Organic Vs Paid Search: Explained

Did you know that the total internet users around the world make 3.5 billion searches every day on Google alone? If you include the total searches on Bing, Yahoo! and all other search engines, it will make up a much larger number. More than 90% of online experiences begin with a search query on a search engine. Much of the traffic on your website comes through a search engine. There are two different types of traffic sources from a search engine, and these include organic search and paid search.

The organic search vs paid search demand has been going on since the past few decades. Businesses are unable to choose which one is better for their business. If you want to create the most effective digital marketing strategy, it is vital that you know exactly what organic search and paid search is how exactly can these two benefit your business.

Organic Search

Let’s start by getting into the nitty-gritty of organic search.

So, you want to search for the best online shoe store. Where do you go? Yes, Google is your first stop. You start typing your query in the search bar and press enter. In a fraction of a second, a page appears in front of you, which is the Search Engine Result Page or SERP. It consists of hundreds of results with some advertisements on the top of the SERP. The links that you see below the advertisements are the “organic search results.”

The organic search results depend on the real quality and content of a website.

It depends upon the website structure, the value it offers to the users, the loading speeds, and many other factors.

The traffic that finds a way to your website through these hundreds of links is organic. Most of the businesses consider this traffic as the most valuable form of traffic. Why? Well, you are not paying for these visitors. You are attracting organic traffic without making any monetary investment.

Organic traffic is beneficial for every business, and higher unpaid traffic is an indication that a website is providing real value to a user. For search engines like Google, the most important factor is user experience. If the users are frequently visiting a website and are clicking on its pages, a search engine considers that website and assigns it a high rank on the SERP.

There is one way to appear in the organic search results, and that is Search Engine Optimization or SEO. The most powerful and impactful organic marketing technique is SEO. Even though it is a long-term process, but its results are phenomenal. Google ranks websites based on an algorithm. Search engines index the websites based on their algorithm which evaluates a website based on its content, website infrastructure, ease of use, loading speeds, internal and external lin networks, and many other factors. SEO is a way to address these factors to create a website that is in accordance with Google’s algorithm and guidelines.

Businesses hire top SEO experts to increase their visibility in the organic results. Appearing at the top of organic results is one of the biggest achievements for every business.

Organic search provides an impressive ROI and even boosts credibility. It helps a business attract relevant users, and it even supports various other marketing channels, including social, paid, video, and e-mail.

Paid Search

The second type of traffic that you can direct towards your website is paid traffic. Paid search results are more like advertisements. You need to work really hard to get your website at a top rank on a SERP. However, when it comes to appearing at the top of SERP through paid advertisements, it is not that of a challenge. Paid or inorganic techniques are a way of buying traffic for your website. The paid search advertisements appear above the organic search results. These links have a small box next to their title with the text, “ad” written on them. These links blend in naturally with the organic results ad, and it seems native.

As organic search becomes advanced, paid search is gaining rapid popularity. In paid search, you do not have to wait for your SEO to build up, and you do not have to worry about changes in the Google algorithm. The changes will not impact your position on the SERP. Unlike organic search, the paid search generates immediate results. It gives a good ROI, and a business owner can keep the campaign budget in their control.

One of the greatest forms of paid search techniques is Pay-per-Click or PPC. It is one of the most effective ways to generate paid traffic on your website. All you have to do is to create an ad copy and strategically time your ad postings.

Now that you know the difference between organic and paid search, you can create a smart digital marketing strategy for your business. It is important to include both organic and paid marketing methods in your strategy to make the most out of your digital marketing strategy. You can hire a professional digital marketing agency to help you design the most effective and lead-generating marketing plan for your business!

Matthew Goulart


|4 minutes read

Matthew Goulart is the founder of Ignite Digital, a Canadian digital marketing agency. Through Ignite Digital, Goulart works with Fortune 500 companies and advertising agencies from around the world and has helped launch profitable and highly successful digital marketing initiatives for his clients.