No matter the size of your company or the popularity of your brand – there can be no doubt that we all want more visitors to our website, blogs and social media posts. It’s often tempting to go achieve this by opting for the paid route, known as inorganic SEO or pay-per-click advertising, but are there draw backs using this method to boost the number of visitors you get?
Are organic (not paid for) visitors really more valuable than paid for visitors?
The debate goes on. Essentially it all comes down to which is better for your business. With this in mind it’s important to understand the difference between the two forms of online visitor attraction and the costs that are associated with pay-per-click.
It’s a really good idea to complete a digital marketing course so you can understand which form of advertising is best suited to you.
So, what’s the difference?
Search engine result pages are one of the most powerful marketing tools that are available today and search engines like Google performs millions of searches to help people find what they’re looking for online. These searches take place daily so there can be no doubt that search engine optimisation (SEO) is crucial to your online success.
There are two main types of visitors that click through to your website, which are organic (not paid for) and inorganic (paid for) visitors, each have benefits. So, how do you determine which type of visitor is best for you?
It could be a question of timing
If you need to attract immediate visitors then you may sway more towards inorganic traffic, but is this better in the long run? But remember to keep in mind the staying power of organic traffic, which always, in the long run, outweighs the value of inorganic traffic. However, there are many instances when a paid for digital marketing campaign does indeed make sense.
It’s important to take into consideration the objective of your digital marketing strategy and whether your budget is capable of seeing through a ‘paid for’ digital marketing campaign.
The ongoing battle to attract traffic
With all forms of SEO and digital marketing you may win or lose with either inorganic or organic visitors, but always keep in mind that different goals may require inorganic, organic or both approaches.
The downfalls of using paid for advertising to attract inorganic visitors
Attracting inorganic visitors can become a very costly exercise and there’s no guarantee that these visitors will eventually become customers. However, inorganic traffic is easily generated and gives quicker results than organic traffic.
Opting for the inorganic traffic route may very well result in a much higher bounce rate and the last thing you want is for visitors to leave your site or blog. You may also notice that time spent on a particular page is less than through organic traffic as you may well not offer the actual service or product they are looking for.
Inorganic traffic also results in far less subscribers to your mailing list and every website owner wants to convert visitors to a subscriber. Above all, we need people who want to read our content and keep updated with new offers or specials.
Using the pay-per-click method of attracting visitors could put your site in a bad light with Google who are constantly updating their SEO algorithms.
Benefits of organic visitors
Organic traffic is seen as trustworthy and ‘real’ visitors to your site or blog. The great news is your organic visitors can be increased without paying for digital advertising. Organic visitors also boosts brand awareness as to show up on the SERPS is not easy.
We know that getting organic visitors takes more time and effort than pay-per-click advertising however there are tried and tested ways to make sure you get more organic visitors.
The three most important ways to increase organic visitors to your site, which are on-page SEO, using natural links and creating valuable and top quality content. This is where content is king and by creating quality content you are ensuring long-term online growth. It’s worthwhile to note that creating ever-green content is the best as it’s more likely to remain relevant.