SEO (Search Engine Optimization) aims to improve the organic rank on the search engine result based on the search algorithm for the business owner. Compared to the organic search, those results ranked by the “Sponsored Ads” are called the paid search. SEO is a long-term activity, while paid results can be a short-term and temporary solution.
Organic Search Vs. Paid Search
We used to compare the website traffic for a couple of dash cam brands. The average organic traffic is 3-4x that of paid traffic. Of course, the traffic segmentation from different industries varies. However, one thing is for sure -you should never ignore the importance of improving your organic search.
As we all know, the CTR (Click-Through-Rate) of the organic search will also decline according to the ranking order on the SERP(Search Engine Result Page). The average CTR will be 2.35%, and the top 25% result can even rise to 5%+. According to Google PPC (Pay Per Click)report, the avg CTR will be around 1.91%, avg cost will be about $2.32, and some industries will have a higher price.
Both the organic and paid search are essential for the website. Usually, the paid search has many restrictions, such as your overall budget and campaign strategy. As a result, the organic search is highly responsible for the amount of your long-term web traffic.
The common misconceptions of SEO
Lots of corporates, especially those start-ups, misunderstand SEO. Firstly, they have no patience for the slow reward. They only care about immediate conversion. Secondly, this point is something related to the ads. They think the ROI for duplicating the ad copy will always remain the same, which is wrong; the ROI is more likely to decline due to decreased freshness. As a result, they would rather spend most of the budget on the ads instead of the SEO. From a short-term perspective, this can probably work. However, it’s risky to rely on ads to grow your business. Imagine the moment you input a keyword in the Google search bar. Your ad appears on the top with the “sponsor” mark; however, there’s no way to find them in the organic results, as with your competitors’ information. So how will a client choose the business provider?
White Hat SEO
The ranking from SERP can also present your business’s reputation. Technically, both the white-hat and black-hat SEO work. White-hat SEO means all the professional and legalized processes. Black-hat SEO refers to all the possible “quick” and “dirty” solutions, which has a higher risk of incurring a penalty from the Search Engine. It costs 4-6 months for the Google spider to crawl to a brand new website. The long and short of it is, when you decide to do the SEO for the website, you need to consider the perspectives as below: SEO keywords, onsite and offsite SEO, content creation, mobile, local SEO, etc.
If you are interested in China’s market, you can also refer to Baidu Keyword Research SEO Tips.