Despite a long and successful history, search engine optimisation still has many detractors. Many businesses see the results of paid advertising and compare them unfavourably to SEO. This is a mistake, because really the businesses are comparing two different things.

The difference between SEO and other types of marketing isn’t just apples and oranges. It’s more like a processed tin of apples compared to an apple tree. Regular marketing is designed to gain immediate and measurable results. You can open the can and eat the apples immediately. SEO, however, has to be planted and cared for, and after time the results will grow. The former aims to achieve one set of results, while the latter achieves continuing results over time.

Marketing for short-term results

What traditional marketing achieves is of immense value to a business in the short term. Paid advertising can temporarily increase the flow of traffic to your site when you need it. Often, companies launch a pay-per-click or similar advertising campaign at the start of their SEO implementation to give their site a boost. Paid advertising is also handy for seasonal periods. When it comes to internet presence, however, few companies can afford the continuous cost that an advertising campaign would require. Companies need their website to do some marketing for itself. This is where search engine optimisation comes in.

Why use SEO?

SEO has a completely different effect to paid advertising. Search engine optimisation primes your website for the search engines, to ensure that it is as far up in the results pages as possible for your industry’s popular keywords.

Many companies invest in their site’s SEO because it yields results over a long period of time. SEO also tends to be a lot more budget-friendly than a paid advertising campaign. With proper maintenance, your SEO plan can produce results for years. ‘Maintenance’ is the key word here. Search strategies do change over time and your site’s SEO plan needs to adjust to these changes. It can be a good idea to keep in touch with your SEO firm for site maintenance. You can talk to us at SEO Consult about long-term SEO.

Common misunderstandings

Putting SEO and marketing into the same sentence is really an injustice to both. While SEO is related to marketing, it’s more closely related to general brand awareness than marketing campaigns. Associating SEO with marketing gives rise to some very common misunderstandings. Most of these surround the long-term nature of SEO, and the fact that it will not produce measurable results for weeks or months depending on conditions. Having a realistic schedule for your SEO campaign can help.

SEO and advertising – it’s not a competition

The mistake many companies initially make when deciding their online strategy is to place SEO in competition with paid advertising. To go back to our earlier comparison, this is like berating an apple tree because you can’t put it in a pie. It is better to view your SEO as something that will help your site, and your business, to grow.

Get Involved