SEO or PPC? Both? What Do You Need? |

Long gone are the days when the debate was whether one was better than the other. Instead, we now find ourselves asking

“Under what circumstances do I need SEO, and when should I opt for PPC? Do I need both?”
In almost every circumstance I’ve encountered, the use of PPC and SEO in conjunction were strongly advised. However, this doesn’t mean that they get the same focus or budget. Sometimes a campaign calls for attention in one area that is not needed in the other. So how do you tell what you need when you need it?

First, let’s make sure we are all on the same page with the results garnered from SEO and PPC respectively.

SEO

It’s What You’re Used To

With regard to “natural” optimization and promotion, you’re looking to increase rankings via the search engines in their organic results. This is to say, the chunk of listings aside from the advertising space at the tops and sides of most search engines. Depending on the search engine these are sometimes numbered, usually 10 per page.

How To Get Them

This requires that a great deal of attention be given to the site itself, focusing on the content, link structure, etc.; as well as building inbound links from other websites through a large array of methods (ie, link-building).

Time Investment

SEO takes a bit of time, usually months before you see any real results. This isn’t always the case, but generally speaking the changes you make today don’t affect your site until tomorrow (that’s not literal). I’ve been involved in campaigns that took more than a year to accomplish what we would consider a success.

Monitoring and Tweaking

With rankings comes traffic. So, another aspect of SEO is the on-going monitoring, tweaking, monitoring, adding, monitoring…well, you get the idea. Once you get traffic to the site for a given set of search terms, you can begin to identify areas of your campaign that need attention and make changes as needed.

Long-Lasting Effects

One of the great things about the results from a solid SEO campaign is the “gift that keeps on giving” nature in which you see returns. Once you’ve reached a certain level of success, you can tone down your campaign, allowing you to place attention elsewhere as needed. Your site will still rank for quite a while, and may even improve due to domain age, inbound link age, etc.

WARNING:

Though you may be awarded the luxury of sitting back a little, please don’t fall into not keeping an eye on your site’s reports. Many a website have fallen off the map because nobody was monitoring traffic/rankings/conversions.

Getting Better All The Time

You can always push for more results in an SEO campaign as there is really no end to it. No matter how well you’re site is doing, it can always perform better. PPC

Where They Are

With regard to PPC, we are aiming for the spots just to the side and above the organic results in a search engine. This is usually reserved to a smaller number of websites, though you can check multiple pages in the same way you would for natural results.

Centralized Management

PPC campaigns are setup with their respective engines or services of your choice. This means you login to a site and set the parameters of your campaign based on your needs. You’ll perform some of your keyword research, write your messaging and set a few other options all from one spot.

Minor Site Touched

Though the setup and maintenance of your PPC campaign is performed in one spot, you still need to make sure your site reflects/represents your ad(s). This means, you’ll need to make sure the ad you have for a certain service or product sends clicks to the most relevant page on your site. And due to quality scores having an impact on the amount you pay per click, you’ll want to optimize that page just a little. This is usually pretty far from the optimization you’ll need to perform for SEO, so you’re saving a bit of time on that front.

Pay To Play

Speaking of paying for clicks, that’s the whole idea behind PPC marketing. Every click you receive will result in a charge. You’re paying for traffic here.

Fast Results

Because you are paying for traffic, the ad can be setup and running in (usually) under an hour. Immediate advertising at its best. This also means that you’ll get a good idea of what’s working and what isn’t rather quickly in comparison to an SEO campaign, allowing you to adjust your parameters as needed.

Pay Or Else

The one downside of PPC is the abrupt end to traffic should you throttle back your budget or stop the campaign all together. If you stop paying, you stop getting traffic. Just like that.

Breaking The Bank

Another downside is the amount of money one could throw away should one not monitor and manage the account appropriately (have you ever mis-placed a decimal?). This is why PPC management has been big business for us lately. Between making sure our partners don’t spend too much and ensuring the highest ROI on what they do spend, the management aspect of a PPC campaign can be quite intense at times.

Let’s Recap

SEO

The “normal” listings of a search results page
Requires an investment of time and modifications to the site
Requires some level of link-building
Continued monitoring and tweaking really enhances the campaign
Once going, an proper SEO campaign can return results for years to come
The more you put into it, the more you get out of it
PPC

Usually above and to the side of the “normal” results
Immediate Results, and thus immediate potential for returns
Can be managed from a central location per engine or service
Usually only minor changes to the site are needed
Only gets traffic when you pay
Monitoring and management is extremely important
SO What Do You Need? Your needs for specific services are going to change depending on your current situation. Are you a brand new business? How’s the traffic to your site now and where does it come from?

Also, your goals and time lines can play a big part in the decision making process. Because of the many variables, we advise every single project differently, regardless of similarities shared among other projects.

That being said, there are a few situations to note that can help you find the service that will work best for you right now.

Time Lines

If you’re in a crunch and need traffic now, PPC is the obvious choice. If you are working towards a long term marketing campaign, then SEO is your pick. There are a few variables that can come into play where SEO will result in almost immediate traffic, but PPC is a sure way to do it quickly.

Budget

If budgets are your main concern, you’re gonna have to put your emphasis on SEO. PPC can cost quite a bit, and that’s without management fees. Even if you’re savvy enough to handle it yourself, you still have to throw a little money at it just to get a feel for what works and what doesn’t.

Learning Curve

Our consulting partners have ranged from people who have never turned their own computer on, to people I’ve wanted to hire myself and everything in between. If you have the motivation you can get into either of them. SEO will allow you to get into the site and make changes as needed to rank, while PPC will let you see some pretty neat reports on which to base your decisions. So depending on your level of know-how you could find either of these to work with.

Seasonality

Perhaps you have an event coming up, or a special you need to promote. Because of the time needs of SEO, PPC is probably going to be your pick. But keep in mind that if you have a recurring event, you can plan a proper SEO campaign for it. A yearly festival to which you cater would do well with a dedicated page/section and some SEO love. You Need Both Most often though, you’ll probably benefit greatly from placing your attention on both SEO and PPC. Whatever the situation, it’s pretty rare that we don’t see a case for running both. Even further, having one type of campaign will actually compliment the other greatly.

You see, PPC relies heavily on your quality score to determine your costs per click. If the landing page is optimized in an SEO way, that quality score is likely to raise a bit. Similarly, having a natural listing at the top of the results page is only compounded by having a PPC ad right above or next to it. This really helps to brand your business and helps consumer recall.

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