“SEO Isn’t Dead!”
Looking at the triumphant little headline on yet another search marketing blog, all I could do was sigh and think No kidding.

Are we seriously having this conversation yet again, so soon? Really? Weren’t bloggers predicting the death of SEO back when Google first unleashed the Panda algo update? Doesn’t the same death knell sound every time someone at Mountain View sneezes? It’s amazing we SEOs get anything done considering our industry is continually either dying, pronounced dead or recovering from the shock of its latest near-death experience. It seems like some would have us believe SEO is a frail, ailing industry that must be rescued from death’s door and revived time after time. And it’s simply not true. While certain strategies are sure to evolve over the years, and some black hat practices may die out altogether, it should go without saying that SEO as an industry is in no way faced with a mortal danger.

The SES Conference is coming to the Big Apple next week. From March 19th to March 23rd the conference will captivate SEO and experts from around the globe. The problem for many small businesses is that they struggle to find the time and/or the money to better understand and utilise search engine strategies (SES). By following this conference or reading highlights and summaries of the goings on, one can really gain insight into the current best practices of this exciting and ever-developing industry. What an SES conference aims to do is pool the knowledge of various authorities in the field into one region where they can exchange ideas and comment on new developments in the world of media and engine marketing.

The New York SES conference is sure to be a hub of industry enthusiasts and the event covers everything from social media and paid search to SEO and integrated marketing. The conference consists of about seventy sessions and close on one hundred exhibitors as well as a multitude of like-minded individuals with a passion for with SES. It’s not all business though, as there are also plenty of opportunities to network at the variety of after-parties throughout the week.

Obviously companies have been carrying out competitor analysis reports on their competitors since the beginning of business, but I get the feeling that this particular practice is becoming more important in the SEO industry and will continue to grow in importance in the next few years. Why?

When SEO first came into practice, there were simple ways of manipulating search engines and getting good rankings for your clients. Content farms, keyword spamming and some very dubious methods of ‘spammy’ linkbuilding were all you needed in order to get traffic to your website. Search engines were initially caught off-guard and before they knew it, search results were being flooded with irrelevant and spammy results that were of no use to internet browsers.

Welcome to the final installation of my opinion on the ongoing debate of SEO vs. PPC.

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this 3 part series, I took a look at some of the individual benefits of SEO and PPC and how they compare to one another in terms of effectiveness. Today I’ll be taking a look at the outcome of this debate and drawing some conclusions from the benefits of each marketing method that we’ve identified in previous blog posts. Check it out…

So, who’s the winner?

Truth is there is no “winner” as such. SEO and PPC both have their individual benefits and are in essence two very different search marketing tools that can’t actually be compared to one another because they are just too dissimilar. The “winning” situation and strategy that all companies should really think about implementing is a balanced combination of the two strategies in order to take advantage of both of their individual strengths.

A Couple weeks ago I discussed the benefits of an effective SEO campaign and the long term benefits it has on a website’s traffic as well as the overall monetary value of a website. This week, we take a look at the advantages that an effective PPC campaign can bring to an online business or any type of website.

The Benefits of PPC – Pay Per Click – Paid Search Marketing:

PPC, an acronym for Pay Per Click, literally refers to advertising on search engines via display advertising that you only pay for once somebody actually clicks on one of your displayed ads. The cost of the click is determined by a bidding system whereby relevance to a search term combined with the amount bid on an advertisement determine when and where your ad will be displayed. I could go into much more detail regarding the calculation of the actual cost per click, but that’s for another blog post on another day.

I constantly stumble across people debating the benefits of SEO versus the benefits of an effective PPC campaign. Many PPC agencies will slag off SEO agencies and vice-versa, but the truth is that each of these strategies are good in the their own right and should almost not even be compared to one another because they are effectively different things; the difference being that organic SEO traffic is technically free and PPC traffic is well, pay per click.

I have decided to do a 3 part blog focusing on the Benefits of SEO, the Benefits of PPC and the Benefit of using both in cahoots with one another in order to form a well balanced, all-round online marketing strategy.

Today’s post takes a look at the benefits of SEO when compared to PPC. Next week we will take a look at PPC and conclude the week after that. I hope you’ll find it as interesting to read as I have found it interesting to write.

SEO is no longer just about getting to that number 1 spot in Google. Yes, ranking at number 1 is a great start, but these days thanks to the numerous changes to algos, social representation and the actual layout of Google’s first page, there is so much more to think about when analyzing your CTR from page 1.

In the past if you ranked at number 1, it was said that you would receive a CTR of 30% or more purely by outranking your competitors. Now however, we have so many other factors that come into play such as Google’s social search results, videos, shopping results and map listings that simply ranking at number 1 no longer guarantees the CTR that you might have been used to in the past.

I was recently presenting a case for SEO to a prospective client. I received some important feedback later from one of the other parties in the meeting. I knew it was a good meeting, however it only really found its legs when I started discussing the ROI.

The Question that we always need to ask ourselves is “How many new sales must the client make to cover the cost of this SEO work”. This is of course especially applicable for clients that are selling goods or services and where the primary goal is not brand promotion or reputation management.