Actually, it’s a bit of a mystery to us as to where companies come by the notion that this is an either/or issue.  There’s no forced choice between SEO and PPC;  each should be pursued to the extent that it yields a satisfactory ROI.  For most companies, that will usually result in doing both on an ongoing basis.

SEO for all…
For starters, every company with a website needs to do search engine optimization to at least some degree.  Investing in a well-designed website – but then failing to take the necessary steps to ensure that the major search engines will find the site in response to likely queries – simply makes no economic sense.

Think of the search engines as giving you (in effect) a free listing in the world’s only universal directory, under dynamic “categories” that are precisely the terms that the market uses in thinking about a product like your company’s.  SEO, then, is simply a set of steps for structuring both your visible content and certain technical aspects of your site’s pages so as to maximize the value of that listing.  Ideally, it will lead the engines to list your company higher (earlier) than your competitors in the listings produced in response to a relevant search. [Read more...]