If you could go back and tell your younger self one thing – would it be to invest into paid traffic or focus on free traffic?
I found myself asking the same question ever since I decided to write this article.
You might be confused.
Does it really matter choosing between the two when we’re already being found online and business is good?
Ladies and gents, the answer is a resounding YES.
For the uninitiated, there are two types of traffic that you can generate for your website: paid and organic. These traffic help improve your site’s presence online. But since each has its own pros and cons, deciding which one to invest in is no easy task.
In this blog post, we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each type of traffic to help you decide which one is right for your business.
Paid vs. Organic Traffic
First, let’s discuss what a paid traffic is. Paid traffic is the quickest way to to reach your target audience and get people to your website. It comes from paid advertising platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads.
Organic traffic, on the other hand, takes longer to generate but it is free. You can increase it by optimizing your website for search engines and creating high-quality content.
What are the benefits of Paid Traffic?
You can get results quickly.
Paid traffic is your best option for getting people to visit your website quickly. Google Ads or Facebook Ads can target potential customers with specific interests, which means they’ll be more likely than other demographics (like general web users) to click on your ads!
You can help attract quality leads.
Paid traffic can help to attract quality leads by targeting specific keywords that are relevant to your product or service. Quality leads are those who are more likely to convert into customers, so it is important to target them with your advertising. By using paid traffic, you can ensure that your ads are being seen by people who are already interested in what you have to offer.
What are the disadvantages of paid traffic?
It can be very expensive.
Paid ads can be very expensive because they are a form of marketing that requires you to pay for each click for example. This means that if you are not careful with your budget, you could end up spending a lot of money on paid ads without seeing any return on your investment.
It is not sustainable in the long-term.
Since paid traffic is the result of paying for advertisements that feature your website, once you stop paying for it, the traffic will also stop. While these ads can be effective in getting people to visit your website, paid traffic is not sustainable in the long term.
What are the benefits of organic traffic?
It helps improve credibility and authority.
Organic traffic can improve credibility because it is the result of a website’s popularity and not because of money that has been spent to generate traffic. When people see that a website has a lot of organic traffic, they will be more likely to trust the content on the site. This is because they know that the site is popular enough that people are willing to link to it or share it without being paid to do so.
It is more sustainable in the long-term.
Organic traffic is more sustainable because it is the result of your website being visible in search engine results pages (SERPs). This visibility is the result of earning high quality backlinks, having informative and keyword rich content, and making sure your website is optimized for search engines. These are all things that you can do over time to improve your website’s ranking in SERPs.
The organic approach is free.
Organic traffic is free because you’re not paying to get it, mainly why it’s called “organic” traffic. You’re getting it through the search engines, and not spending any money on advertising.
However, there is a lot more to it than that. Just because you’re not paying for organic traffic doesn’t mean that it’s free. You’re still investing time and effort into getting it, and there are opportunity costs involved.
Examples of these include creating high quality content, building your backlinks, and other strategies.
So while organic traffic is technically free, it’s not really free. You’re still investing time and effort into getting it.
What are the disadvantages of organic traffic?
It can take a long time to build up.
If you are just starting out, you may not have the budget to wait months or even years for your organic traffic to start coming in.
More difficult to measure than paid traffic.
There are a number of reasons why organic traffic is more difficult to measure than paid traffic. First on the list is the fact that with paid traffic, it is easy to track where your conversions are coming from. You know exactly which channel site visitors used to get into your site. Such is not the case with organic traffic, where it’s harder to determine which channels are driving your results.
Second, organic traffic is more volatile than paid traffic. Paid traffic is generally more consistent, since you are paying for it and can therefore control the flow to some extent. Organic traffic, on the other hand, can fluctuate quite a bit depending on factors like seasonality and changes in Google algorithms.
Finally, organic traffic is less direct than paid traffic. When someone clicks on an ad, they are typically taken directly to your website. With organic traffic, however, users may click on a result and then bounce away without ever reaching your site. This makes it more difficult to track your return on investment.
So, which should you invest in?
The answer to this question depends on your specific situation. If you have a limited budget, then you may want to focus on organic traffic. However, if you have the time and resources to invest in paid traffic, then it could be a good option for you. At the end of the day, the best way to determine which traffic source is right for you is to experiment and see what works best for your website or blog.
Whichever route you choose, just remember to always track your results so that you can adjust your strategy when need arise!