Is SEO The Way Forward Still?

Search engine optimization has always been an interesting topic of conversation here on PPC.org for many reasons.It is often compared to pay per click advertising because most advertisers and bloggers see PPC and SEO as the two front runners when it comes to generating contextual traffic online. However, in the past, I have said that it is possible to use PPC and SEO in synergy – this is true, since PPC provides short term traffic while SEO takes a little while longer to get going. However, is it still effective to use SEO full stop? 
 
My main problem with SEO is the fact that it is often not free. Of course, you could generate traffic using SEO by yourself. But, this will induce the following drawbacks:

• It’s still not free as SEO is taking up your time which should have a price per hour associated to it.
• SEO will take up a lot of your time in order to make the results worthwhile if you are working by yourself on it.
• The results are not guaranteed – the success one gets from search engine optimization very much depends on how well that person knows SEO and how good a quality content that individual is producing (if it is completely unique, filled with keywords etc.).

Therefore, when you take a look at it from this perspective, you may start to see that SEO is not as easy as you first thought. In order to make a success from SEO, you will most likely need to do the following:

• Delegate work to others to help with your SEO effort – This means that SEO, in this case, will, in fact, cost. However, more hands make for lighter work for you, where you might be more preoccupied with other work such as with general running of the website or social media etc.
• Have a niche/unsaturated market to enter into – This point is highlighted in bold because many bloggers and advertisers simply forget about this. One of the main reasons many SEO campaign efforts fail is because the market that the SEO campaign is entering into is completely saturated already with competition. In this case, if you try to enter into it with content, the most likeliest outcome is that you will rank not even on page one of search engine results. It is best to enter into a market that is either 1) niche where no-one has entered into it yet or 2) find a market which has room for others to enter into it.

At the end of the day, SEO can be free. Saying this, if you want the results that can be comparable to PPC (once the SEO campaign is up and running bringing in traffic), you will most likely need assistance with this, making it more comparable in terms of cost to PPC too. This does beg the question, why not just you PPC? It would be interesting to hear your thoughts below.