Why Organic? Why not Just Use Adwords to Generate Leads?

SEO can seem daunting when you're the decision maker.

For a results driven business owner, someone who has salaries to pay and a company to run, getting to grips with the internet is a mind boggling experience, which is why Google Adwords makes sense.

You get a click and you pay for a click. A percentage of those clicks result in a ringing telephone or an email enquiry.

These, are tangible results. As a business owner, you can work with those odds. You can turn a ringing telephone or an email enquiry into a paid invoice.

However none of this explains how or why there are websites that appear just underneath Googles Adverts? How did those websites get there. Did they bribe someone? Are their website developers part of some secret internet community that controls the internet?

Unfortunately bribery and secret societies are not the answer. If it were then at least we could understand it and do something about it.

The answer is a lot more simple. Those websites provide the answers that your customer is looking for and yours does not.... according to Google.

That might be hard to agree with, or you might feel that that those companies do not deserve to be in the top spots, on the flip side, you could be of the opinion that they belong in the top spots and that you do not.

None of this would be true by the way!

There’s a Lot that goes into Ranking Organically

Search Engine Optimization boils down to a few key ingredients, all of which could be summed up by Research, Communication and Time with a bit of Coding thrown in for good measure.

The key ingredient is always your website. A well built website will support and benefit from other marketing activities. Gaining rankings whilst bringing acceptance and understanding of your company to your target market.

Despite years of advertising to the contrary, SEO is not something you can walk into a shop and buy.

Unlike a car, where you've bought it and everyone can see it. SEO doesn’t always amount to the same things for everyone.

For example buying an SEO package for your website is going to get different results to the chap whose factory is next door.

Yes there will be similarities. Like leads will increase. But yours might increase by 100 and his by a 1000.

It all depends on you, your business and your existing online market share.

Google Adwords

Google Adwords on the other hand are a much less complicated matter.

You pay X amount and you get X returns. Meaning depending on how you're asking people to contact you. You'll get a certain number of views, and some of those views will convert into a telephone call or a click through to your site.

From the click through’s a certain number of those will fill out your enquiry form or get your number and call you.

With Google Adwords you 'KNOW' you are being seen X number of times no fail, because you’re paying for it. With ranking organically you're moving your way slowly up the rankings.

Comparing the Costs

With google Adwords you pay a premium for every time you're seen.

But its spread out in manageable payments.

You quickly get to the stage where you can work out that for every $100 you spend you can expect X number of enquiries and of those you're likely to get X number of sales.

Adwords are predicable. Accountants like predictable. Predictable is the kind of thing you can budget for.

Search Engine Optimisation on the other hand costs in the beginning before there are any results.

You're paying for someone to 'in some cases' completely transform your online market share.

They’re doing this and they’re doing that and you're just sitting there paying. Its a big leap of faith, and something your accountant is going to be sure to have a talk with you about.

But unlike Adwords SEO is the gift that keeps on giving! You could literally dominate the online market for years without investing another cent.

In a situation like that SEO delivers the same results as a capital expense. You buy it once and it works for years.

With AdWords, you buy it, it works for only as long as you pay for it. You stop paying and it disappears. Or rather you disappear from the market.

How Long Does SEO Take

You're probably thinking okay, I need to do Search Engine Optimization but how much does it cost.

If you're thinking 'how little can I get away with' then you’re already on the wrong track.

The bulk of SEO gets done in the beginning. Most of it is the time spent on research.

From there goals are set and then various things start changing online. The amount of time spent on this research is key. It's what defines the direction that your developer is going to take.

The less time spent doing that, the higher the risk of poor results. Moving on from minimal research time you have minimal SEO time, which most of the time also results in, you guessed it, poor results.

Win Win Solution

Probably the most affordable way to achieve SEO for someone just starting out is to employ a developer for a set number of hours on a monthly basis. It's not bells and whistles results, but it does get you there eventually.

When is it a Good Time to Stop SEO

Any time that you feel you have as much business as you can deal with is a good time to stop SEO.

That gives your competitors time to figure out how to displace you.

And when they do, you'll be so focussed on figuring out how to handle the dip income it will probably be a while before you remember.

That behind your success was something you paid that guy or gal for, years ago called SEO.

Hopefully that clears it up, and in case you missed it, the real answer is there is never a good time to stop SEO.