The Organic SEO vs. Paid Links Debate

With the current state of the economy being what it is, many companies have resorted to online marketing in order to improve their business’ profit margins and overall traffic.

In a time where consumers remain considerably frugal when it comes to buying goods and services, countless companies have taken their advertising campaigns into their own hands and begun turning to companies devoted to organic SEO or building their own in-house marketing teams.

Yet while many marketing teams end up implementing every optimization method under the sun, painting in such broad strokes only serves to diminish the overall effect of one’s advertising efforts.

Although having a well-rounded marketing campaign certainly has its benefits, no one should spread themselves so thin. It’s a given that everyone wants to have online content that ranks well and avoids earning the ire of Google’s Panda and Penguin algorithms.

Yet really it’s figuring out which SEO techniques work best that’s the real dilemma in most cases. What some people fail to realize is that certain industries benefit more thoroughly from organic link building efforts over paid advertisement campaigns.

In It for the Long Haul: The Strength of Organic Links

While organic link development should always be a high priority for any SEO agency or in-house team, there are certainly those types of business that should focus more thoroughly on content generation. In particular, those companies that deal regularly with an active and engaging customer base should strongly emphasize their organic SEO efforts.

Businesses such as restaurants, musical venues and other entertainment-related companies need to focus on the constant creation of new content. This can include ongoing blogs, community-focused social media events and the occasional contest.

Strong content generation goes a long way towards engaging readers and getting them talking about your brand, both on your company’s website as well as own their own blogs or social media listings.

Since many entertainment and leisure business depend upon their customers’ word of mouth to further drive site traffic and sales, they will want to stay actively focused on content generation to remain on the minds – and status feeds – of their regular clientele.

The Short-Term Sale: The Strength of Paid Links

PPC advertising is often used as a way to supplement organically-driven traffic, but there are certainly those companies that will want to use this form of marketing more heavily than others. Although PPC ads can get expensive when used too frequently, businesses that sell seasonal items or services should develop a knack for cost per click marketing management.

Clothing stores, electronics rental companies and outdoor & garden products providers all benefit from well-timed pay per click campaigns that take advantage of current or upcoming events.

Although the duration of this advertising can differ wildly from company to company, brief marketing stints often yield results when planned accordingly.

One of the strengths of the modern PPC campaign comes from being able to easily anticipate trending keywords and consumer focus. By making good use of analytics tools, any company is able to design a CPC campaign that runs just long enough to get the desired results without going over budget.

This can help businesses that plan around special events to remain profitable even when organic links aren’t trending highly in the SERPs.

Those companies that are looking to secure short-term sales on time-sensitive products should also consider using social network ads for decent exposure.