22 octobre 2020
Being present on the internet is essential today, but not enough: you also need to be visible! In fact, nine out of ten people do not go beyond the first page of results of a web search. Improving the ranking of your site among the results is a key issue in your web strategy.
Good SEO is therefore essential! We talked to you in a previous article about natural referencing (SEO), a free but long-term strategy. Today we come back to paid referencing (SEA), another of the components of Search Engine Marketing.
SEA (Search Engine Advertising): how does it work?
SEA or paid referencing consists of setting up advertising campaigns for a website on search engines. This is actually about creating sponsored links which will appear at the top of the search results page.
An SEA campaign is therefore paid, and works in the form of auctions. It is most often paid on a cost per click (CPC) basis. When you create an ad, you decide how much you are willing to pay for each click that is made on the link. The higher the amount offered, the greater your chances of appearing among the search results.
Paid search is an advertising strategy that must be prepared, in particular by selecting relevant keywords.
Google Ads, the market leader
Google Ads is the most used web advertising platform. The reason is simple, Google is the most used search engine. It holds 90% of the search engine market share.
Two main campaigns can be implemented:
- Adwords campaigns: this involves the creation of advertisements that appear directly on the search results page.
- Display campaigns: these are ads that appear on the pages of a website.
To maximize the success of your advertising campaigns, you can test your ads with A/B testing. Google Ads offers in particular to carry out these tests on titles, descriptions and even landing pages.
What is A/B testing?
This is a process for testing two versions of the same element to see which one is more effective and relevant. In terms of SEA, this will allow you, among other things, to test two versions of an ad to see which one resonates with users the most. So you can choose the one offering the best conversion rate.
Reasons to use paid SEO
Paid SEO is an interesting web marketing lever, which allows you to quickly increase your visibility.
It will allow you to capture attention: with SEA, you pay for a better position in the search results, which then allows you to increase traffic to your site thanks to the gain in visibility provided.
Paid SEO also helps gain notoriety against competitors and increase conversions quickly.
It’s a flexible strategy: you can vary the budget and the number of ads placed depending on the period.
This is a type of priority SEO that allows you to do more precise targeting.
SEA ou SEO ?
In reality, SEA alone does not do everything, since as soon as you stop paying, traffic will slow down. You must therefore combine SEO and SEA in your strategy.
SEA, although often opposed to SEO (natural referencing), actually complements it. If natural referencing is a long-term strategy, paid referencing has short-term benefits. It is then wise to use SEA to support SEO on certain keywords. This will also boost your visibility during special events.
Finally, SEA, although it can be very expensive (it all depends on the competition!), is an effective technique for quickly gaining visibility. Remember, however, that an isolated SEA strategy is not enough. Providing an optimal user experience and working on your natural referencing are two important elements to succeed in having good referencing.
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