As a business owner, you've likely been to trade shows, business events, networking events and the like, meeting people who run marketing companies and agencies that can get you 'on the first page of Google instantly'. Some businesses lean heavily on PPC, and paid search is a huge economic force in digital marketing, which is why these companies exist.
Globally, spending on search advertising is enormous, with estimates putting it in the hundreds of billions of dollars annually, projected around $350 billion in 2025 and continuing to grow year-on-year. Paid search alone makes up around 40 percent of total digital ad spend, dwarfing many other digital channels and reflecting how many brands prioritise instant visibility. What this also means is that nearly four in ten marketing dollars go straight into paid placements rather than into building the organic foundations of a website. Quite frankly, we find that terrifying, as these figures demonstrate how much money businesses are ploughing into renting visibility rather than owning it through long-term, sustainable traffic strategies like SEO. We always advise our clients to have a little patience and invest in organic traffic and SEO – and in this blog, we'll show you why.
The honest answer is that both have their place. But if the goal is sustainable growth, and long-term returns on your investment, organic traffic consistently delivers better results. At Haddington & Haddington, our Suffolk creative agency firmly believes that SEO is the stronger long-term strategy for most clients, even though it takes patience and commitment to get there.
Why PPC exists (and why businesses use it)
Pay-per-click advertising exists for a reason. You can quickly launch a campaign whenever you're ready and start appearing at the top of search results tomorrow. For new businesses, product launches or time-sensitive promotions, PPC can generate immediate visibility and fast data. You know exactly what you’re paying, who you’re targeting and what traffic you’re getting.
But there's a huge catch – and it all comes down to the cash in your pocket. PPC is fundamentally rented traffic. The moment you stop paying, your visibility disappears. There’s no residual value, and no long-term gains in the way that organic traffic naturally builds. While PPC can generate leads and sales, it often becomes an ongoing expense rather than an investment that grows in value over time.
Organic traffic is more consistent
Organic traffic behaves very differently to paid traffic. When your website ranks well organically, you’re not relying on a daily ad budget to stay visible. Your website content, technical setup, SEO keywords and authority work together to bring in visitors consistently, day after day. Over time, this creates a steady flow of relevant traffic that grows as your site strengthens.
Unlike PPC, organic traffic doesn’t switch off overnight. Rankings may fluctuate, but they don’t vanish instantly because a budget was paused. This consistency allows businesses to plan more confidently, understand user behaviour over time, and build marketing strategies around organic performance. Organic traffic will never drop off a cliff the moment you stop spending.
SEO is more cost-effective over the long term
PPC costs can spiral quickly. More traffic means more cash out of your coffers. In competitive industries, cost-per-click can rise quickly, making it harder to maintain profitability. SEO, on the other hand, requires upfront investment in strategy, content and optimisation, but the marginal cost of each additional visitor decreases over time. Once strong rankings are achieved, organic traffic continues to arrive without paying for every single click, which is a good return on investment. A well-optimised blog post or service page can generate leads for years, while in contrast, a paid ad only works for as long as you keep funding it.
Organic traffic doesn’t fall dramatically
One of the biggest risks with PPC is volatility. Budgets change, competition increases, platforms update policies... and suddenly performance drops. We’ve seen many businesses (even large multi-national corporations) become overly reliant on paid traffic, only to experience a sharp decline when costs rise or campaigns are paused. We've stepped in to help these businesses improve their SEO and boost organic traffic through SEO copywriting services.
Organic traffic is far more resilient. While algorithm updates can impact rankings, good SEO foundations tend to protect against dramatic losses. Quality content, strong site structure and genuine authority are assets that Google continues to reward over time. Organic growth may be slower, but it’s far less fragile.
Strong organic rankings build trust and credibility
Users trust organic search results far more than ads. Many people scroll past paid listings instinctively and focus on organic results because they view them as more authoritative and unbiased. Ranking organically signals credibility, expertise and relevance. These qualities are difficult to achieve through paid placements alone. From a brand perspective, appearing consistently in organic results reinforces recognition and trust. Over time, users begin to associate your business with solutions to their problems, not just advertising messages.
One often overlooked benefit of SEO and organic ranking is that it improves the overall quality of your website. High quality content clarifies your messaging and the value you have to offer, while ensuring you're ranking for what users are trying to find. Keyword research deepens your understanding of what your customers need. All of this benefits every channel, including PPC, social media and email marketing. When done properly, SEO strengthens your entire digital presence rather than focusing on a single traffic source.
How much marketing spend goes into PPC?
Billions of pounds are spent each year on Google Ads. This dominance isn’t necessarily because PPC performs better long term, but it’s because it’s easy to sell, easy to measure in the short term, and easy to grow quickly.
For agencies, PPC is attractive because results appear immediately and performance can be reported week by week. For businesses, it can feel reassuring to see traffic arrive as soon as a campaign goes live. But this level of spend also highlights a deeper issue: many companies are locked into an ongoing cost just to maintain visibility. As competition increases and cost-per-click rises, PPC becomes less efficient over time, forcing businesses to spend more.
The myth of instant first page rankings
One of the biggest red flags we see in SEO is any business or marketing firm claiming they can get you to the first page of Google instantly. Google’s algorithm doesn't work that way, and it never has. Organic rankings are based on trust, authority, relevance and good user experience, and all of that takes time to build on. When agencies promise instant rankings, what they're really offering is either paid visibility disguised as SEO, or tactics that risk long-term damage to your site. Neither is a sustainable strategy.
Some firms also blur the line between PPC and SEO by running Google Ads and presenting the results as page one rankings. While technically true, ads are not organic results, and the visibility disappears the moment the ad spend stops. This tactic preys on clients who don’t fully understand how search results are structured.
Others rely on low-quality or outdated SEO tactics such as keyword stuffing, thin content, or mass-produced backlinks from irrelevant or spammy websites. These approaches may cause short-term ranking spikes, but they often trigger penalties or algorithmic suppression once Google detects manipulation. The long-term result is usually lost rankings, reduced levels of trust and the need for expensive clean-up work.
In some cases, agencies build temporary pages, doorway content (web pages that are created for the deliberate manipulation of search engine indexes), or even rank on unrelated domains they control, creating the illusion of success without delivering lasting value to the client’s actual website.
Sustainable SEO can’t be rushed
Real SEO progress is built on solid technical foundations and content that users are actively searching for, along with genuine authority within your industry. Google rewards consistency, relevance and user satisfaction – not shortcuts. Any strategy that promises speed over substance is designed to benefit the seller, not the business.
If you’re being promised instant results, it’s worth asking what happens after month one. Sustainable organic growth doesn’t come from tricks or technical loopholes. It comes from experience, patience and doing SEO properly.
