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”
I work as a Marketing Executive for an in-house Sales & Marketing department. Although a small company in terms of staff, it delivers services nationally to some major clients. My role involves marketing and graphic/web design. These are my main duties:
• Management of all Marketing & PR activities
• Design of company website, marketing literature, email marketing, display advertising and any other promotional materials, including client presentations
• Lead management – involves advanced Excel functions
• Database management
• SEO/PPC
• Internal communication
• Management of business partner relationships (2 major mobile network providers)
• An element of performance management
Although I don’t hold a marketing qualification, I have now been in the job for 2 years and get positive feedback from my employer. I earn £14.5k basic + bonus. Despite promises otherwise, the bonus scheme is barely worthwhile – weighing in at £200 quarterly (before tax).
Comments appreciated!
Hi everyone, this is going to b a bit lenghthy so I request u al to kindly read with patience as I need a genuine advise. I live in Sydney now but moving to Hyderabad in 4 months. I have done BTech in IT n diploma in business management but i don like computers or their programming stuff anymore. Want to start some small business in india with a capital of 10-15 lakhs. As I wud be a “so-called” foreign return among the big family I have, I want to do something decent enough and also ongoing which I can take to a higher level if Its going fine.
Kindly suggest me few ideas.
Thank you
I think my headline question sums it all up. What does a marketing consultant do? Do they simply give advice to small to medium sized business owners on what to do? Or do they actually DO things like help them prepare business plans, design ads, etc.
I’m also curious about ecommerce marketing consultants. Do they do the SEO work, and design the PPC ads, or do they simply TALK to the clients and tell them what they should do.
Someone just help me understand the role of a marketing cosultant. Or a management consultant. I think being a consultant is a career field I may be interested in.
There is an error somewhere in this and I think I know what it is but was hoping someone else could help my trying to point it out.
We are looking for an enthusiastic individual who is eager to learn the ins and outs of our online marketing programs including SEO, PPC ad management, e-mail marketing and web analytics reporting. We cater to a growing list of national clients including large online retailers, financial service providers and an array of smaller businesses in various fields.
NOTE: Strong writing skills are the most important facet of this position. All else can be taught as necessary.
The right person for this job will be flexible and willing to wear several different hats in any given week. Tasks will vary, and specific training must be adhered to. We are a young company so there is ample room for growth for the right person,
Our ideal candidate will possess some of the following skills:
– A solid understanding of HTML and a basic understanding of CSS
– Experience working in various content management system environments such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc…
– Basic design and layout skills in Photoshop and Dreamweaver
– A basic understanding of MS Excel is a plus.
– A basic understanding of PHP is a plus.
The candidate that we hire will possess all of the following:
– Strong writing skills. This is a must.
– Strong verbal and written communication skills.
– Eagerness to learn and take tasks as they come.
– Reliability.
There is an error somewhere in this posting, can you find it?
We are looking for an enthusiastic individual who is eager to learn the ins and outs of our online marketing programs including SEO, PPC ad management, e-mail marketing and web analytics reporting. We cater to a growing list of national clients including large online retailers, financial service providers and an array of smaller businesses in various fields.
NOTE: Strong writing skills are the most important facet of this position. All else can be taught as necessary.
The right person for this job will be flexible and willing to wear several different hats in any given week. Tasks will vary, and specific training must be adhered to. We are a young company so there is ample room for growth for the right person,
Our ideal candidate will possess some of the following skills:
– A solid understanding of HTML and a basic understanding of CSS
– Experience working in various content management system environments such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc…
– Basic design and layout skills in Photoshop and Dreamweaver
– A basic understanding of MS Excel is a plus.
– A basic understanding of PHP is a plus.
The candidate that we hire will possess all of the following:
– Strong writing skills. This is a must.
– Strong verbal and written communication skills.
– Eagerness to learn and take tasks as they come.
– Reliability.
I opened a new little headphone store recently (www.ambientsounds.moonfruit.com) , but sales haven’t really taken off, people have been going to the site in November alone 200 site visits alone but sales haven’t taken off, if possible could you check out the site and give some constructive criticism and also say if you think it could succeed if no, please state why not, if yes please state why 🙂
Thanks.
Hello All,
I am Marry From Vancouver.I have small export – import business in Vancouver.Anyone suggest SEO company who sells my products online.
Thnaks in Advacne…..
PPC = Pay Per Click campaign management in Google and Yahoo search engines.
SEO = Search Engine Optimization
I’m living in the chicago area for now, but willing to relocate. If anyone knows about any jobs please let me know so the i can apply. Some area that really catches my attention are consulting and marketing. But willing to try anything as long as it’s dealing with e-businesscommerce
I would like to set up my own portal to view performance data of my clients adwords campaign from a single platform. I’m not too familiar with Google API’s so nothing to technical and the more detail the better.
Thanks in advance for the help guys.
Okay so i just started a business with Prepaid Legal Services Inc. and i’m trying to find out ways to advertise online, like on google, yahoo and etc. but how can i do it? Is there a service from google were you pay them money and they bring you like 1000 people to check it out? any ideas out there on how to advertise and get people to check out the services from Prepaid Legal?
Heres my website.. check it out… thanks…
https://www.prepaidlegal.com/Multisite/Multisite?site=hub&assoc=rodolfovargas
I’ve read that most companies do their PPC/CPC management in-house and do not neccessarily out source it. This was in the SEMP report that stated 87% of companies below and above 500 employees will do their marketing in house.
My specific question is, the report does not state specific employees numbers and only states “below 500” for one metric. Are there companies out there that will want their bids managed that have about 50 employees? Ones that cannot afford their in-house experts?
What is meaning of SEO data?
I’ve opened an ecommerce store ( http://www.zazzle.com/scifunk ) and I’m looking for an affordable PPC service that delivers real results and has a good conversion rate. If anyone has worked with jumpfly.com before and can share some positive feedback or can recommend a better service please let me know. Thank you.
specifically, if I have hundreds of keywords I’m buying with variations on creative and PPC, using Yahoo’s or Google’s interface is extremely cumbersome. Is there an “off-the-shelf” database management product that links into Yahoo and/or Google?
I will be using Adwords to promote our catering business. We don’t currently have a website, but will utilize the “business page” that Google Adwords supplies. Do you think this is sufficient if the copywriting is good to get customers to call our deli? Do you have any suggestions on what we can add to the business page? It looks so plain. Thank you for your help.
I am looking for an easy to use and set up, full functioned, Affiliate Management Software program. Please only recommend if you have personal experience and positive results.
I’m having problems using pay per click (PPC), mainly Google Adwords, since it is now just sooo expensive that it makes it not worthwhile to even be in business.
Does anyone know any way that I can either cut my PPC costs, or increase the number of people who buy – I guess mainly I want to make some profit again, so I guess the main thing is cutting the costs, although more turnover for the same spend would I guess be the same thing.
Are there any good websites, tips, courses, books, etc that can help – or can any of you help please? I’m up against it and desperately need help.
Thanks,
Jan
I’m on blogger.com
Does anyone have direct experience of these?
Or can anyone provide some comparable experiences of these tools?
hello friend…if u have any ideas how to increase the website search result…I heart seo is the best way to get optimize your website ranking as well help your site to generate my traffic from one to the best search result site like google,yahoo & msn. please help me to get how seo work & what are imp tools are use while optimizing site
Hello friends………I want to become a SEO professional. But i am unable to get the grip over this. I am unable to decide what i have to learn and how i can learn to become a better SEO professional. Meta tags preparation, Blogs, Directory submissions……only these are SEO topics are there anything left.Plzzz guide me. Can anyone suggest what are the things i have to learn about to become a professional in SEO
I’m looking into getting a pay per click management company to manage my Adwords account. My question is, what is the normal monthly management fee that I should expect to pay? I currently have 280 or so keywords spread across several campaigns.
Thanks.
Hello
I’ve joined a company that is using a management company to manage their adword campaigns. We seem to be paying for clicks that are not leading to conversions and I’m trying to slim it down to the best ones for us to use. It would seem logical to me to look at the Analytics for the last x number of months, see what keywords have given the best conversions, keep them and dump the ones that have lead to clicks but no conversions – but maybe keep those that have lead to a long time on the site.
Is this a reasonable strategy or am I missing something here?
Thank you in advance for any help.
How do web hosting companies offer Google AdWords Credits? Do they affiliate with Google?
Please provide me details about the PPC Management Program you use. What the average conversion rate/campaign you generally enjoy?
I asked the same question a few days back, I regret to say, I didn’t got the accurate answer. Probably I failed to present my question.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AuoNo0vdpCTd7zHI0rUgXlLsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080202075958AADQXxz
Shall you help me out?
I personally think payment based on sale amount is more scientific. Any idea?
I want to start a sampaign in Google Adwords.I never work on Adwords.I need to know how to get high CTR with low cost.
Sorry not sampaign.Campaign
Google Adsense is No.1 High Paying Affiliate program on Internet. People from India more interest in joining Google Adsense than other countries why? to some extent US people. Other countries people why not showing that much of interest in joining adsense program.
Hi, I am an affiliate marketer/blogger. I don’t have much experience on PPC management programs.
I would like to request your exprert review on the best PPC Management program which provide best service with minimum Click Frauds and highest Return On Investment.
Last time I used an PPC program, which yielded only 1.35%. I expected more, as I used highly targeted keyphrases. I was confident of at least 12% plus conversion. However, I would like to minimise the risk to my purse next time. So, please share your best knowledge/experience, so that I can improve next time.
However, I got a review on PPC management program in the link given below, but I am not confirmed and puzzled among so much choices.
http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com/directory/free-ppc-traffic-bonus-deals/
Among all the choices, I found 1seconds.com as the best choice with minimum bid rate. Anybody have experiences with 1second.com?
Wishing your quick review and kind suggestion –
I want to thank you all for answering and guiding me…
To be honest, I am not satisfied with the answers provided. I wanted to know something else.
As you know, there are lots of PPC Management Programs in the net,
which one is the best or cost effective with clickfraud rate taking into account? Which PPC program you used and you are satisfied with? Please explain your experience, if possible…
With sincere regards-
What is the best Pay Per Click Management Tool.
( Hopefully Free )
I am trying to set a huge number of Highly Target Keywords
on Adwords, Ask & Yahoo
The ability to manage ads perhaps backing up uploading with excel would be ideal. Creating ads with the sysytem?
Am I just dreaming? I can upload a system to my website. Which I think would be ideal if it ran off of mysql or something.
Thanks in advance.
What is the best SEO SEM PPC Management Search engine optimization firm on the internet ?
Please list the top 10 companies that do business development web2.0 marketing, website advertising, e-mail marketing, graphic design, web design and online and offline branding? Please incluse strategy partnerships, blogs, link sharing, affiliate marketing, list services, print coordination, and white hat SEO. You can also include SEO copywriting and print and insert media.
Thank you very much!
My company spends about $25K per month on advertising, mostly on Google, but wants to double that in the next 3-5 months. We’re also considering advertising on Yahoo! and Bing. Any products to recommend?
Please reply me in detail about SEO ?
What is work of seo etc…………..
I am looking for some adice on ppc mangement. Is it best to have 100 keywrod phrases or more like 20? I am a local company looking for the best RIO and cost effective management
If so, did you have positive results? Any tips or suggestions?
Can anyone suggest me a good SEO service provider for my new website?
Hi there,
Next year I want to start an only bussiness selling HD Stock footage. It would be priced at AU$150 a clip (about 10 seconds).
To some this may seem a lot, but if you look around, most clips are even more than that for less than 10 seconds.
So what do you think, how much can I expect to make?
Where should I advertise it, should I be paying for something such as adsense?
Thanks,
Jared
I need a PPC team that can help earn more revenue. I’m on a tight budget but need traffic and sales to pick up. Any suggestions?
Im looking for Affordable Search Engine Optimization SEO Philippines?
Cheapest Web Marketing, Promotion, SEO, Internet Marketer?
Does anyone know a website where i could create a free website with my own web address name like (www.something.com) Not freewebs.com becuse they do not let you personalize your web address for free!
Launching a new company and would like my site to hit in the top 10 at least in Google. Trying to get some info and see if there’s a key term.
Assume you have a new web sit regarding content on-line business things and you are a recruiting of e-commerce. how would you developing market?
Have you ever used PPC search engine?
Can you fill me in on the best places to park my websites and make almost all the ppc monies? Thanks
(Pay Per Click)
JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION AND STOP SPAMMING ME
I have experience with Yahoo! Search Marketing, Google Adwords, MSN AdCenter and many 2nd Tier Engines. I’d like to start consulting but don’t know where to begin. What do I charge for my services?
Who are using SEO?
Can you really make money off of google adwords or a different type of ad promotion? I wouldn’t quit my day job to do this, but extra cash wouldn’t hurt, so there is a lot of buzz about making money off of adword and other ad promotions, I’m wondering if it really worth the time spent.
I am trying to get my website on Yahoo and Google, anyone know any good SEO products?
Has anyone used http://www.10SEO.com for SEO?
If I use high paying adsense keywords, I get high amounts per click but no traffic. If I use low paying adsense keywords, I get high traffic but not much in click amounts. What to do?