up to its reputation as being free traffic. In some rare cases where the site owner is the webmaster and the content creator rolled into one, and where that site eventually ranks for many related organic keywords, in that rare case, the organic traffic is free.
In most cases, you’re looking at contracting out with SEO specialists, professional content creators, and often an editor revising every article. These content creation and SEO specialists can rival the budget you’d put out for paid search traffic.
Sure they do have the potential to create a long-term flow of traffic that, after your initial efforts, is essentially free.
Besides, with organic ranking, you’ll always be positioned below the paid positions, even if you are on the first page.
Paid Ads Search Traffic
As you’ve likely noticed, for most search terms you may enter into a search engine, the top few results are paid placement. While some may have biases against clicking a paid ad, you are still guaranteed a specific amount of traffic based on your bid, budget, and keyword.
Benefits of a Paid Traffic Strategy
Many site owners, especially those with marketing budgets set aside, are looking for an easy way to open the traffic floodgates and start seeing immediate traffic.
If this sounds like your situation, then leaning on a primarily paid ad traffic strategy may be best. Keep in mind the benefit of also building an organic search ranking strategy alongside your paid search efforts.
Besides the immediacy of paid search, it has the added benefit of giving you a sort of data-mining lab. By running multiple campaigns, and A/B testing your website, you can learn valuable information about your target audience.
In addition, with a paid ad search marketing campaign, you get far greater control over who sees your site. That means you can choose to only target a particular age group, income range, relationship status, and more.
This can be incredibly beneficial when attempting to sell a product or service.
Paid Traffic’s Downside
The biggest downside of paid traffic is its temporary nature. You get that quick rush of traffic while the faucet is open. However, once your budget runs out, so too does your traffic.
Outside the fact that paid traffic is not free, it’s a pretty incredible option at our disposal as site owners. One may also remark that paid traffic does require a time commitment in addition to the actual budget. You’ll need advertising copy written, campaigns configured, analytics monitored, and strategies developed and modified as new data is introduced.
In some very rare situations, you’ll find a bit of an uptick in direct traffic and perhaps a tiny uptick in organic search traffic after a successful paid marketing campaign. Generally, you’ll dry up and that is something no webmaster wants. For most, a combination of a paid ads and organic search strategy is best.
Consulting with experienced search marketing and SEO professionals will help you decide whether paid, organic, or a combination of the two are best for you and your website. The team at Triad Web Design Service is here to assist you with this very challenge. Reach out today! Let’s discuss how best to increase your website’s traffic.
