It seems like once a week – at least – a client asks me, “Should we be doing SEO …or PPC??” So it was nice to come across a piece by Julie Batten for ClickZ, “Coordinating Organic, Paid Search Efforts” …with its title giving a pretty strong hint that the answer isn’t going to be one or the other.
Some of this persistently perceived dichotomy probably stems from the illusion that SEO is somehow “free”, which then begs the query: “why should I pay for a ranking when I can get one for free?” Of course, the last time that was even somewhat true was back when all you had to do was throw some keywords in your meta data and you scored a great position. But that was back when Larry and Sergey were still undergraduates …certainly before “google” became a verb. These days, it requires quite a bit more effort and dedication to secure and maintain strong organic search rankings.
As background to debunking the forced choice of our mythical client’s question, Julie presents a nifty summary of the pros and cons of both SEM tactics; first, their advantages:
Paid Search
- Can “buy” your way in (guaranteed placement)
- Pay only for interested viewers
- More control over editorial
- Enables testing and optimization of various messages
- Instantaneous results (campaign live within minutes)
Organic Search
- You don’t pay for clicks (no ongoing media expense)
- Users may more readily trust organic listings
…and then their disadvantages:
Paid
-Can be expensive; pay each time someone clicks
- Requires ongoing tweaking and analysis for success
- Ads seen as less trustworthy by some users
- Tends to generate lower conversion rates
(but can be improved by good landing-page design)
Organic
- Cannot guarantee placement
- Lack of editorial control
- Requires long term, ongoing efforts
- Unpredictable environment (changing algorithms, etc.)
- Off-site tactics difficult to influence (e.g., inbound links)
The summary makes it pretty clear that there is no clear-cut reason to choose between organic and paid; in fact, you’d like to realize the advantages of both, which in fact serve to counter some downsides of the other. So the proper answer for most clients is to employ both: paid and organic search marketing can work together in harmony to produce a well-rounded search presence.
Having it all…
Here are some of Julie’s suggestions for synergistically using PPC and SEO:
Use paid search for either very broad, short-tail terms or extremely niche, long-tail terms; then optimize organically for medium-tail terms that have a strong search volume but a moderate level of competition. (Actually, I usually suggest optimizing your website around three-word phrases, not two-word phrases; the former will provide you with not necessarily more traffic, but more qualified traffic. Your web analytics will support this method.)
Use keyword research to develop themed keyword lists for each critical content page on your site. Choose 1-3 terms per page to optimize for, and use the rest in your paid search campaign.
Run a short paid search campaign using the keywords you are considering for SEO. See which ones have the highest response rate, and use those in your website optimization.
Use your paid search campaign to test out various messaging forms, and employ the most effective copy in your meta-description and page titles.
As we’ve blogged about earlier, the only reason for not using both paid and organic together is if a serious level of cannibalization occurs (PPC “stealing” leads from organic); but in the real world, we’ve never seen that happen …plus the above tips should help prevent it.
A final note: if you’re just beginning to think about SEO, then you should really think mainly about PPC to drive your lead generation efforts. Your competitors have most likely been doing SEO for much longer than you have. Absolutely, you should optimize your website for well-targeted keyphrases, but don’t hang your hat on your SEO efforts generating the leads you’ll need stay afloat in the current market conditions.
If you’re unsure about how to determine your optimal search marketing strategy, you may want to seek guidance from your search marketing consultants (hey, we live for this!).
