It’s critical to understand the distinctions between organic, natural search (also known as SEO) and paid search from the start. There are five significant differences:

Position

The first distinction is that paid search results are displayed at the top of search engine results pages, while organic results are displayed beneath them.

Time

Another significant distinction between paid and organic search is time. Paid search produces near-instant results, sometimes in minutes, whereas organic search produces results that take weeks, months, or even years. So, with organic search, you must play the medium to long-term game.

Payment

When it comes to payment, as the name implies, paid search traffic is paid. You pay per click (PPC) based on cost-per-click (CPC). That is, you are charged a fee each time a user clicks on your ad. Instead of relying on organic traffic to your website, you buy traffic by paying Google to show your ad when a visitor searches for your keyword. Traffic from organic search is free, but it does necessitate an investment of both resources and time.

ROI

Paid search is actually much easier to measure in terms of return on investment (ROI). This is due in part to Google providing more keyword data that can be captured in Google Analytics. With paid search, however, ROI can stagnate or decline over time. Organic search ROI is more difficult to quantify, but it frequently improves over time. Organic search can provide a very good return on investment in the long run.

Share of traffic

When it comes to traffic, roughly 20% to 30% of searchers click on paid results, while 70% to 80% click on SEO results. As a result, the organic results receive the vast majority of clicks.