SEO or Google Ads: where should a small business start?
Organic search or paid advertising: costs, timelines, advantages and limits of each lever, and how to combine them intelligently.
By Léo Chuzel · Published on · 3 min read
There are two paths to appearing on Google: organic search (SEO), which means moving your website up in the free results, and Google Ads (SEA), which puts you at the top of the results by paying for each click. Both have their place. The real question is: which one to start with, with what budget, and for what goal?
Google Ads: immediate results, as long as you pay
A well-configured campaign can generate calls from day one. You choose your keywords, your geographic area, your schedule and your budget, and you only pay when someone clicks.
- Advantages: speed, precise control, ideal for testing an offer or a season.
- Limits: the cost per click can be high in competitive sectors (lawyers, locksmiths, real estate), and visibility stops the day the budget stops.
- Risk: a poorly configured campaign can spend a lot on searches unrelated to your business.
SEO: slower, but lasting
Organic search takes several months to produce solid results (see how long SEO takes). In return, the rankings you achieve keep bringing visits without paying for each click.
- Advantages: lasting traffic, a cost per contact that falls over time, credibility (many users trust organic results more).
- Limits: delay, less predictable results, ongoing content effort.
- Bonus: SEO work also improves your website for visitors, and therefore the effectiveness of your ads.
Comparing costs over time
In advertising, if a contact costs you €30 today, it will cost you about €30 in a year, often a little more as competition increases. In SEO, the investment is concentrated at the start (website, content, optimisation), then the cost of each contact decreases as traffic grows. Over two or three years, SEO is almost always more profitable, provided it’s done well.
Our recommendations for your situation
You’re launching your business
Start with a website built well for SEO and a complete Google profile, and run a small targeted Ads campaign to win your first customers while your SEO builds up. Scale back advertising as organic rankings arrive.
You’re a local business
Prioritise local SEO: Google Business Profile, reviews, service pages. On the Google map, the results are free, and that’s where most local searches play out.
You have a seasonal or one-off offer
Opening a terrace, sales, an event, back to school: advertising is the ideal tool for a peak of visibility over a short period.
You’re in a very competitive sector
When clicks are very expensive, SEO becomes the priority. Combining the two remains effective: advertising covers the queries where you don’t rank yet, and you stop paying for those where you’re already top of the organic results.
In every case: a website that converts
Sending visitors, paid or free, to a slow or confusing website is throwing money out of the window. Before investing in advertising or SEO, check that your website turns its visitors into contacts: our article on conversion rate gives you the levers. And track where every enquiry comes from with a CRM connected to your website.
What about social media?
It mainly serves to build awareness and maintain the relationship with your customers. It’s effective for some sectors (food service, fashion, beauty), less so for capturing immediate demand. When someone has a specific need, they search on Google.
At SOBO, our specialty is organic search. Our SEO agency helps you build lasting visibility. For Google advertising, we put you in direct contact with our partner specialising in SEA, and we coordinate their campaigns with your website and your SEO so the two levers reinforce each other.