Internet Ads or Content Creation and Organic SEO – which should come first?
10 Reasons Why Content Creation and Organic Search Engine Optimization should be done before buying Internet Advertising
There’s nothing wrong with ads and it can be very helpful to purchase Internet Advertising to build upon your digital marketing programs. Here are some reasons why you should implement your Content creation and Organic SEO first, then move on to Internet Ads.
- It costs money to buy ads. Content Creation and Organic SEO is free.
While that may sound obvious, much of your content creation and organic SEO work can be free – you can do it yourself. You can perform much of the content creation yourself and then distribute that content through email marketing, social media posts or blogging. Even if you pay someone to turn your content into pretty graphics, nice web pages, or create videos; your content ideas and the real material comes from you. You answer the questions about what problem you can solve for your customers and why are you best to help them do it.
- You must invest in ads for the long term. Can’t do 1-2 months and expect results.
A minimum investment of one year is recommended, budget for that period or longer. Prospects see repeat ads and eventually make the connection when they have a need for your product or service. If you only invest in 1-2 months and the next prospect thinks of their need 6 months from now, you won’t be there. Whereas your web content will still be there as long you keep it relevant. If you’ve created useful content, it will pop up in search engines, it will show up in social media platforms as well. People will read it and share it via email or social media at no charge to you!
- Must choose the correct platform or choose them all.
Google Ads is large, but not the only platform. There are other search engines, Microsoft Bing for example and you can purchase ads on social media networks. Facebook is one of the largest; but there are other places – Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Instagram. Then there are additional platforms that are not primary search engines but drive a lot of results via ads. YouTube, for example, is essentially a search engine. In addition, there may be industry specific web sites run by publications or trade organizations that cover your industry. They sell ads too. Once you really investigate it, one of the other methods or platforms might be better that simply buying Google Ads. The choices can get overwhelming and lead you to analysis paralysis. Do you know where your prospective customers will most likely look for solutions that can point to you?
- You must choose the right keywords and segment for your ad.
If you don’t you will waste money on advertising and not get results. A double whammy of bad news. However, if you’ve invested time and effort in your content and organic SEO to fine tune your message through iterations of experiments, you will know what works and doesn’t. Make use of the tools available to see what keywords visitors are using to discover your content and to see what the most popular pages or articles are for those visitors. When you finally decide to add advertising in to the mix, it will be much more focused and produce significantly better results. Just like SEO, you should focus on the problem your customer has, not necessarily your product FABs (Features and Benefits).
- Once you stop, the spigot is turned off.
There literally are no more click throughs once you stop buying ads. With content creation, your message can last for a much longer period; perhaps, even forever if you create remarkable content and keep it relevant. Prospects will keep finding it via searches and on social media. They will share what they like and refer new business to you.
- If SEO is stopped, your SERP rank will decrease.
If SEO is stopped, the ranking of a website decreases over a period due to constant algorithm updates by Google. SEO also optimizes the quality and quantity of incoming links to your website.
- If you don’t have provide the right content when your suspects arrive, they won’t convert to prospects or customers.
Okay, you bought the right ad in the right place with the right keywords, and your suspect showed up. If your site is empty, contains old or stale content, or has no useful information, the suspect will not convert to a prospect or a customer. It’s as simple as that. This can happen in seconds. People will almost instantly decide if you have something worthwhile to read or not. We’ve seen companies that haven’t updated their web site content in a long time, sometimes even years, as hard as that is to believe. That’s not a formula for success.
- If you don’t have great content, you may not retain customers.
What reason do they have to come back? Ads are created to attract strangers to your site, your business value and site content is what brings them back for more. You should provide useful information that is tailored to your buyer personas and addresses each phase of the buyer’s journey: Awareness-Consideration-Decision.
- Referrals don’t usually happen with ads. Referrals do happen with remarkable content.
Remarkable content plays the very important role of pulling strangers to your site through the fundamental stages of the inbound methodology. Attract strangers to your site making them visitors. Convert visitors into leads by gathering their contact information. Close those leads by solving their problems and making them customers. Delight your customers with engaging content and they will become promoters of your products and services by spreading the word to attract strangers to your site.
- Ad programs turn off a significant portion of users.
According to HubSpot; ads are a turn off to many, not all, but many users. From ad blocking programs (they install software to block ads, 100s of millions have done so already, meaning never even see the ad), to people who ignore them, to people who distrust them. Even if it’s only 40-50% of your target, why invest solely in something that cuts out a significant part of your prospect pool.
Internet advertising can certainly enhance and build upon all your Digital Marketing programs if you’ve built a solid foundation of Content Creation and Organic Search Engine Optimization first.
KDROM develops full-scale SEO and Content strategies that help attract visitors, generate qualified leads and promote thought-leadership. Contact us today to learn more about our content creation and organic SEO services.
