Are you using all the tools in your Online Marketing Toolbox?

The ongoing argument of whether to promote a website by optimizing organically or by virtue of paid ads is a struggle every online marketer has to balance. Although agreeing that both methods are important rarely are companies prepared to exercise the synergies between the two.

Before we discuss the relationship we should begin with definitions:

Organic

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. Typically, the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.

Paid Ads

Paid Ads typically refer to the sponsored areas on Search Engine Results Pages (SERP’s) that allow companies to rank for keywords based on bidding on them rather than actually earning them with relevancy.

It’s easy enough to solve ranking problems by throwing money into paid campaigns and some companies choose to promote themselves by investing anywhere from under $10k /mo. to over 1M/mo. buying keywords.

(more…)