A real fine way to start…

The Opening

I came home late this evening because I was finishing the initial keyword research for a big corporate site. As big as corporate sites get…

And, yes, we put Google Analytics on the site before the redesign because the client wasn’t aware of their baseline data.

Here’s where the fun starts:

I asked, “What’s going to be the marketing plan?”

The answer:  “We’re not sure yet.”

“Ohh-kay.”

Face palm.

Middle Game

When you’re not privileged enough to know the marketing plan, budget, scope, or intentions and you still have to get the keyword research done, adopt the Dr. Gregory House method:

“When in doubt, plan broad.”

In this case I’m spending much more time on the long tails and sub categories than on the main categories. Do enough years of keyword research and identifying the major keyword themes in a common market can be like hitting a bullseye with a bowling ball. You’re going to hit those themes plus the themes you weren’t thinking about. Tie in some “how to’s” and “what are’s” while you’re attempting to identify the searchers’ spelling nuances and you’ll do pretty well on the first try – pending market and competition.

End Game

I don’t know if the site’s going to involve an integrated PPC campaign that’s backboned by a news blog or whether it’s going to be a hard-pounding offsite SEO campaign, but now I’m prepared to attack the “lower hanging fruit,” and build momentum as I go after the major themes.

Also, I get a chance to watch search behavior on those major themes. The fun part with keyword research is that most of the researchers get their data from the same sources and start focusing their themes around similar items. Maybe it’s just me, but when the industry adjusts to the searchers, the searchers adjust their terms to look for deeper results. And the game changes again.

And I get some time to monitor this behavior. The analytics history after the redesign gets a chance to mature, and I get to fight after the major themes with a planned, polished, multi-piece attack.

(Insert unique “checkmate” ending here)

When you go to research without all the facts, what approach do you take?

And so the debate begins…

Brian Connelly is right in his supporting points. PPC is about Speed, Testing, and Control. This approach can be valuable cross-platform. I recommend reading his post.

But in the end, a site’s success – its traffic and conversion – isn’t a matter of “PPC vs. SEO” so much as it is “PPC & SEO.” To speak in military terms, PPC is perfect for reconnaissance. If you have the ways and means, it’s almost silly of you not to use a PPC campaign. All the keyword research and competitor analysis in the world won’t tell you what terms will work best for you as well as your own internal data. And PPC can provide this. Planning a PPC test budget and implementing a PPC campaign is great for not only seeing where the traffic comes from but, more importantly, where the profitable traffic will come from. Once you have that invaluable data in house, perform a competition analysis on these terms, conduct a feasibility study on what it will take for your sites pages to rank for these terms. With this analysis, you now have the groundwork for SEO content themes by which you may now begin your final assault on the search engines.

PPC is both reconnaissance and the first line of attack – the information gathering, long range missiles, and the bombings; SEO is the force behind the site itself – the invading army.

This is why I am a fan of Inbound Marketing. Their approach isn’t so much which discipline works better so much as using whatever works to make your site a valuable tool in your arsenal. Regardless of whether it’s PPC, SEO, Social Media, Blogging, or email marketing, the focus is on the site not the disciplines. In the end, we’re all on the same team – not that a little competition isn’t helpful once in awhile.

And if you read the PPC Hero article, you’ll see that in the end, we both come to similar conclusions.

Happy Holidays goes out to everyone, especially to the members of our armed forces both home and abroad who keep our boarders safe. We know we aren’t able to do what we do were it not for you sacrifice. Thank you!