Imagine this. A restaurant announces free burgers at a shiny new location. You drive 20 minutes, pay for parking, buy a drink, and wait three hours in line.
Was the burger really free?
The same logic applies to SEO.
Just because you are not paying per click to appear on Google does not mean organic traffic is free. SEO requires a significant investment of time, money, and internal resources. Building and maintaining landing pages, improving Core Web Vitals, producing high-quality content, earning backlinks, hiring specialists, and paying for tools all come with real costs.
Meanwhile, many businesses hesitate to invest in paid search, even though it offers immediate access to high-intent demand, faster feedback loops, and the ability to test, learn, and iterate quickly.
Users do not care whether a result is organic or paid. They care about relevance. At the same time, Google continues to shrink organic real estate on the search results page. Even the number one organic listing is often pushed below paid ads and Google-owned features. In practice, ranking first organically can still mean showing up fourth or fifth overall.
Here is a real example. I am planning a trip to Portugal and search for “cheap flights Lisbon” from San Francisco. TAP Air Portugal appears in the 13th position overall, and tenth organically. As someone who has flown this route many times, I can confidently say TAP is the best option. In fact, it is the only airline offering a direct flight from San Francisco to Portugal.
TAP is uniquely positioned to win with paid search. Compared to online travel agencies and metasearch platforms, the airline has higher revenue per booking and full control over pricing, availability, and the onboard experience. With exclusive nonstop service and competitive fares, conversion rates should be strong. Yet despite launching this route in 2019, TAP continues to rely primarily on SEO instead of owning the top of the page through paid search, even when clicks can cost as little as $0.71.
Waiting years to rank organically only to appear halfway down the page is a missed opportunity.
Paid search should not be viewed as a cost, but as an investment. When aligned with clear business goals, SEM and PPC are powerful levers to accelerate growth, capture high-intent demand, and generate measurable returns.
Organic traffic may be free.
SEO is not.
Featured contributor on the HubSpot
Sam Lauron Dec 14, 2023
When and How to Build International PPC Campaigns
“One-size-fits-all templates don’t work,” says Flavio Rodrigues, an SEM consultant who runs the consultancy, Digital Sardine. “There are differences in languages and dialects, currencies, user behaviors, and even payment methods,” he adds.