Our advice: start with what currently prevents a good prospect from finding, understanding or contacting you. The channel choice comes afterwards.
You are considering a new website. A colleague tells you about SEO. Another business gets enquiries through Google Ads. All these options may have a place, but they do not address the same problem. Before allocating your budget, identify the stage that needs your attention.
In this guide, we mainly discuss Google Ads on the Search Network, the ads that respond to a search. Our method is for SMEs wanting to generate useful enquiries. It proposes an order of work to adapt to your business, without promising an amount or a result.
01 / The diagnosisWhere are you losing the connection?
Start with what you already know: enquiries received, questions asked on the phone, pages viewed and follow-up to quotes. If data is missing, the first investment may simply be understanding the journey.
- Few people find you.
- Examine your visibility and searches related to your offer. SEO or a targeted campaign can be considered after checking the website and demand.
- People visit, then leave.
- Look at message consistency, evidence and ease of contact. Also check that visitors are looking for what you offer.
- People contact you for something else.
- Clarify your scope, area and conditions. An irrelevant enquiry signals a mismatch to understand before increasing volume.
Do not conclude too quickly that a website “does not convert”. A few visits, an unusual period or faulty tracking are not enough to establish a diagnosis. Review enquiries with the person who answers them too: a relevant contact may lead nowhere because of availability, price or follow-up.
Is the page that will receive your visitors ready?
We recommend checking a simple journey: does the reader understand the service and who it is for? Can they find credible evidence, a service area and a clear next step? Do the phone link, form or booking work on their mobile?
For Google Ads, landing page relevance and experience are among the factors considered in ad ranking.3 A dedicated page may therefore deserve attention before a campaign. This does not require rebuilding the whole website: start with the specific obstacles on your landing page.
02 / Trade-offsThree investments, three roles.
The website welcomes visitors and explains your offer. Organic search optimisation helps search engines understand your content and people discover it.1 Search Network ads let you participate in advertising auctions related to the search context.3 The right combination depends on what you are trying to solve.
| To be examined | Website | SEO | Google Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main role | Present the offer and make contact easier. | Develop visibility in organic results. | Test paid acquisition on targeted searches. |
| Prioritise if… | The page is missing or the journey has problems. | The foundations are ready and the objective is long-term. | An offer, demand and test budget are defined. |
| Work to plan for | Content, design, development and upkeep. | Technical work, useful pages, local visibility and monitoring. | Preparation, media budget, settings and analysis. |
| Time horizon | According to the scope of corrections. | Gradual, with variable effects. | Test can start after preparation and approval for ad delivery. |
| Point to watch | A beautiful website also needs to be found. | No guaranteed position or deadline. | Paid clicks do not guarantee clients. |
Scroll the table to compare the three approaches.
Editorial summary. SEO and advertising mechanisms are documented in references 1, 2 and 3. This table is not a performance forecast.
SEO takes work, even without a media budget.
Google does not charge for inclusion in its organic results. SEO work, however, takes time: content, technical work, coordination and monitoring. Google also states that paying for ads does not improve organic ranking.2 Separate these items when comparing proposals.
The effects of an SEO change can take very different amounts of time and are not automatic.1 If you need to fill a calendar quickly, do not build your sales forecast around an unsupported date for organic results.
A campaign needs a scope and a limit.
Before launching a test, write down the offer, area, languages, landing page, spending limit and what you want to learn. Google’s planning tool lets you refine keyword ideas by location and language, among other things.4 In Belgium, take time to check your clients’ searches in every language relevant to your business.
A search estimate does not prove a contact will be profitable. Add preparation, support, any tools and time spent on enquiries to the media budget. For the website, our guide to web creation budgets details the items to compare.
Your next expense should address a problem you can name and a decision you will be able to make.
The decision principle proposed in this guide
03 / Your decisionFind your first area of work.
Describe your current situation. The questionnaire may recommend a website improvement, measurement work or clearer targeting before pointing to SEO or Google Ads. Each result explains why.
Which action deserves your next investment?
Six answers for an explained recommendation. You can change your choices and compare results.
Guidance based on your statements and our editorial method. The questionnaire does not analyse your website or calculate profitability.
How is the recommendation chosen?
We check the conditions in this order: a suitable page, useful measurement, the nature of the problem, then search demand. If these points are ready, a long-term goal points towards SEO; a short-term test with a controlled budget points towards Google Ads. Without a defined budget, scoping remains the priority.
This method does not allocate points or claim to know your market. It organises your statements. If your offer is new and rarely searched for, referrals, partnerships or direct sales outreach may deserve consideration before these channels.
04 / In practiceThree SMEs, three starting points.
The following situations are fictional. They illustrate our reasoning and do not correspond to results achieved for clients.
A good service, but no page to present it.
A service business receives its first contacts through referrals. It wants to launch ads, but has no page explaining its services, area and how to get in touch.
Our suggested order: create a useful page and plan enquiry measurement, then check local searches. An advertising test can be considered on that basis. A large website with many sections is not necessarily the first need.
What to observe: do prospects understand the offer and manage to make contact?
A convincing website, but still limited visibility.
An SME has a functional website, knows where its enquiries come from and wants to develop its presence over time. It has checked that people search for its services in its area.
Our suggested order: examine service pages, their indexing and local information. For an eligible business, Google recommends a complete Business Profile; local ranking depends in particular on relevance, distance and prominence.6 The local SEO guide for Brussels explores this work further.
What to observe: do relevant searches lead to enquiries in the area actually served?
A ready page, a limited budget, a specific question.
An SME launches a service. Its page is clear, measurement has been checked and search demand has been identified. It wants to know whether its message generates qualified enquiries.
Our suggested order: define a campaign around this offer, with a spending limit and a person responsible for monitoring. Examine search terms, enquiries and what happens to them before expanding. The insights can then inform website content.
What to observe: do contacts match the offer, and what sales follow-up do they receive?
05 / Taking actionA work plan for the next 90 days.
Here is a proposed work schedule to adapt to your resources and sales cycle. The 90 days are neither a timeframe for SEO results nor a sufficient period to draw conclusions in every business.
- Days 1 to 15
Understand and remove obstacles.
Review enquiries, check the landing page and define a qualified enquiry. Record the starting situation and data limitations.
- Days 16 to 45
Work on one priority.
Improve the page, undertake a specific SEO project or launch the defined advertising test. Appoint an owner and record changes.
- Days 46 to 90
Decide based on observations.
Examine enquiries, their quality and sales outcomes. Continue, adjust or stop. If data remains insufficient, specify what is missing before increasing spending.
Track the enquiry through to its sales outcome.
Google Ads lets you distinguish several conversion actions, such as a purchase, a call or an action on the website.5 In your tracking, also separate the contact click, the enquiry actually received, the qualified prospect and the sale. These stages do not tell the same story.
To compare costs, keep a consistent scope: the same expenses included, the same definition of a qualified enquiry and the same observation period. Account for the gap between first contact and a signed agreement. A pending quote must not be counted as an acquired client.
Let’s give your budget a clear priority.
Bring your website, your goal and the questions still open. We can identify the first area of work and the information needed to define it.
Questions before investing.
Should you redesign your website before launching Google Ads?
Not always. First check the page that will receive visitors: an understandable offer, evidence, consistency with the ad and working contact options on mobile. A targeted improvement or dedicated page may be enough. A complete redesign should address identified problems.
Does Google Ads improve organic search rankings?
No. Google distinguishes paid ads from organic ranking. Buying advertising does not give you a better organic position. However, lessons from a campaign can help refine your messages and the topics to work on.2
Is SEO free?
Inclusion in Google’s organic results is free. However, work on your website, content, tools and monitoring requires in-house resources or a provider. Compare the total cost of the work with observed results.2
What budget should a Belgian SME plan for?
There is no meaningful budget without knowing the offer, area, languages, competition, margin and website condition. Separate preparation, media budget, support and in-house time. For an advertising test, set a spending limit and the information needed for the next decision.
Can you do SEO and Google Ads at the same time?
Yes, if resources allow you to manage both properly. Define a role for each action: for example, testing an offer with a targeted campaign and developing useful pages over time. Avoid spreading a limited budget without reliable measurement.
Sources and method.
We rely on official documentation to explain Google’s mechanisms. The priorities, examples and schedule are part of our consulting method. They are neither Google recommendations nor a statistical study of the Belgian market.
- Google Search Central
The role of SEO, variable effects of changes and no guaranteed ranking. Checked on 10 September 2026.
SEO Starter Guide - Google Search Central
Separation between advertising and organic results; free inclusion in organic results. Checked on 10 September 2026.
Do you need an SEO? - Google Ads
Auctions, ad quality, landing page and search context. Checked on 10 September 2026.
About Ad Rank - Google Ads
Keyword research, geographical and language filters. Checked on 10 September 2026.
Refine keyword ideas - Google Ads
Choosing actions to measure and distinguishing conversion types. Checked on 10 September 2026.
Set up conversion tracking - Google Business Profile
Profile information and local ranking factors: relevance, distance and prominence. Checked on 10 September 2026.
Improve your local ranking
What we do not quantify
We offer no “average” advertising budget for a Belgian SME, cost per click, local search volume or time to profitability. These data have not been established for your business. They must be examined in light of your area, languages, offer, margin and monitoring capacity.
The questionnaire offers guidance from your answers, without an automated audit or data collection. Conversion tracking must be adapted to your tools and applicable consent rules. This article does not constitute legal validation of your setup.
Kanexio sells strategy, web creation and SEO services, so we have a commercial interest in these subjects. Our code of ethics explains our commitments to transparency and advice.