This is one of the most common questions small business owners ask, and most answers dodge it with "it depends" and leave it there. It does depend, but on something specific and easy to figure out for yourself: how quickly you need enquiries.
Google Ads is renting attention. SEO is building an asset.
With Ads, you pay and you appear, often above the normal search results. Turn the spend off and you disappear just as quickly. With SEO, you're improving your website and your presence so Google understands what you do and starts showing you naturally, without paying for every click. It takes longer to show results, but it keeps working after you've stopped actively paying for it.
If you need enquiries soon, start with Ads.
A new campaign can be live and generating clicks within a day. That speed makes Ads the right starting point if you're launching something new, testing whether an offer actually lands, or you're in a competitive area where ranking naturally would take months you don't have.
If you can afford to wait a bit, start with SEO.
SEO usually needs several months before it shows meaningful results, but once it's working, it keeps bringing people in without an ongoing cost per click. This makes more sense if your budget's tight, or you've got some runway before you need the results to show up.
For most small businesses, the honest answer is both, in sequence.
Use Ads to get visibility and enquiries now, while SEO builds in the background. As your website starts ranking naturally for the things people search for, you can gradually pull back on ad spend for those same terms. You're not choosing one forever, you're choosing what comes first.
One thing neither of these will fix.
If your website doesn't clearly explain what you do or make it easy to get in touch, Ads and SEO will both just bring more people to a page that doesn't convert them. Sorting that out first means whichever channel you choose actually has something worth sending traffic to.
If you're not sure which makes more sense for where you're at, get in touch and we can talk through what fits your budget and timeline.