If you run ads for clients, they may wonder, “Why would I pay for SEO too?”
Fair question. The ads bring in leads. By comparison, SEO can sound slow and vague.
Once you learn SEO, you can give them a straight answer. Sometimes it’s worth adding, and sometimes it isn’t. The trick is knowing which situation you’re looking at.
What SEO and Paid Search Each Do for a Client
Paid search can put a business in front of searchers fast. Launch a campaign, and the clicks can start coming in soon after. The catch is that the client has to keep paying for them. SEO takes longer to build, and a page might need months to show up in regular search results.
A search like “water heater repair near me” shows the difference. The client pays each time someone clicks their ad for it. An organic service page can reach the same searcher without that per-click cost, though it can take a while to get there.
You’ll often hear that SEO is for people who are still researching, and ads are for people who are ready to buy. It’s rarely that tidy. An organic service page can engage someone ready to hire today. An ad can send someone to a pricing guide while they’re still comparing options.
The better question is what the searcher wants and how soon the client needs results. That’s where the decision starts.
Start With What the Client Needs Right Now
Two clients can ask the same question but need different answers.
If a new roofing company needs jobs this month, waiting for a new site to gain traction in Google won’t make payroll. Paid search can get the company in front of people looking for a roofer now. You can work on SEO in the background.
The math changes for a dental office that’s been buying the same clicks for years. If its ads keep bringing in patients from searches for veneers or emergency dental care, those searches may be worth going after organically too. Build the service pages and let the ads keep doing their job in the meantime.
Before recommending anything, look at the numbers. How much is the client spending on ads? Which searches turn into customers? If the client doesn’t know, open the ad account and find out.
What the SEO Work Looks Like
If a client says yes, the next question is what they’re paying for. On a small business site, SEO work tends to start with the basics. That means making sure Google can find and read every important page, then building a solid page for each main service.
Local businesses have one more piece. Their Google Business Profile shows up in map results, so it needs accurate business information and regular attention.
If you’ve never done this work before, learn it before you pitch it. An SEO beginner course is a good place to start, so you’re not figuring it out on a paying client’s site.
Use Paid Search Data to Make Better SEO Decisions
If you manage a client’s ads, some of your SEO research is already sitting in the account. The Google Ads search terms report shows what people searched before they clicked. If conversion tracking is set up, you can also see which searches led to calls or forms.
Going back to the dental office, searches about same-day crowns might bring in steady appointments. Broader searches about teeth whitening might get plenty of clicks but few bookings. Now you have a good reason to put the crowns page first.
It can work the other way too. Your SEO research might uncover searches about the cost of dental implants that the client isn’t bidding on. Run a small ad test before spending time on a full page. See whether those searches bring in patients.
Worth noting: The report only covers searches that triggered the client’s ads. There’s plenty it won’t show you. Use the data, but don’t mistake it for the whole market.
How SEO Work May Support PPC
When you pitch SEO to a client who already runs ads, they may ask if it’ll bring their ad costs down. It might. That’s not the main reason to do SEO, but it’s a really sweet icing on the cake.
Google gives each keyword a landing page experience rating, which you’ll see in the Quality Score columns. The score itself is a diagnostic, but Google does weigh landing page quality in the ad auction, so improving a weak page’s user experience and page speed through optimization may lower the client’s cost-per-click on paid ads.
Picture a plumber running ads for “emergency drain cleaning.” The ad sends people to a slow homepage that opens with the company’s history. Someone with water on the floor isn’t going to scroll through that. A fast, topic-specific drain-cleaning page with the phone number at the top fits the ad better. Point the ad there, and the rating may improve as a result of the increased content relevance. Someone who sees the number right away is also more likely to call, improving conversions.
Like all things SEO, don’t promise a guarantee of lower ad costs. Tell the client you’ll benchmark performance once the new page is live, show them what changed, and then track the landing page rating, cost per click, and the number of calls that come in. You might not be able to guarantee bonus ROI in PPC from SEO, but they won’t be disappointed if that’s what ends up happening.
When Adding SEO Makes Sense, and When It Doesn’t
SEO makes more sense when people search for what the client sells all year. If the same searches keep turning into customers, there’s a case for going after some of that traffic organically.
Short-lived offers don’t fit well. A two-week sale could be over before a new page gains any traction. And if the client sells something so new that nobody searches for it yet, SEO has little demand to capture. The business needs to get people interested first.
A client who isn’t ready for SEO today may be a good fit in six months.
Answering the Client’s Question
When a client asks why they should pay for SEO on top of ads, you don’t have to win the argument every time. Let their numbers make the case. If SEO makes sense for their business, you’re already in a good spot to offer it.
You know the client and what brings them business. The numbers are in front of you. Learning SEO turns one service into two for the same client.