You’ve probably heard the terms SEO and SEA come up before if you have a website. What exactly do these terms mean and what is the difference? At OnlineLabs, we find that not everyone is aware of this.
When setting up your online marketing strategy, it is important to fully understand the importance of SEO and SEA.
Starting with the basics
To get a good idea of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEA (Search Engine Advertising), let’s start with the basics. Almost everyone knows Google, but what goes on behind the scenes is less well known. SEO is about organic search results. These are the positions in Google where your website is shown without paying for ads, also known as earned media. This is all about the organic findability of your website. SEA, on the other hand, involves paid ads in Google. These are the ads at the top of search results. With SEA, you can get visibility more easily because you pay for a position. However, each click costs money.
The biggest differences
Investing in SEO is a long-term choice. It can sometimes take months before you see results, but earned positions often remain stable. SEA is ideal for the short term. Once you set up ads and set a budget, you can become visible in Google immediately. The downside is that your visibility disappears once the budget runs out. With SEO, the focus is on optimizing the entire website, while with SEA, the emphasis is on setting up campaigns and managing budgets. SEO takes time, but is often more profitable in the long run.
Our opinion of the two
For a successful online marketing strategy, you can choose SEO, SEA or a combination of both. A common strategy is to start with SEA for immediate visibility while investing in SEO for organic growth. After a few months, you can reduce the SEA budget once your organic performance improves. Want to get started with online marketing or help with your current strategy? OnlineLabs ‘ specialists are here to help.
