In the latest press release distributed on BizCommunity, longtail eMarketing eluded to the fact that as a result of website owners wanting faster results and quicker return on their investments, they are looking at PPC and Banner Advertising rather than SEO when they want to market their website on the Web. Let’s look at some excerpts from the article with extra commentary on these.

When website owners consider ways to market their sites on the Web, the most common Search Marketing methods they choose are often Banner- or Pay-Per-Click Advertising. These methods allow advertisers to calculate the Return on Investment within a number of days after going live with their campaign. In addition to this, live tracking tools allow site owners to monitor Site Visitors, Cost per Conversion and Click-through Rates to their site with a click of a button.

I honestly think that this is not an entirely new trend but certainly one that has gained much momentum and will continue to gain even more. We find that people are finely tuned-in to see a ROI in much quicker time and with the help of various free online tools available to the Internet-savvy site owner, control is now in their hands. The sliding scale has tipped over from marketing companies telling/advising clients what to do to clients telling the marketing company exactly what they want (even adding instructions on how it must be done).

It is true that in a world where everything has become “instant”, there is a new reality that people do not have the patience to wait for results anymore. We have become used to and are expecting to see immediate results. This expectancy has shifted over to Online Advertising. Website owners not only want instant visitors by using the quickest methods possible, but they want to see results and conversions and they want to also track the effectiveness of their campaigns, all at the same time.

Like I mentioned, the weight has shifted, thus, from a Search Marketing perspective, digital companies now not only have to deal with a fast paced industry where the metrics are constantly changing, but they also have to meet the higher customer demand. Clients are expecting better results, higher relevancy, bigger profitability margins and increased performance, which I believe is something Search Marketing companies have adjusted to sufficiently to deliver quality results, not only to meet the needs of result driven clients, but to even exceed client expectation.

The key here is that Digital Companies should not fall back on trying to advise the clients on what to do, but to embrace the fact that clients mostly know what they want and to simply then provide a strategy that supports and improves the client objectives. Any company should be able to adjust if they are open-minded to change.

For this very reason, they seldom look at long-term solutions and never think of the value that copywrited content or optimized website pages offer them for the long term. Search Engine Optimisation is probably one of the least thought-of methods to use for online marketing.

However, it is a very effective, proven way of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Much more patience is required when doing SEO, but it will deliver the desired results.

As mentioned above, SEO is not only a proven Marketing method, but a very effective method to improve volume and quality of traffic to any website. Apart from patience and the understanding of SEO implementation, regular testing and tweaking is required which is why it takes much longer than 24 hours to see your efforts pay off. The end result is just as rewarding as that of seeing conversions come through from PPC or Banner referrals. The trick is knowing that it is not only about getting more quality visitors to the site, but understanding how to convert these visitors into customers.

Search Engine Optimisation works when applied correctly and the key is that it needs to be applied in a transparent way with no shortcuts taken. More importantly Search Engine Optimisation can work quickly, effectively and drive massive amounts of traffic to the desired site.

There is always a right way and a wrong way to do things. Perhaps it is just the way I am, but transparency and honesty is the core of everything I do and this must be the foundation from which I function. So, from my dealings with clients, colleagues, site visitors and even search engines, this is the metric that stays constant for me. That is why (again, for me) SEO should be applied in the correct manner and be done without trying to take shortcuts. Knowing the risks of taking shortcuts and knowing what the right and wrong things are and how to implement or when not to implement them, is important.

In conclusion, it is perhaps not a question of whether you are considering Search Engine Optimization as a marketing tool. All Search Marketing companies will tell you that it is worth doing it. It isn’t even a question of whether you are doing PPC or Banner advertising because these are equally important and effective.

Perhaps it is more a question of how you implement any of the above, how you engage with your client and what the message is that you want to give people about you and about your site.

Perhaps we should start there and then decide which method is best to market ourselves or our business.