Using Search Engine Marketing: A Practical Approach to the SEO or PPC Question

It is common knowledge that search engines like Google and Microsoft’s Bing have the ability to generate significant website traffic.  That ability makes the effective use of search engines a critical part of your online strategy.  This is the realm of Search Engine Marketing.  Just how to maximize search engines for websites, however, is a subject of much confusion and debate.  Do you focus on building organic traffic by optimizing your website, or invest in a pay-per-click campaign to buy your way to the top of the search listings?  This white paper proposes a common-sense, inclusive approach designed to provide maximum exposure on your investment.

Before we proceed into the details of this approach, let’s review a few key search engine concepts.

Organic Listings vs Paid Listings
When a user submits a search query to an engine, the resulting page is known as the Search Engine Results Page (or SERP).  The SERP page on major search engines currently includes both free (organic) and paid results.  The image at the left shows an example SERP page from Google to illustrate the difference between the two. 

Organic (free) results appear in the green area (labeled “A”).  Search engines are secretive about their result ranking algorithms, and constantly tweak those algorithms in an attempt to deliver the most relevant results to users.  Because this is the primary service that they provide, their first priority is to provide users with the most accurate, appropriate results on the SERP.  Otherwise, their site visitors will begin to take their searches elsewhere. 

Paid results appear in the yellow areas at the top and right (labeled “B”) of the chart.  Google always identifies these with the header term, “Sponsored Links”.  Only very high-performing paid results are given the prime location across the top.  This location cannot be purchased – it can only be achieved through performance (i.e., a high percentage of Google users click on these ads).  Most frequently, paid results appear in the right hand column.  When a user’s search phrase matches keywords identified by the advertiser, the corresponding ads are shown on the SERP page.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Building a High Ranking from the Ground Up

The process of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is meant to achieve high organic search engine rankings for identified target search phrases. Targeting the correct phrases is critical.  A good SEO will guide the process of identifying appropriate target phrases.

Early digital marketers could quickly increase a site’s SEO performance by embedding dozens of target phrases in the hidden metatags of each page’s HTML code.  Because it was so easy to attempt to draw high rankings on even unrelated search phrases, search engines decided to ignore the tags.  Getting the search engines to take note of a site today is not such a simple process.

With targeted phrases identified, the SEO process requires analysis of most aspects of a website.  Elements considered could include page text and layout, file names, proper use of graphics and Flash, and hosting issues.  Any or all of these elements many need to be adjusted to maximize the site’s search engine performance.  Additional pages of content will likely be required, and external links from quality sources will be solicited.  All of this is done to make specific pages more appealing to the search engines, so that they will in turn boost your rank. 

Some factors that play into your search engine ranking are beyond your control.  For example, if you have a relatively new website, this will count against you.  If your site has experienced any significant downtimes in the past, this will count against you as well. 

Further, search engines do not react to your changes instantaneously.  SEO changes do not result in major overnight jumps in search result page position (page rank).  Such overnight improvements are often more the result of a change in how the search engine actually calculates page rank.  Instead, page rank of a properly SEO’d site will typically float upwards over the course of months as the search engines take note and the site continues to receive SEO attention. 

As you optimize your website, your most savvy competitors are probably doing the same thing.  It may be a relatively easy task to achieve a page rank above competitors with weaker websites.  But there are others already above you who are also improving their sites, and still others behind you with the goal of moving past you.

Going Local and Beyond
Businesses that provide products or services on a local level must also address “local search” considerations on search engines.  Will your potential customer see you (or perhaps your competitor) first on the map when they google your business type and city? 

Search engines, in their quest to provide ever-more-valuable content, have expanded beyond their traditional text SERP listings.  From Google maps on SERP pages to using the GPS capabilities of your cell phone to provide hyper-local content, SEO can be as integral to a local business’ online strategy as effective placement in the Yellow Pages may have been twenty years ago.

Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising:  Buying Your Way To The Top

Pay for Performance
Unlike many other ad formats, search engine advertising typically operates on a pay-for-success (or pay-per-click, “PPC”) model.  In other words, an advertiser only pays for an ad if the ad is shown and the viewer then clicks on it to visit the advertiser’s landing page (a customized page where visitors are sent after clicking on a PPC ad).  So PPC advertisers and search engines are essentially in a partnership.  If the search engine can’t deliver people to your website for a price you’re willing to pay, they’ll make no money.  And over the long run, if they make no money, they start looking for other ads, and other advertisers, to fill that underperforming spot. 

While search engines do not charge for ads that don’t generate clicks, poorly performing keywords are penalized with lower positions, higher cost, or even suspension.  It is normal for strong ads to achieve a high SERP position at a lower price – sometimes far lower - than ads that fall below it.  This relationship between ad quality and pricing emphasizes the importance of properly identifying strong keywords in a PPC campaign.

Just as SEO requires the proper identification of search phrases to achieve maximum effect, PPC requires proper selection of keywords.  A retailer of children’s soccer shoes who selects the keyword “shoes” will fight for placement with many other companies selling many other types of shoes.  On the other hand, targeting “boy’s red and black soccer shoes in extra-wide widths” will likely be far too specific to generate traffic.

Keywords, ad copy, the information on your website’s landing page, maximum bid, and the frequency with which the keyword generates a click on your ad all factor into the bidding process.  These must all be watched and adjusted on an ongoing basis in order to maximize the PPC campaign investment.

Immediate Results
An inherent benefit of PPC advertising is immediacy.  It is possible for an ad to be developed, launched, and begin to deliver website traffic in a single day.  Whether your site is ten years old or one week old, a PPC campaign has the ability to effectively deliver traffic fast.

Exposure Beyond the Search Engine
PPC advertising does not start and stop at the search engine website.  Many search engines give you the choice to display your ad on other sites that have opted into their affiliate networks.  Google’s network of affiliate sites is called the Google Content Network.  Google identifies content providers (including newspapers and industry websites and blogs) with content that aligns with your keywords, placing your ads on those sites.  Many advertisers actually receive more clicks from the Google Content Network than from Google’s search pages themselves.   This is a great advantage of participating in a PPC campaign, as these networks proactively place ads in front of users who will likely be interested in an offering, instead of simply reactively feeding ads to search users who have directly expressed a specific interest.

Two Paths, One Goal

Driving Conversions
In the online world, a conversion can be defined as a success.  The most obvious conversion “success” would be a sale.  But for your online campaigns, your business may have a very different definition of conversion.  It could be that your product or service does not lend itself to an instant online purchase.  If so, a conversion might instead be considered a contact (via email, response form, or even phone).  It could be that you want people to sign up to receive your emails, or to become a Facebook “fan” of your business.   Or maybe you intend for people to print out a coupon and use it when they purchase your product at the store.  In any case, the conversion is the goal.  Given this, it’s important to identify what conversions you are going to measure, the value of those conversions (as much as possible), as well as the related costs.

The Tortoise and the Hare 
It’s not a perfect analogy, but comparing SEO vs PPC is a bit like comparing the tortoise and the hare.  Investing in PPC can deliver instant results for your campaign, driving sales today.  It can also create an increased awareness.  Even when an ad isn’t clicked, the fact that it was displayed means there’s a good chance that it was noticed.  But a PPC campaign stops sending new traffic to your website the moment the PPC campaign’s ads stop running.

In contrast, an SEO campaign doesn’t deliver instantly.  It can take months – sometimes many months – for a website to float to the top after an SEO process has begun.  But the results of today’s successful SEO efforts will continue to drive new visitors to your site for an extended time.  And, with an ongoing SEO program, you’ll be more likely to keep it there.

Not One-Time Projects
Success in any endeavor generally requires constant attention and work. PPC and SEO campaigns are no different.  Both PPC and SEO are processes, not one-time functions.  Initial planning and implementation is done, and then an ongoing process of monitoring, analysis and adjustment begins.