As a company, there are various activities you can perform to generate more sales. Two of the most important are SEO and SEA. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and concerns all work that ensures that your website ranks higher in Google's search engine results. SEA stands for Search Engine Advertising. The difference between SEO and SEA is that SEO improves your position in the organic search results through off-site and on-site activities. SEA involves achieving higher positions through paid advertisements. 

Advertisements in search engine results

SEA is specifically about advertising in search engines. When you type something into Google, you will always see a number of advertisements at the top of the search results. These ended up there through SEA. The advantage of SEA is that you can show the advertisements to a specific target group. So you don't spend money on advertisements for people who fall outside your target group. 

Types of advertisements

There are different types of search engine ads, namely text, image or video ads. However, in the Netherlands we almost always see text advertisements on Google.

How does it work?

Advertising on Google goes through Google Ads. You choose certain keywords that your target group often searches for, or keywords for which your company is found. You will then advertise on these keywords. Google holds a sort of auction on each keyword, so to speak. When someone enters a particular keyword into Google, several ads start competing with each other. The person who wins will appear at the top of that person's search results.

Which factors play a role?

Google looks at several factors to determine the winner of the auction. For example, the amount of the bid (the cost per click; also known as CPC) is taken into account, but also the content of the advertisement. This includes relevance and quality. So you can win not only by having the highest bid, but also by putting together a strong advertisement. 

Relevance and quality

For example, make sure that the content is really relevant to the potential customer's search query, but also relevant to what your company has to offer. In terms of quality, you can ensure that you use unique content and that it is written in the correct style.

As a company, it is therefore very interesting to invest in both SEO and SEA. Both methods can generate more web traffic, which can ultimately lead to more sales. And that is of course what we want!