More than 90% of online experiences start with a search engine, resulting in around 3.5 billion daily searches — and that’s only on Google. But what's the difference between a organic search vs. a paid search?
Organic Search
Organic search results are the “natural” results found underneath the ads. They are natural in the sense that the search engine algorithm analyzing all the pages across the web felt these pages contained the most relevant information for your search.
We suggest always clicking on the natural/organic search rather than a paid ad.
The algorithm has decided that these websites will have the most useful information according to what you are trying to discover, which is why they rank highly for the keywords you typed in your query. The page is scanned for various things (like proper title tags, meta description, URL, keywords, awesome content, etc.) and the more relevant the information, the higher the ranking.
Example Below
Paid Search
Paid search results are basically ads paid for by businesses in order to rise above the organic results in the fastest way possible. Marketers invest money into SEM (search engine marketing) in order to boost their website to (ideally) the first page when someone types an inquiry using specific keywords. They also use paid ads to trick you into thinking your going to a website that contains the information you are looking for, when it is in fact click bait.
Example Below - Take note the the letters (Ad) next to the link
Clicking on paid ads can trick you into clicking on something dangerous, be careful.
For ads showing up on Google, marketers use AdWords to craft ads and bid on placement opportunities in the auction. You can usually tell the paid results from the organic ones with visual clues that distinguish them. Paid results will usually appear first on the page and have a small outlined ‘Ad’ label on the left-hand side of the URL. We caution our client's not to use paid links if possible. Not only do they cost the company money when you click on them, they could be a scam and ideally not have anything to do with what you are actually searching for.