SEO should be done before paid advertisements - why is that?

In many cases, we encounter the following in our projects: companies think that search engine optimization is only relevant after we have gotten the most out of paid advertising. This is far from the truth.

Search engine optimization is actually the first step in successful digital marketing, as it ensures, among other things, that your site works optimally. Google and other search engines only increases the site’s ranking when it meets the user experience criteria they set. Both technically and in terms of content. So, SEO is much more than tinkering with keywords. It is building a customer experience on a website that Tommi previously wrote a good blog about.

When the technicality of the site is in order, the customer who is redirected to the site will be comfortable on the site and more likely to be redirected to the desired conversion goal. If the site does not work well, the advertising money spent on paid advertising is not optimally used.

In this post, I will tell you 4 reasons why it makes the most sense to optimize for search engines before starting paid advertising in a digital marketing strategy.

1. SEO is a long-term plan

Compared to AdWords, SEO is not as fast acting in terms of performance. SEO is more of a sustainable and long-term process, and you have to be patient with it.

It is always a good idea to demand a result from the website, and it is also a good idea to create a plan for the website. What do you want the website to do? What kind of visibility do you want on a website? What search terms should the website display?

A website is more than a business card and its features must be designed to support the company’s goals and business.

These goals take time and access to the goals is almost impossible without search engine optimization. This also means that a competitor must have the same effort in search engine optimization as you if they want better visibility. And as long as your own search engine optimization continues, you will be much harder to bypass in the search capability.

2. Organic traffic obtained through SEO would cost more if acquired through paid advertising

If the website receives 2.000 visitors via organic traffic thanks to a “fund” search term, then the same amount of traffic through Google AdWords would cost more than €4.000 per month (CPC over €2). In this case, there is only one search term, which means that it becomes much more expensive to advertise with other key terms. In this case, it is imagined that the SEO optimization costs, for example, €1.000 per month.

And by this I do not mean that AdWords does not have its own important place in generating results, it really does, but I just want to illustrate how steady and low-cost the traffic from search engine optimization is.

In some cases, the pricing of SEO varies quite drastically. There are operators who are really expensive or cheap, so it is always worthwhile to make sure what you pay for.

3. Organic search is trusted more than paid ads

If the website is one of the first to search organically, applicants are confident that the information they need can be found at the top of the search result. In paid advertising like Google AdWords, this is not always the case – especially when searching for factual information. People rely on Google’s organic search result algorithm and believe that Google wants to provide applicants with the most relevant information possible – and that is what Google is really striving for.

Just as you believe more in other people’s recommendations for a good restaurant than in the restaurant’s own ad, you also believe more in Google’s recommendations for good sites than in advertised pages.

4. Search engine optimization can be done by yourself

SEO is not rocket science, and everyone can do it themselves at least to a certain point. Everyone can design the structure of the website and consider the most important key words. Free tools like Google’s Keyword Designer can also be utilized. This tool provides information about the number of search terms.

If the website is well-designed and well-made, and the content plan for the important search for the website has been made, it will go a long way. Basically, all of the necessary information about SEO can be found online, so if you have the time and willingness to do it yourself, you should start with reading our blogs. It is likely to have all of the information that you need.

In general, the employees of the company have their own tasks, and it may not be profitable to focus on SEO. That is why we are here to help you!

The most important thing to take away from this post is that SEO needs to start at the design stage of the website, as it makes it easier and faster to achieve the goals of the website, and brings significant savings from advertising in the long run. Paid advertising is very important to get involved in the beginning, but only after the website has been optimized and the handrails are in order. This will ensure that your advertising money is being used effectively.

I could complete another fifth BONUS reason to do Search Engine Optimization. Simply put, the more people you get to buy and get interested in your company’s products and services on your site, the more effective your entire company’s marketing will become. You can redirect more people to your social media channels and email list and remarket them, e.g. through Google’s Display network.

See here how search engine optimization enhances the marketing of your entire business!