Online marketing does not work without the terms SEO, SEA or the umbrella term SEM (Search Engine Marketing, i.e. search engine marketing). You can find out what these abbreviations mean and the important role they play in your marketing in our blog post.
With standard search results, you don't have to pay anything when a Google user clicks on it. With the exception of a few cases, ten hits are usually displayed here, which is why one speaks colloquially of «10 blue links», also known as organic or natural hits. To be found here, the company needs to do SEO. There is also the Universal Search category, where video, image, news or map integrations can fall.
+ Visibility: The main goal of SEO is to improve the findability of your website in search engines through a high ranking position. It should be noted here that SEO is even more important than SEA in online marketing, as many users trust organic search engine results more than paid advertising. The best-ranked hits show the greatest trust and the highest click-through rate. Since many companies are competing for the top spots in search, it is worth investing in SEO, as this works without the need for advertising.
+ Traffic: SEO increases the number of visits in a very short time, so the website also appears in the first results on Google. This increases visibility and creates the first point of contact between customer and company. With good rankings, the company sustainably increases traffic to the website.
+ User-friendliness: The criteria of search engine optimization are closely linked to user-friendliness. This means that the company or the website manager makes the website more attractive for the user or the customer. Varied content or mobile usability are not only rated positively by search engines. They also additionally help to keep the generated traffic on the website.
+ ROI (Return on Investment): The increased visibility has a positive effect on the ROI, the business indicator for measuring entrepreneurial activities. The return can come from products sold in the online shop, from registering for a webinar or other transactions. The investment in SEO measures pays off.
What measures are necessary for your target groups to find you online? Depending on the search query, the user will find up to four ads above the organic search results on the search results page. All of these ads are SEA (Search Engine Advertising, i.e. «search engine advertising»). In addition to these paid ads (Google Ads) on Google's search results pages, advertisers can also book banner ads (display ads) on other websites. In short: through targeting and the selection of relevant and precise keywords, you generate high-quality leads and thus qualified contacts. These web visitors are qualified and promise sales and corresponding growth for your company.
+ Visibility: The website appears above all for very popular inquiries where simple positioning via SEO reaches its limits. More visibility means more visitors to the website.
+ Speed: Google needs up to 6 months to position the website in the natural results (SEO) of a given query. With SEA, the company can assert itself faster - provided you use Google Ads and ongoing campaigns.
+ Flexibility: A campaign can be stopped or resumed at any time. You choose the period over which your positioning should be promoted, which is especially relevant if your activity is heavily dependent on seasonal fluctuations.
+ Addressing the target group precisely: With effective search engine advertising, the company reaches its target group at the right time and in the right place. With the help of demographic and geographic characteristics, you can precisely define the target group and address it at specific times or days of the week.
+ Cost control: You determine the maximum amount you want to spend on search engine advertising. With a daily budget, the expenses for the campaigns can be limited. With the auction principle, the ad is determined based on the set budget and placed accordingly.
SEO and SEA have a positive influence on each other. Because if more visitors come to the website through paid ads and possibly even take an action, Google recognizes and evaluates this as positive, which in turn affects the quality of the website.
As a company, it is worth investing in SEO and SEA because they indirectly depend on each other. SEO is the basic requirement for successful search engine advertising. Every company should be aware that good content is an absolute must for a SEA campaign to be really successful. Successful search engine optimization also influences the click price of paid ads.
Another positive reason for SEA and SEO is the search results and ranking. Because a company with good SEA and SEO gets the top spots in search ads.