If you run a website-driven small business, SEO is basically an everyday part of your life. And for the vast majority of business models, SEO is totally the way to go. It’s a bit of an investment upfront for a long-term payoff that amounts to nearly-free traffic. But it’s not the right model for every single business out there — there are many that could benefit more from a solid pay-per-click marketing campaign with a solid PPC management team at the helm.
SEO vs. PPC
Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is much more expensive than SEO if you look at it in terms of a per-visitor cost. But unlike SEO that takes months to really build up to a point where it’s highly effective, a properly-managed PPC campaign starts sending decent traffic within hours of getting set up.
You have to pay for every visitor you get, unlike SEO, but if your website is converting visitors into sales at a decent margin, you should be able to make a profit even after paying for your visitors. But more importantly, you make the profit in the same business cycle as you spend the money. That can mean a lot if your problem is cash reserves rather than cashflow.
So What?
If you’re a business with a model that involves a decent supply of money to invest up front, SEO is a killer app. But if you’re one of the plethora of small businesses who have cash constantly flowing in and out and you can’t afford to make a large investment without seeing an immediate return, PPC can be much more effective for your situation.
Because the return on PPC is immediate rather than delayed, pay-per-click marketing can open up profits that you couldn’t get from SEO. It won’t be as profitable in the long run, but it can get you started in the short term — and clever entrepreneurs will turn around start investing some of their PPC profits into SEO so that they can get off the PPC hamster wheel and onto the train toward cheap targeted traffic in the long run.
79 thoughts on “Small Business: SEO or PPC Management, That Is The Question”
do you know whats the most reliable or helpful marketing management book thats available in the “national bookstore” in the Philippines?
<I need to have one as soon as possible…
^_^
please tell me the highest paying seo job positions in ascending order.
SEO Account Manager
SEO Analyst
SEO Consultant
SEO Director
SEO Engineer
SEO Manager
SEO Specialist
SEO Strategist
SEO Technician
I want a program that I can see my banking and my credit cards and loans and monthly bills. I also want to be able to put in my goals and such. Thank you.
Does anyone know a good Google Adwords management service for running my pay-per-click ad campaigns? I’m spending around $2,000 a month at the moment.
We are getting too busy and need someone take care of PPC campaign management. Can you please post your proposal here and specify what exactly you do to excel in it. Point by point.
We can consider any other advertising models.
How does it affect SEO, how to select/use keywords effectively…
a) Domain name
b) Title Tags
c) Headers (, , , )
d) SEO Copywriting
Please add links/resources please… Thanks.
Does anyone know of any companies that offer good SEO. I was recommended http://www.spacenetmedia.com/seo-sem-services.html but i would like to compare before i make my decision.
my website is listed in google 2 days before, then i submit my web site to some directries, but today my website is not listed in google. I dont know what to do and how get back my website again.
we r provide the seo training
I am doing some SEO work for a company and I have a few questions. First, there is a company trying to get my boss to pay $11,000 for SEO work. This company says they are doing the SEO by adding links and descriptions to web pages. On one page alone, there are a bunch of links towards the end of the page and this company is telling my boss that this is the “secret” to SEO. Now, the only way I can think how this would be effective, is by actually having the key term and description linked to the page and inserted into the met tag keywords. Whatever this company is doing it works, because one of our competitors is #1 in rankings on Google, Yahoo and others for basically all of the keywords we can think of that have to do with our industry. So, my question is, do these large SEO companies have some sort of agreement with the search engines where they get precedence in the search listings? Or is it more likely to get listed higher in the listings by having the keyword on your website multiple times (what they have is multiple keywords and when you click on one, there is a web page describing the term). I am being pressured to improve our ratings without the use of an SEO company, and I am really unsure of what I can do. Would an SEO program work well for me?
I am not looking for a company to pay thousands of dollars to. I have been hired to do this and am looking for people who are not part of SEO companies to give me tips and advice.
what is the importance of ROI in seo, How importance is that to seo.
So yeah I’ve heard about blackhat and whitehat SEO methods, and have a general idea of what they are, but can someone tell me exactly what those methods are?
I was learning about seo techniques from a professional seo trainer!
The first he started to teach me about seo is marketing techniques like posting ads!
When my friend heard about this…..he said dude..he is teaching you wrong! the first thing you have to learn about seo is
Introduction about search engines & directories and their differentiation, search terms (keywords) and ranking of website in search engine.
and he said, at last i should learn marketing techniques!
What do i do now? is my friend right about this?
is my learning is not sequential?
please help me about learning it sequential
I want a easy way to learn SEO. Because I am not fluent in English. I would like a way like videos, step by step images.
This link make me confuse. http://martingwebdesign.com/services/seo/
I have a website which needs SEO Services, who is the best?
Could you tell me how can i start seo to my site……thanks
HI…
I have completed my graduation and want to make a carrier in IT field…well I heard a lot about SEO (Search engine optimization) but really not able to find much more abot SEO as a career…. well as I m from Mumbai, India….I have given interview also in Avanindra SEO services in Mumbai, India….and I got selected to but not able to decided is SEO will be a good career….Please need ur suggestion….thanks in advance for the suggestion and the time for ur help……………
I am learning how to do SEO myself for my new website, and I am having trouble understanding something- Being that each product page on your website will have different keywords based on the individual products, how does your website get known for a specific keyword if every page has a different one(s)? Also- I notice that most websites about SEO talk about how it theoretically works, but not much actual application of methods or some step-by-step help. Are there any out there?
Hello friends,
I know this might be a little elementary, but what is the main difference between SEO and PPC? Do you consider PPC to be part of SEO?
I am a broker who runs a property management business.
How can I bring in more clients?
I always read about SEO but don’t really understand it.
Is SEO necessary for a website?
Please suggest me how can I choose affordable SEO Packages?
Why SEO is Important for Every Business or Services ?
Give a broad idea about SEO. What is the activities of SEO. How can I understand about SEO.
what is difference between SEO and SMO?
Hi!
I’m looking for a sites that can teach for SEO techniques
hi friend
I am a web Designer currently i am studing about Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ) so what type of software i have to use for making traffic and others