Regardless of what you may think, organic and Paid Search work together to bring you to the top. By top, it means the top of the SERP on almost every keyword you intend to appear first. It is time to show you how both types of search can give you the most of the traffic.

What is Organic Search?

The organic search refers to every result shown in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) you did not pay. The process starts when someone introduces a word in the text area of a search engine. The search engine interprets this word as a keyword and runs a search algorithm.

After that, the search engine runs a scan in every website offering just the ones related to those keywords. The same algorithm takes into count some metrics and other data on those websites to show them listed. This list ranks the websites based on popularity and reliability to show them first.

Any website can appear in the first places organically by performing a series of improvements to it. Improving the loading speed, quality of the content, and other feats the website becomes more relevant to the SERP. The process is what people call Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

SEO is the ultimate tool to make the most of a website to rank first when looking for something online. So SEO is basically the most desired technique to appear first on SERP, or at least for free.

What is Paid Search?

Like the organic search, Paid Search is the result you see on the SERP after looking for something. Of course, there are web services to pay for a place to advertise your website based on keywords too. That is what paid search is a place to show your web’s ad,

The paid search process is similar to the organic search process, but they differ in the place to look for. Instead of scanning all the internet to see every result and analyze everything, they do scan just the client’s web. So the list of websites that a paid search shows depends on different feats than the organic’s search results.

Some things change the preference of showing one website first and not the other. The keyword bidding is one of the most important feats the algorithm takes into the count. There are other factors like the keyword selection and the exposure preferences a search engine considers.

Nevertheless, most search engines show from 3 to 5 paid results on top of the organic results. So when thinking if your website is about to appear first or third, it is almost the same for paid search.

You can hire a few ways of services to rank among the first places, but the most common is PPC. It stands for Pay Per Click and is a type of paid search service. In this paid service you pay an amount of money only when the ad gets a click.

The Key Differences Between Organic Search and Paid Search

Both search forms are different, of course, but let us get deep into their differences.

1. Using organic search results is for free, while paid search, well, is paid. It is the most obvious difference. It does not mean you should not pay to improve your SEO.
2. Paid search delivers instant results due to the way they work. You can see (on PPC) your link at the top from day one if the keyword bidding is right.
3. Organic results tend to earn trust from the public it reaches. The power of credibility at its best. Users feel like you are not trying to sell something if you are on the top.
4. Organic search attracts relevant users to a website. After all, they are looking for what you can provide them.
5. Paid search attracts users most likely to buy. In most cases, PPC focuses on users to buy.
6. The usual position on paid search is marked as an ad and can appear in different areas on the SERP. Search engines found a way to give enough room for both without distracting one from the other.
7. While paid search lasts the whole campaign, organic search lasts more. If your paid campaign runs out of money, your ad will disappear from the SERP. With organic search, it remains in the same position of the rank for a while more.

What Is The Correlation Between Organic Search And Paid Ads

After looking at the differences between organic and paid search, let’s take a look at what they might have in common. In other words, let’s see how organic and paid search work together.

Impressive ROI

On both types of search, you will want to know that you did not waste time or money. Well, on both you can get a high return on investment if you do it right. For example in the organic search, you must optimize your website and for sure it will reveal better incomes.

Meanwhile, on the paid search you bet money on a winner strategy. Generally speaking, on this bet, when you spend 1$ you can receive between 2$ and 8$ of revenue. So more than a bet you can say it is a smart investment with a high income. Whether you choose organic or paid search, you win.

Provides Actionable Data

Data in the form of metrics is the soul of digital marketing. As so, there is a humungous advantage when you use digital channels instead of digital ones. In organic search for example you can always count in real-time how many visits the website has.

On a deeper level, metrics like the bouncing rate and the visits on the website can give you insights. These are for marketers to analyze and predict behaviors to know what to improve. The goal is to enhance the overall site’s performance to get better metrics and a faster reach of goals.

On paid search, things are not so different. An ad campaign tends to show metrics like the click-through rate, time on the page, and even demographic data. This way you can change your keywords or improve your bid to improve the ad’s performance. 

On paid search, you can also refresh your landing page to make the most conversions you can. Many companies heavily ignore this detail, reason enough to better let this work to professional agencies.

Supports Marketing Channels

Now, both types of search help to establish other marketing channels like social media or email marketing. On the organic side, well-managed content can give a presentation to social media accounts. The website can also have an email subscription area.

You can use the paid search to nurture an email or a social media campaign by using different landing pages. It is common to try to strengthen your organic results with PPC, but that is another subject.

Does Paid Search Affect Organic Search?

A PPC by itself won’t help your organic search. To achieve this it is necessary to set in motion a fine keyword strategy. Most search engines give importance to the metadata embedded in the PPC. Additionally, the amount of traffic directed by PPM and PPC to your website can improve its metrics.

So in a matter of affecting, organic search can only improve if the metadata and tags are strategically intended. Else, the paid campaign will act as a separate strategy from the organic search.

Advantages And Disadvantages of Using SEO and PPC Together

Here are just a few advantages and disadvantages of integrating paid and unpaid search methods.

Advantages

1. Visibility: When you use the combination of organic and paid search, your visibility on the internet will enhance. With the right bidding strategy and the right SEO, your website can appear at least 2 times on SERP.
2. Paid Support: If directing traffic to your website is hard, you can use paid search methods to do so. Through time, the metrics of your website will improve to the point of SEO enrichment. The algorithm of any search engine will notice you organically after some time.
3. Social Media: Social media content is considered a form of organic result. So if your marketing strategy involves social media you can push efforts toward your social account. Remember that social media is also considered for search engines to show results.

Disadvantages

1. Money Spent: Here is not all bad. Let’s say that if you have a good SEO and you are on top of SERP, spending money on paid searches is wasting money. However, if your strategy seeks a limited-time promotion using paid search is handy.
2. Too Focused On Ads:  This is more a mistake than a disadvantage. When a marketer focuses on the ads, he forgets the keyword strategy. It results in less quality performance in general.

There are a few disadvantages to point out when you integrate paid and unpaid searches. These are more warnings than disadvantages per se. Nevertheless, it is worth having an eye on it. Experts and professional marketers do.

How to Make Organic And Paid Search Work Together?

There are only two ways of getting the most out of both search methods. One demands effort and time, while the other is a secure investment.

By Yourself

When doing things by yourself you must be aware that you need a lot of time to learn. Everything in marketing, as beautiful as it is, takes time to study and practice. So if you decide to get your own hands on it you know what to expect and what you need. But you do not know how far in time is a success.

By Hiring a Professional

Hiring a professional is the fastest and safest way to get the most out of both search methods. The reason is simple: They know what they do, and they have been doing it for a long time. So it shortens the time of learning and practicing while giving you the best results possible.

Of course, there is another pro to count when you hire a professional. Sometimes your head can be crowded with to-do lists, so any responsibility you can delegate feels like peace. The time you don’t use paying attention to how organic and paid search work together you can use it better.

A professional is a person you can trust for the growth of a certain part of your business. In this case, is the right person to see if it is better to use PPC, SEO, or both.

So, Can Organic And Paid Search Work Together?

Yes, they can. And as you read, they sometimes can work separately to achieve a sole goal. The usual recommendation here is to have an expert do the job. Otherwise, you can be spilling time and money trying to figure out how to succeed.

Use the best of both search methods simultaneously, or at the same time. Or better, let an expert do the job and just sit back and watch your metrics grow. And lastly, remember that working together is not the same that having synergy.