SEO or Google Adwords or Both?

I am often asked about SEO maybe because people are more familiar with SEO or perhaps the idea of so called free traffic is more attractive than Pay Per Click.

In the not too distant past it was pretty easy to get good first page rankings on Google for almost any market except the really competitive ones like accommodation and travel using SEO systems that were not well known. I well remember when I had 9 of the top 10 results on Google for important search terms associated with my gardening market. This was achieved by using a number of different websites on similar topics all of which were SEO'd and  interlinked and it was this interlinking combined with good page structure that was the fundamental "secret". This method still works to some extent but Google has been able to detect such over-linking strategies for quite some time now and it has made it very difficult to achieve anything like the same results.

Going back further to about 2002 just using the right keywords in meta tags was often enough to get good rankings. Today Google completely ignores such tags for ranking purposes. I find it hard  to believe that so many web designers still peddle the importance of meta tags to potential customers as a mechanism for getting good rankings.

The point of this bit of nostalgia is to make a critically important point in the debate about SEO and PPC... the point is that you and me have no control over what Google decides to return on the free results side of the search pages. This means that any organization building a strategy on SEO alone is running the direct risk of losing its position on the search engines just as happened to me those few years ago.

This does not mean organizations should ignore SEO... far from it. In many respects SEO is more important today than it ever was but not as a self standing strategy. Here's why...

• Organizations with any kind of commercial intent have to control, as much as possible, their own destiny online. Quite frankly this means an investment in online advertising whether we like it or not. By far the best online advertising medium is Google Adwords in terms of reach, control and directly measurable cost effectiveness.
• The cost AND effectiveness of running a Google Adwords campaign is a function of Quality Score. This QS parameter is built into Google's PPC algorithm and varies between 1 and 10. In simple terms the higher the QS the less you will pay for a click and the higher your ad will appear on the search results page. In many cases a QS of 1 will require a very high bid price just to allow your ad to show and even then it will show very infrequently.
• Quality Score is a function of the relevance of a website to a search query. This means any website poorly constructed from an SEO perspective or one containing few pages will probably suffer from low QS. Until quite recently Google did not take into account the "quality" of a website in determining QS. Now it does and while no-one knows exactly how website or landing page QS influences overall QS you can be pretty sure it has something to do with good site content and well structured (from SEO perspective) page and link content.

You can now see why running a Google Adwords in complete isolation is unlikely to get you the optimum results you want. Your ad will show less of the time, your click cost will be much higher than it needs be and your conversion rate will also be much lower. Building good fundamental SEO into a website preferably before starting an Adwords campaign is of paramount importance. The fundamentals of SEO are easy to learn and quick to implement. The cost factor associated with SEO is that of time required to create content. However it is time well spent.

If you want to learn the basics of SEO you can download my book "DIY SEO and Internet Marketing" by clicking this link. The book has not been updated for 4 years but the basics contained in the book are just as important now as always and even more when used in conjunction with Google Adwords.

The Next Google Adwords and Beyond Workshop

This was planned for April 30th but to date I've only got 3 interested parties. If I can get more confirmations I will still go ahead but if not I will postpone to a future date not yet planned. If you're interested to learn more don't be reluctant to ring me on 011-454-0105.

This is What SEOZA Does...

SEOZA offers a personalized, integrated Search Engine Optimization and Adwords consultancy - geared to maximizing your sales.

SEOZA can give you a massive competitive edge by getting your products or services on Google’s front page search results within 3 hours of setting up a Google Adwords campaign.

Adwords are great! They satisfy the immediate needs of the many thousands of people who, each day, search the net looking for your product or service.

You can spend as much, or as little. as you like each day – and you only pay for actual visitors to your site.

You can stop and start campaigns at any time – and you get measurable, cost-effective results on a daily basis.

Whether you’re business is online, off-line, local or international, SEOZA Adwords consultancy will make a significant difference.

We can help you set up your Adwords campaign, provide ongoing management.

With suitable partners we run Google Adwords campaigns at our own cost and risk in return for a share of the profits from any sales generated by our direct efforts. In other words no sales then no costs to the customer.

We organize private and public advanced Google AdWords workshops and provide excellent workshop materials including DVDs of the workshop, the book I've written and all workshop slides used throughout the day. In this way attendees get the very best source of advanced Adwords reference information available anywhere in the world.

We offer support for advertising agencies and web designers whose clients want to incorporate PPC in their marketing budgets.

Want to learn more? Call Tony Roocroft for a friendly chat… not a sales pitch.

It might be the most important call you make on your way to internet marketing success. Alternatively, download our PDF brochure here

Go ahead – the possibilities really are amazing.

Best Regards

Tony Roocroft