MARKETING · · 6 min read
SEO or Google Ads: which should you do first?
Both put you in front of people searching on Google, but they work very differently. Here’s how to decide where your first dollar should go.
Ami · Paid Media Specialist
Two ways onto the same page
When someone searches for what you do, there are two ways to appear. You can pay for an ad at the top through Google Ads, or earn a spot in the organic results through SEO. Both can work brilliantly. The question most businesses ask us is which one to start with.
How Google Ads works
You choose the searches you want to appear for, write ads and set a budget. You pay each time someone clicks. Done well, ads can bring enquiries within days.
- Fast: you can be live this week
- Precise: target specific searches, suburbs and times
- Easy to measure: you can see the cost of every enquiry
- But: the moment you stop paying, the traffic stops
How SEO works
SEO means improving your website and online presence so Google ranks you higher in the free results. It takes longer to build, but the results compound.
- Slower: usually three to six months before you see real movement
- Lasting: rankings keep bringing visitors without paying per click
- Trusted: many people skip the ads and click the first organic result
- But: it needs patience and consistent work
So, should you do Google Ads or SEO first?
It depends on where your business is right now.
Start with Google Ads if
- You need enquiries quickly, for example you’ve just launched or have a quiet quarter to fill
- You want to test which services or messages people respond to
- You’re in a market where the organic results are dominated by big players and directories
- You have a clear offer and a landing page ready to convert
Start with SEO if
- You can wait a few months for results
- Your budget is tight and you want something that keeps working
- You serve a local area and haven’t optimised your Google Business Profile yet
- Your website is new or rebuilt and needs a strong foundation anyway
The answer for most businesses: both, in the right order
For most of our clients, the best approach is to fix the foundations first: a fast website, clear service pages and a complete Google Business Profile. That’s the base for SEO, and it also makes your ads cheaper, because Google rewards relevant landing pages with lower costs per click.
Then run a modest, tightly targeted ad campaign to bring in work while SEO builds. As your organic rankings grow, you can reduce ad spend on the searches you now rank for and keep paying only where it makes sense.
A few honest warnings
- Ads with no landing page strategy waste money fast. Sending paid clicks to your homepage is the most common mistake we see.
- SEO with no content plan stalls. Rankings come from useful pages, not just technical tweaks.
- Anyone promising page one in a month, or guaranteed rankings, is telling you what you want to hear.
How to decide in five minutes
Ask yourself two questions. How soon do you need enquiries? And what’s your monthly budget? If the answer is "now" and you have budget, start with ads and build SEO alongside. If you can wait and budget is tight, start with SEO and your Google Business Profile.
Not sure which way to go? Book a call and we’ll look at your market and tell you honestly where we’d start.
Book a 20 minute call
WRITTEN BY
Ami · Paid Media Specialist
Runs Google Ads and Meta campaigns that turn budget into enquiries, and reports on what actually works.