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Question, and seo is not my field of expertise at all. Doesn't it seem odd that an seo consultant says to pay for search result ads? In my mind, the point of s

Question, and seo is not my field of expertise at all. Doesn't it seem odd that an seo consultant says to pay for search result ads? In my mind, the point of seo is not to pay "per click". You may pay for a great article to be written, and pay for it to be on a site, which is fair to me. But I then expect it to be noticed because of it's own merits, quality of writing and quality of "publisher". If you also have to pay for an ad for it, why bother with the publisher or even "seo quality" writing? Just write quality while ignoring seo tactics, put it on your own domain and pay for the ad yourself. Again, I'm no expert and I have no skin in this game. Anyones two cents? Especially if you own an ecommerce site of some sort.

toast0 7y ago
If you're paying an SEO consultant, you are probably wanting more traffic, SEM is going to get you more traffic, possibly at higher cost, but also in a much easier to count way. Way back when, I worked at a travel information site that put a lot of effort into SEO and SEM. For SEO, it was mostly trying to make sure important terms showed up on the page importantly, and making sure our internal linking was using useful links, and some light link exchange with quality sites. We were never able to pinpoint any changes with results, though. SEM was pretty much pure arbitrage -- find the pages that make the most $/pageview, find keywords that are relevant, bid so we make whatever margin the corporate overlords require. This was all easy to track and very actionable -- if keywords did well, increase the spend, if not, turn it down. We presumably got some non-trackable benefits from exposure, assuming some people who clicked through our pages would come back and use our site some more later.
nickserv 7y ago
I'm not an expert but have worked with some, developing seo tools. What I've seen is that Google or FB ads are used by big clients that can afford it as a quick and easy way to get visits. An seo 'expert' whose main recommendation is to get Google ads is no expert at all. They can be part of a marketing campaign but are by no means the most cost effective way to getting good rankings, and users are more likely to click on organic search results than ads.
schachin 7y ago
Users perceive a brand to have more authority if it ranks on page 1 at the top with an ad. That being said that is a rare thing for an SEO to recommend and I think he might be saying that Ads help you rank -- which is a complete untruth. Ads CANNOT help you rank.
alvah 7y ago
SEO can take months to move the needle, especially on a new domain. If the client needs results faster than this, the standard advice seems to be PPC & SEO for the first 6 months, then reduce / eliminate PPC as the organic traffic & conversions from the SEO campaigns increase to the desired amount.

toast0 7y ago

If you're paying an SEO consultant, you are probably wanting more traffic, SEM is going to get you more traffic, possibly at higher cost, but also in a much easier to count way. Way back when, I worked at a travel information site that put a lot of effort into SEO and SEM. For SEO, it was mostly trying to make sure important terms showed up on the page importantly, and making sure our internal linking was using useful links, and some light link exchange with quality sites. We were never able to pinpoint any changes with results, though. SEM was pretty much pure arbitrage -- find the pages that make the most $/pageview, find keywords that are relevant, bid so we make whatever margin the corporate overlords require. This was all easy to track and very actionable -- if keywords did well, increase the spend, if not, turn it down. We presumably got some non-trackable benefits from exposure, assuming some people who clicked through our pages would come back and use our site some more later.

nickserv 7y ago

I'm not an expert but have worked with some, developing seo tools. What I've seen is that Google or FB ads are used by big clients that can afford it as a quick and easy way to get visits. An seo 'expert' whose main recommendation is to get Google ads is no expert at all. They can be part of a marketing campaign but are by no means the most cost effective way to getting good rankings, and users are more likely to click on organic search results than ads.

schachin 7y ago

Users perceive a brand to have more authority if it ranks on page 1 at the top with an ad. That being said that is a rare thing for an SEO to recommend and I think he might be saying that Ads help you rank -- which is a complete untruth. Ads CANNOT help you rank.

alvah 7y ago

SEO can take months to move the needle, especially on a new domain. If the client needs results faster than this, the standard advice seems to be PPC & SEO for the first 6 months, then reduce / eliminate PPC as the organic traffic & conversions from the SEO campaigns increase to the desired amount.