S.E.O. or Pay Per Click?…

By Jamie Holt | July 19, 2008 .

Search Engine optimisation and free methods of marketing?…. or Pay Per Click?

This is a question that is often answered by personal circumstances and available funds for n00b marketers. And although I say free methods, we know that free is only in terms of cash.. free methods require that you switch time for money…like the dreaded J-O-B.

Now… I have to say that I would always advise any marketer to at least look into Pay Per Click. Not necessarily to use it intensively…but to get your head around it and the whole process. I do thousands of pounds a month in Pay Per Click traffic, so it pays that I know what to do, and whilst I make more money from optimised sites and platforms… PPC plays heavily on my business.

But above all else, if you have limited funds…I would say go for S.E.O and then get into positive cashflow first, then use that profit for investment into PPC. I wouldn’t advise going right into PPC.. you should look at Perry Marshall’s guide..it’s called the definitive guide to Google Adwords, or take a look at Beating Adwords… I wouldn’t say either one is better. Both of those guide’s have enough in them for you to learn in detail about PPC and save you losing your shirt.

And this being my favoured plan… using the free methods first only to re-invest later. It’s how I got started.. I learned S.E.O. first…even though I had capital for adwords, I knew that search engine optimisation would benefit me, so I set out to learn and test the search engine’s in depth.

Trial and error always wins IMO. You can’t beat testing new idea’s, strategies and plans and then tracking what goes on.. what results you get etc etc.

If you have capital, then for sure you can go right into PPC and providing you know what you are doing, you may never need to learn any SEO.. but from my point of view, knowing how to optimise a website will do you well even in Pay Per Click… you will get better quality score’s, meaning cheaper clicks and better positioning in the sponsored results.

Profit –> Invest a %age –> Profit –> Invest a %age