SEO versus paid search engine marketing. Round one

by Guy Levine - Wednesday, 7th May 2008 - (8) comments

Welcome to the great debate: "Do I pay every time someone clicks on one of my little adverts on Google, ranging from 5p to £25 per click, or do I hire an expert to dominate the natural listings (the free ones on the left hand side)?" Guy Levine. chief executive of Web Marketing Advisor, gives us the lowdown.

Pay per click, Google adwords, search engine marketing and sponsored listings are all names for pay per click. You choose a word or phrase you want, you bid a price, then an advert is displayed when someone types the word or phrase into Google. When someone clicks, you pay.

Search engine optimisation – or SEO to the cool young internet types – is the process of inducing "Google love". Basically, tweaking the pages of a website to make the search engines love them. I know there are other search engines, but at the moment Big G rules!

On the other hand, pay per click allows hungry entrepreneurs to have their websites ranking on the front page of search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN) within as little as three hours. Yes, you have to pay but you get visibility. Another great benefit is that you can run multiple adverts, all 128 characters of them, to test the best hooks. Google will even tell you which one people love the most.

Search engine optimisation is the long game. You tweak your site, you wait for the search engines to update their listings, you tweak again, you wait. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get it wrong. But boy, when you get it right! The first result on page one is better than the icing on the cake, it's internet nirvana.

Let me share one word of warning. It's fine being number one, but you need to make sure you are number one for a word which people search when they want to buy, not just browse.

SEO, I love it, but my best advice is to always run a PPC campaign first. Choose your keywords, test them and make sure your site converts. When it does, crank up the SEO.

Get them both right and there’s gold there in them there hills!

Guy Levine is the chief executive of search engine optimisation firm Web Marketing Advisor.

Picture source

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8 Comments

May 10, 2008 3:48pm
Ralph Little Says:

I agree with Guy, there's is no better way of finding out what terms people actually use than running a live PPC campaign - the longer you run it the more accurate the results will be - you don't even have to bid high on any keywords. But the results are invaluable. Not the only way to generate keyword research but clearly the best.

May 10, 2008 2:44pm
Zako Media Says:

Brilliant Article, breaks it down for those not in the know. adWords are great for starting the traffic flowing while you're waiting for your SEO efforts to kick in.

May 09, 2008 12:04pm
Guy Levine Says:

The point of my article is saying that most people jump into search engine optimisation, wait for top listings, get them, and then cry when the phone does not ring or the sales don’t happen! Use pay per click, in as little as one day you can find out which keywords convert, then go for SEO big time maybe even stopping pay per click, knowing you are targeting the right key words.

May 09, 2008 10:20am
Richard Dinnick Says:

Hmm. To be fair, Guy would say try a PPC campaign first. He's a pay per click merchant! I still belive that proper SEO can achieve great results. I do agree however, that you must know the exact keywords/phrases you wish to be found under.And to be realistic.

May 08, 2008 9:45pm
Graham Jones - Internet Psychologist Says:

What sensible advice; a good clear article making the case very well for a combined approach using Pay Per Click and SEO. Guy provides a clear pathway for us all to follow. Thanks.

May 08, 2008 10:11am
Clive Rubenstien Says:

Having read the article I like the idea of getting someone to have your ranking placed higher through search engine optimistion. I have tried the Pay Per Click and felt that I was not getting value for money. Search Optimisation is the route I wll now be trying.

May 08, 2008 8:47am
Spencer Adams Says:

Nice article - loads of people have been telling me to do SEO and that they can get me to page one, but i never thought about testing the keywords with pay per click before i spent time and money having my site done. Cheers

May 08, 2008 8:44am
Dan Says:

This article has really helped me out. its explained the fundamentals of what is needed to get my site top of the search results in simple plain english and helped to guide me towards a long term stratergy.