In terms of making money, SEO and PPC are intrinsicly linked together. Both need to be implemented correctly and in unison in order for a website to pay off. This is because different keywords draw a different kind of intent. Sometimes it’s to buy, other times to look and other times idle curiosity. This can become apparent after optimizing a site for a given keyword, generating traffic and not getting the conversions. This is because you’ve targeted keywords that lack commercial intentions.

It’s in knowing the mindset of the person who came to your sight via a particular keyword. Someone looking for a sale is ready to buy, someone looking for a review is still in the reasearch phase. Not setting up the landing pages correctly to meet the desires of the visitor, will not give them that rush of gratitude that they’ve (finally) found a resource they can bookmark and come back to. Write your landing pages and content for a given page to meet the intentions of the surfer for that word. Otherwise, they’ve come to your site but they haven’t found what they wanted. This requires them actually do your job for you by searching through your site. Odds are that they’ll just go back to Google and look for a site that can deliver on that search promise. The problem might stem from the search industry itself. Think about it, the solution I mentioned above has more to do with YOUR CONTENT rather than some high end tactics and engineering that you can’t understand and will have to outsource to an SEO professional. Therefore, they are unlikely to turn you on to such a solution. Instead, you’ll get tech-speaked into a near-coma until you relent and pay up for an expert.

Why is this fatal? It is costing you valuable time and money, taking away from content development and slowly discouraging you from succeeding. Here’s something else, at the end of the day you need to convert people to buy. Rather than doing the heavy lifting via SEO voodo, convert them at your site. You might not get perfect prospects, but they are prospects. Compare what Google returns (5 lines of text), with what your landing page shows (video, animation, pictures, sound, whatever). If you get someone in the ball park to show up, an effective landing page can at least get them to remember you.

Oh, and one more thing, run small campaigns on cheap keywords. Yes, those words don’t work for other people, but maybe that’s because they are not innovative enough, still trying to run a one-size-fits all campaign for all words. If you can modify content to work with a keyword, you can get huge ROI. Watch an infomercial, think about it, people have been selling to unqualified insomniacs for ages, this is because they can modify the message to meet the kind of customer who tunes in, or before teevee, walks in the door. SEO isn’t a magic turnstyle, it’s an opportunity to start, engage and close a deal. It’s up to YOU to do the selling, NOT GOOGLE.

Different people are attracted to different offers. That’s part of what makes us human. So if a site is successful with a handful of keyword phrases, it’s because they can inform, entertain, engage and finally sell. Don’t automatically assume that you will gain conversions by using those same words, not without a selling method, whatever that may be.

Yes, you can mess around with PPC calculus for hours,days,weeks, but you’re better off creating value and getting to know your people. The internet is huge, but in many ways it operates like a village.

Finally, here’s a key difference between Social Media and SEO:

BAD, OUTDATED SEO-CENTRIC THINKING: Rankings are great, but it’s not about vanity. If searchers aren’t buyers, who needs em?

GOOD, CURRENT SOCIAL MEDIA CENTRIC: Searchers can add traffic, engagement and value to a site. Even if they don’t convert. Activity on a site is a kind of authority. Social activity creates interest and qualifies the visitors while at your site. Creatively capitalize on this.

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