If you have a website, you have probably already heard about SEO and SEA. The first time you heard these terms, you may have felt a little lost. But don't worry, in this article, we will give you a quick overview of these terms so that you can understand what we are talking about. We will also show you that you don't need to spend a lot of money to have a good visibility and a good e-reputation.

SEO vs SEA: Let's decipher these 2 SEO strategies!

SEO and SEA are two acronyms that refer to techniques for getting listed on search engines. First of all, we will briefly look at their characteristics.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation): A long-term strategy and results

When we talk about SEO, we are talking about natural referencing. Translated literally, search engine optimisation consists of optimising your site to respond to the requests of Internet users.

The aim is to be well ranked on specific queries and on certain keywords in order to gain visibility. This is a major challenge when you consider that the first 5 organic (natural) results account for 67% of clicks on a results page (Source: Zero Limit Web).

If you want to gain the trust of Internet users, you must rely on natural referencing. Indeed, although the competition is tough, that it requires time or that the significant results are not immediate, the SEO allows to :

• Generate traffic "for free
• Generate quality traffic
• Keeping that traffic going over time
• Inspire confidence

SEA (Search Engine Advertising): A short-term solution

In contrast to SEO, we have SEA. The acronym literally means search engine advertising. This type of "paid" referencing allows you to pay to appear on a SERP (Search Engine Result Page). To carry out a SEA campaign, you need :

• Choose keywords to position yourself on
• Create an ad
• Set a maximum CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions)
• Pay for clicks or impressions and track SEO

Your advertisement will then be displayed until you stop the campaign. A solution that may seem ideal since it allows you to be referenced on the keywords of your choice and to have results quickly. Your ROI will be measured easily and quickly.

However, ATS is not a miracle solution and the negative aspects of this strategy must be seen. Firstly, once your campaign is over, you "disappear" from the SERPs. If you want to be referenced in the long term, you will need to set aside a substantial budget. Finally, you should not forget that you are not alone on the market. There is strong competition on certain keywords and to reach the top position, it can be a real headache.

Fun Fact: 70 - 80% of people ignore paid search results (source: imFORZA in 2020)

When to opt for SEA rather than SEO?

• You want to get immediate results (e.g. at the launch of your business if you have short-term KPIs)
• Your business experiences an explosion of targets at certain times of the year (e.g. toy shops during the festive season)
• You want to test your offer (Example: When launching a new article, you want to get feedback quickly)

The advantage of Google Ads is that they allow you to reach the first page without having to provide optimised content in every respect. The ads link directly to the pages of your site that you have chosen beforehand.

Paid search allows for a quick and "no-fuss" presence. In other words, SEA allows you to reach new customers with the sponsored content you wish to promote. Almost total control of your website's online presence.

The positive influence of SEO on your traffic

Doing SEO for quality traffic

You are probably wondering what we mean by quality traffic ? Let us explain!

When we use this term, we are talking about Internet users who are interested in your offer. Internet users who can increase your conversion rate. More generally, SEO will allow you to generate leads over time. Of course, SEA can help you attract potential customers in the same way, but again, this technique is less profitable over time.

Doing SEO for continuous traffic

We come back to this point, but not the least, natural referencing is a strategy that is spread over time. You surely want your business to have a good visibility without having to spend again and again. Thanks to various SEO techniques and best practices, your website will have a strong and impactful presence on search engines.

Putting a strategy in place and seeing its effects will take time, but your hard work will pay off in the long run. Developing an SEO strategy can seem like an insurmountable mountain. If you don't know the basic rules of the algorithms, it will be difficult to improve your ranking.

To help you, we have listed some tips for optimising the SEO structure of your website. With these tips, you will already have a good basis for placing your website in the top positions.

Positive return on investment (ROI) through low costs

As we mentioned earlier, doing SEO allows you to reduce your costs without affecting the achievement of your goals. Today, a multitude of online tools allow you to optimize your natural referencing and to have an overview of its evolution. Most of these tools have a "freemium" offer that allows you to see the current state of your SEO activity. You can also get an overview of what you can put in place to improve. Some of the most well-known and widely used SEO tools include:

• Google Search Console to follow the evolution of your referencing on Google

• SEMRush which allows you to have reports on your keywords, on your netlinking or on your competitors

• Website Grader to evaluate the performance of your website according to different key indicators

• Ubersuggest to evaluate and analyse your keywords

• SEO Hero Ninja to find out your site's position on a specific keyword

• Oncrawl to analyse and cross-reference data from the pages of your site (very useful and efficient for large sites / e-commerce)

Of course, getting significant results after implementing an SEO strategy takes time (about 6 months). Despite this, the time you spend optimising and referencing your site will have a positive impact for you. The development of content on your site will allow you to respond to queries from Internet users. They will then consider you as a reference in your field of activity.

Paid search may give you faster coverage, but at what cost and for how long? Offering quality to search engines will increase your awareness, your visibility and consequently your results. Do you want to be known and recognised in your field of expertise? Paying is not enough! It is necessary to provide quality and answers to capture your targets / your audience.

Implementing a SEM strategy (The mix between SEO, SEA and SMO)

We introduced you to SEO and SEA earlier, but have you ever heard of SEM?

The magic formula to know to refer your website well:

SEM = SEO + SEA + SMO

In order to talk about search enginemarketing in its entirety, we need to add social media optimisation to natural and paid search engine marketing.

Thus, in your desire to give visibility to your activity, it is not necessarily necessary to oppose SEO and SEA. In fact, it may be wiser to opt for a mix of these two strategies (without neglecting social networks which are a great lever for generating traffic) to make your site grow on Google.

An important point to note is that SERPs are constantly evolving. Indeed, we can see that Google is trying to respond as precisely as possible to Internet users' queries. The featured snippet, also called "position 0", is the concrete proof of this! You know, these little boxes that Google has put in place so that we get the answer to our query directly without having to click on a site.

It is therefore necessary to try to maximise traffic acquisition. And even if SEO allows you to have a better visibility with a "small" budget compared to a paid referencing campaign on Google Ads, a hybrid strategy can help to position pages of your site on certain results / keyword difficult to reach. Indeed, thanks to SEA, you have better control over the positioning of your ads. A real advantage since the disadvantage of SEO is that it depends on Google's algorithms.

Fun Fact: During 2020, Google made 4,887 changes to its search engine, the equivalent of just over 13 changes per day (Source: Abondance.com)

How can Digidop help you to optimize your natural referencing?

After reading this article, you may be thinking that you need to pay more attention to your SEO strategy. Don't worry, Digidop has the solution adapted to your needs! Indeed, we implement action plans and act on several levers to improve your visibility on search engines. We take care of your online image with the implementation of a professional and optimized website (Digidop is a certified Webflow agency). Our expertise in no-code tools also allows us to propose you a personalized offer in order to automate certain tasks of your activity and to ensure you an optimal output.