Understanding Google Ads, SEO & Getting Found on Google

Everyone wants their  business to rank highly on Google. It’s where people go to research products and services every day and if a competitor's website comes up first, or at least much higher than yours, that sale is probably going to them instead of you.

Below is a very simplified overview of SEO and Google Ads written for business owners new to this part of the digital marketing space.

​SEO 

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and involves maximising the chances of people organically discovering your website via search engines. The use of the term organic search refers to being unpaid, opposed to paid search (Google Ads) as discussed below.

On-page SEO
On page SEO is the technical aspect that happens within your website content management software (ie WordPress or Shopify), think things like page titles, URL’s, meta descriptions, internal linking and many other things. Much of this work is done (but not necessarily optimised) during initial web development but a regular SEO review or audit can help keep things relevant.

Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO is making sure people can find your business or website via others methods other than your website itself. Commonly this is via social media page listings showing up in Google search or your Google Business Profile.

I'm not an expert on SEO so I'll leave the recommendations to the experts but it's worth having a basic understanding of what this term means. My understanding is that the results from SEO don't happen overnight and it's more of a long-term investment in your online presence. 

Google Ads

Google Ads work on a pay-per-click basis where you’re essentially bidding for your website to show up as an ad when people search for certain keywords. Google Ads was previously called AdWords, is also known as Paid Search, and sometimes also referred to as SEM (Search Engine Marketing), which only increases the confusion with SEO. Marketers love three-letter acronyms! 

Google Search Ads will be accompanied by an 'Ad' or 'Sponsored' label when they show up, letting people know a business is paying for their placement there.

Key metrics from Google Ads include clicks, impressions,  and the cost-per-click (CPC) which tells you on average how much each website visit is costing you, with this data enabling businesses to make informed decisions about how well Google Ads is working for them relative to their budget.

Some examples of where Google Ads are helpful is if you’ve added a new product or service to your website that you’d like to promote. It usually takes time for SEO to have a positive impact on web traffic so Google Ads gives you a much better ability to control your campaign and budget timeline for something like a product launch promotion or any other immediate, short-term, time-bound or seasonal sales.

The majority of the time, Google will reserve the top placements on search results for Google Ads, so no matter how good your SEO is, competitors running Google Ads might always be showing above your website.

Google Ads are only effective as long as your campaign is active and you're willing to pay for ads, turn your ads off and you may see your website traffic plummet so it's never a great idea to be solely reliant on Google Ads.


Google Business Profile

​This is often one of the first things people see when they search your business on Google and gives people key business information. 

If SEO and Google Ads are not a priority for you right now, fortunately there's something you can action today and that is a review of your Google Business Profile. A Google Business Profile is an essential digital marketing tool, and best of all it's FREE!

Three things business owners should be doing on a regular basis to optimise their business profile include checking information is up to date, asking for and responding to reviews, and making regular posts on your profile similar to how you would on a social media page.

Learn more about Google Business Profile

​Where should you spend your time and resources? 

No matter where you are on your digital marketing journey, it pays to do your research and understand what keywords you should be targeting and have a rough idea of how well your website is already performing.

There are many nuances that might make Google Ads or SEO a better investment given the nature of your business, immediate marketing goals, budget and timeline.

If you’re after a more immediate increase in traffic then it's fair to say Google Ads is the way to go, but pursuing Google Ads shouldn't mean you put SEO on the back burner forever. 

Because Google only has limited spots on their first page, you want to allocate some time to reviewing your SEO, Google Business Profile and any Google Ads you're running so potential customers always have the best chance of finding you as high up in search rankings as possible.

I also recommend setting up Google Analytics on your website so you can compare visitors from organic search (SEO efforts) vs paid search (Ads) and see how this changes over time with whatever marketing services you're engaging with and paying for. If you have a web developer or similar contact, ask them about Google Analytics and if it's something you have on your site. Google Analytics only collects data from the date it is set up so it's best to install this first to collect some baseline metrics before paying for SEO or Google Ad services.

The above is a very simplified explanation of both SEO and Google with a bias  towards Google Ads where I have more experience. I encourage you to reach out if you have any questions on Google Ads and whether or not they might be a good option for your business.