S1 Ep42: SEO or Google Ads?
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The SEO guy says that SEO is everything. The Google Ads guy says that you shouldn\\u2019t bother with SEO and just go straight to ads. So who\\u2019s right? Well\\u2026 to be honest\\u2026 they kinda both are!
\\n\\n\\nThis is Clickstarter, I\\u2019m Dante St James. This is episode 42, and Day 8 of my daily series, April Foolproof Your Business.
\\n\\n\\nToday\\u2026 SEO or Google Ads.
\\n\\n\\nA while ago I wrote a blog titled, The SEO Scam. It was all about how companies and backyard self-styled SEO experts were screwing over businesses all over the country by selling them the SEO dream\\u2026 you know\\u2026 that one that says, \\u201cI don\\u2019t care that I am 10 years behind everyone else and made a cheap website with some DIY page builder, this really convincing person in a call centre says that they\\u2019ll make me number 1 on Google.\\u201d
\\n\\n\\nI stand by my opinion that most SEO work is a scam. When someone says that they will get you from zero to hero by putting your website on the first page of Google or even at the very top of the rankings, they are either going to take your money and run, or they are going to use a technique to trick Google\\u2019s algorithm that will last may be a week or two before you\\u2019re caught out and you\\u2019re pushed down lower than you ever were before.
\\n\\n\\nSo that must mean that Google Ads are the way to go, right? Well, not necessarily. For a lot of small businesses, attempting to advertise on Google is a complete waste of time! For example, in a regional town where a large infrastructure or resources project has recently ended, like Darwin, Gladstone, Port Hedland or Karratha, then trying to advertise yourself as an electrician, plumber or any trade that was in short supply during that economic bump is either going to cost you a fortune every time someone clicks on your ad, or you will be so far behind the biggest payers, that your ad won\\u2019t even show.
\\n\\n\\nSo where do these two things work?
\\n\\n\\nLet\\u2019s look at an example of a company called Bynoe Drilling, a small business in the rural outskirts of Darwin in the Northern Territory. Despite being around for over 30 years, Gary from Bynoe Plumbing had no idea about online stuff. But he had a website built for him at a reasonable price thinking that the work would come. The problem is that most web designers are not search engine optimisers. In fact, very few are - even those that say they are. What they generally do, is, install a Wordpress website with a drag and drop page builder that they have used on dozens of other websites before you, go and install a plugin called Yoast, write in some pretty words about the page it\\u2019s installed on, and call it a day.
\\n\\n\\nThis is pretty much what had happened with Gary\\u2019s site. It looked good. It ran ok. But none of the pre-work was ever done to connect the site to Google via Analytics and Search Console. No technical checking was done to see if the site was actually built in a way that Google could read properly. So when the European travellers who build the site were contacted to ask to help with his Google ranking, their answer was along the lines of \\u201cOh - no we don\\u2019t do SEO. You\\u2019ll need to pay someone else to do that.\\u201d
\\n\\n\\nThe trouble with SEO is that there are at least 47 major factors to consider when doing it. Everything from the structure of headings on the page, to whether a separate delivery network is used for images and even whether all that code has been rearranged to deliver it as fast as possible. And then, beneath that layer, there are at least 250 factors that Google takes into account each time you type in a search query to it.
\\n\\n\\nAll this is way too much for Gary to deal with. He just wants more customers to get him to drill for bore water on their properties. He\\u2019s not a marketer or a web developer.
\\n\\n\\nSo when we were approached to help him out with SEO, we took a serious look at the state of his website, his competitors already online, and did a serious and honest side by side comparison on whether it was worth him spending money on optimising for search results on Google - or just going and paying for ads to get the same result quicker. In the case of Bynoe Drilling, the answer was SEO. There aren\\u2019t a lot of others doing what he does. Their websites were all pretty ordinary, so despite there being one guy who was dominating the search results, it wouldn\\u2019t take much to take the battle to him and even maybe knock him off the top of the results. But it took time. In fact, although we got some fairly instant results within a week to get him moved up from around Page 30 to Page 1, it took us a solid 3 months of tweaking and changing of things on his site, and his GoogleMyBusiness profile to get him to the point where, not only did he get to be even with the other guys, but he was getting those all-important bookings from his listing on Google for the first time ever.
\\n\\n\\nYet that\\u2019s not how it goes everyone. In the crowded Pest Control industry, Less Pest on the Gold Coast were coming from a different place. They were a brand new business built from scratch. Lots of competitors. No clients to begin with. They decided to go down the path of Google Ads to get a quick injection of new clients in place. The idea was that it would take them months for any SEO efforts to take hold - and even then, there are no guarantees in SEO. If you\\u2019re in a competitive space full of franchises and national chains, you\\u2019re never going to make a dent. But with ads, you have a lot of flexibility in the way you select search terms, whether they be general, like \\u201cGold Coast Pest Control\\u201d which is more competititve and more expensive, or you go something more niche, like \\u201csafe termite treatments in Coombabah\\u201d with has less people looking, and therefore is cheaper to target.
\\n\\n\\nSwinging up north to Darwin, Google Ads, if you are a plumber, electrician or air conditioning repair company is going to be a VERY expensive and competitive game to play. There\\u2019s too many providers, and you\\u2019ll find yourself paying up to $50 per click to get anyone through to your website. And that\\u2019s not taking into account whether they do anything once they get to you - like book a service!
\\n\\n\\nBut in the case of LessPest, we went to a very specific and very targeted set of geographical areas right down to individual postcodes. And then each ad was targeted at that very postcode and such specific pest control issues they may have there. In Mudgeeraba it was termites. In Elanora, spiders. In Pacific Pines, it was those pesky ants. And it worked really well, driving business for them for the next 6 months.\\xa0
\\n\\n\\nSo what is best? SEO or Google Ads?
\\n\\n\\nSEO is great when you\\u2019ve got time to watch the impact happen over months or even a year. It takes more work, more interaction, more tweaking and changing. It\\u2019s good when you have the time and inclination to be regarded as an expert in your field and are not scared to write, video or record what you\\u2019re doing. With SEO you need time and patience.
\\n\\n\\nGoogle Ads, on the other hand, have the potential to work faster, but in bursts. It doesn\\u2019t take long for big competitors to notice what you\\u2019re doing and adjust their strategy to block you. Which is what happened with LessPest, eventually. With Google Ads you need deep pockets.\\xa0
\\n\\n\\nGot a topic this month to cover in these shorter, daily versions of the podcast? Email darwin@clickstarter.com.au or drop a message via facebook.com/clickstarter
\\n\\n\\nI\\u2019ll catch you tomorrow as we continue to help your small business to get known, get found and stay known.
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