Introduction
The scenario is you have created a website for your business. The business has just launched; it is small, humble, and does not have a huge marketing budget. Nevertheless, the website needs to be marketed to attract leads and increase sales. You may ask, what is the best, most affordable way to market a website at this stage? There are numerous ways to promote and market, and it’s hard to know which method is the best for your website when considering a small budget.
Your Options to Market
If you have a small budget, the business has just started, or you feel as if you’re lost in a digital marketing maze, the place to start is to consider the following:
- Search Engine Optimisation or SEO
- Pay Per Click or PPC
- Social Media Marketing
- Email Marketing
Search Engine Optimisation Takes a While
If you know what Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is, you know it’s crucial for your business and your website; if you don’t know much about SEO, then read our blog here discussing SEO and its essential business websites.
In short, SEO increases your website’s organic ranking, launching it on its journey to page 1 of Google. But this cannot happen over a night, even with a limitless budget. It takes months to years to reach page 1 of Google, depending on the competitiveness of the keywords you are targeting. Some of SEO drawbacks or cons are:
– SEO takes months and sometimes years before it generates revenue
– SEO is expensive
– A few digital marketers and SEO specialists are not transparent as to what it is exactly they are doing on your website
SEO Does Not Work Immediately
SEO needs constant review, analysis and work efforts for a website to increase its ranking. This means the Return on Investment (ROI) for SEO needs to be viewed in terms of months and years. ,If you invest in SEO for your website don’t expect to see magical results in the first few months. According to Morningscore, SEOs specialists uniformly agree it takes at least 6 to 12 months to see SEO results.
So, if you plan to start a an SEO campaign for your website, be patient and expect results between months 6 and 12 for at least 6 to 12. In a few instances, increased organic traffic results can be seen sooner but expect a wait.
SEO is Expensive
An effective SEO campaign can cost anything between $400 to $1500 a month. Although it’s not as expensive as some other types of advertising, SEO is not cheap. This is partly because no instant ROI like pay-per-click advertising (discussed below) and partly because the optimisation in SEO takes many hours. SEO specialists must:
– Meticulously find and analyse keywords:
– Strategically place those keywords in a website to ensure Google’s algorithm associates a website with the targeted topic:
– Advice on content:
– Produce content; and
– Rinse and repeat the same to ensure the website maintains its high Google ranking.
SEO Agencies Lack Transparency
There is a shroud of secrecy, vagueness and ambiguity covering digital marketing Some SEO and digital marketing agencies in general . A large part of this is there is little reasonable faith effort made by digital marketing agencies to keep clients informed of what they have done when that monthly invoice is sent out. Clients received an expensive invoice in most instances, with the only narration being “for SEO and Google Ads campaign”.
To avoid being in this uncomfortable and expensive position, choose a digital/SEO team that is transparent. Moreover, state your Key Performance Indicators or KPI before engaging a digital marketing agency. Suppose the goals set in the KPI are unreasonable or unreachable. In that case, your digital marketing team should point it out, evoke a discussion resulting in a realistic KPI which will hold your digital marketing team accountable.
SEO Pros
What’s the upside of SEO? In short, once your website gains a top position, it will be hard to dethrone the site. This equates to a whole of organic traffic goody! The cost of SEO maintenance also exponentially drops over time, perhaps less than Google Ads costs.
SEO’s Return on Investment
The ROI of SEO increases significantly over time, perhaps after six months. Why may you ask? SEO is a method of communicating a website’s relevance to Google’s algorithm about keywords. Google crawlers take time to index and analyse a website and prioritise other competing sites. Every website wants to be in Google’s top 3 pages because that’s where 90% of traffic and clicks happen.
SEO gets cheaper over time
If your SEO budget is spent correctly and you have hired a transparent digital marketing agency, your website’s SEO costs decrease the more prolonged the SEO campaign is running. For example, if your SEO specialist spends 30 hours on your website’s SEO this month, the next month, they will only need to spend about 25 hours. These hours matter because you’re paying by the hour.
PPC Drawbacks
Pay-Per-Click or PPCs like Google Ads is a great way to increase your website’s traffic from day 1. However, be mindful of a few drawbacks to PPC.
Only Temporary
PPC or Google Ads only lasts while you pay. In essence, you pay to be on page 1 of Google in the Ads section. You pay for every click your website receives in the Ads section. If / when you stop paying, your website disappears from the Ad section, and the only place left for it to be discovered is the organic section with whatever position it has.
High Management Fees
Agencies charge a management fee to run your Google Ads campaign. We charge 30%, and most of the competition charges 40%. Either figure is not cheap. But in most instances, you need a digital marketing agency to reduce the cost per click for an overall efficient and cost-effective Google Ads campaign.
PPC Pros
PPC is a tested, and tried advertising tool which brings traffic to websites. It can deliver a relatively quick return on investment, boost sales and bring new traffic to a site.
Fast return on investment
PPC doesn’t require a lot of time to set up. If you use a competent Digital Marketing or Ads Management agency, you can expect your ads to be shown at the top of page 1 of Google from day 1.
Checks the Sales Funnel
The sales funnel consists of brand awareness, remarketing, and conversion. PPC applies to all stages of the sales funnel. It’s used to advertise a website for brand awareness, engage audiences who have visited your online platforms before, and a portion of that traffic into sales. Therefore, you can appear in front of your target audience at each sales funnel stage.
Transparent
PPC is transparent. You pay based on the clicks your site receive plus the agency fee. The data-driven from PPC is transparent and very easy to understand. It shows the clicks your site has received to date, impressions, click-through rates and conversions.
Conclusion
SEO and PPC are at their best for small growing businesses when used together. PPC is used to attract traffic, brand awareness leads and sales from day one, while SEO is a long term strategy ensuring that the gains made from PPC last long after the PPC campaign ends.
PPC is your best bet for generating revenue from your Ad campaign quickly. SEO takes time and must simmer. Once it gains traction, revenue generated from SEO is free of any pay per click fees.
