Just a thought I had today when I was trying to explain the difference between SEO and PPC to a customer. Consider it.

You want to shed 50 pounds. You have two choices.

You go on a diet. It’s hard work and there are a lot of different factors that effect your results. . . what you eat, how often you exercise, your mental attitude, and more. It takes time to lose the weight and here’s the kicker, keeping the weight off isn’t easy. It takes ongoing effort on your part to stay in shape. You’ll need to stay up to date on nutrition and exercise.

Okay so you’re not a big dieter. And you’re wedding is in a few short weeks. You need results now. You decide that plastic surgery might be the solution. You schedule an appointment with a doctor who explains how the procedure will work. He provides photos and testimonials from past patients to showcase his work. Maybe you even interview a few doctors. You’re going to be investing your money, and your body, so you want someone good. The day of the surgery comes and there’s some pain, but a short time later, the results are already noticeable. You’ll have to come back for a post-op checkup so the doc can make sure that you are safe.

Let’s Translate.

You want your website to rank in the organic section of Google. It’s hard work and there are a lot of different factors that effect your results. . . website content, keywords, pagerank, authority, popularity, links, title tags, bookmarks, and more. It takes time for SEO to impact ranking and here’s the kicker, staying high in the organic results isn’t easy. It takes ongoing effort on your part to keep the website high. You’ll need to stay up to date on the latest SEO and web strategies.

Okay so you’re not having much luck with SEO. And you’re biggest shopping season is in a few short weeks. You need results now. You decide that pay-per-click might be the solution. You schedule an appointment with a professional who explains how the campaign will work. He provides testimonials from past clients to prove his work. Maybe you even interview a few PPC professionals. You’re going to be investing your money, and it’s your business, so you want someone good. Your campaign starts and there are few glitches to be worked out, but a short time later, the results are already noticeable. You’re campaign will need to be monitored and tracked to continue to prove it’s value.

Get it?

Consider one more thing. Are the doctors who are telling you to eat right and exercise to lose weight the same as the doctors who are on television making people beautiful? Sometimes, sure. In fact, a good plastic surgeon will often promote weight loss before doing their part. But overall, these are very different disciplines. As are SEO & PPC.

The funny thing that I’ve experienced is that most PPC experts promote and encourage good SEO, but it rarely works the other way around. Often, the SEO expert is trying to get you to stop doing PPC. And if you’ve read any of my other posts, you know how I feel about that.

So anyway, it’s up to you. Diet? Plastic Surgery? SEO? PPC? A combination of the disciplines? You decide.

Thanks for reading.
David McBee

 

UPDATE

 

I used this analogy so many times over the years, that I finally created the SEO is a Diet. PPC is Plastic Surgery INFOGRAPHIC.