SEO Vs PPC

A recent article entitled troubled times for SEO firms by David Pasternack of Did-It.com seems to have opened up a bit of a debate over at the Search Engine Watch Forums.

David makes a case for PPC being more challenging than SEO which has brought much debate from those of either side of search engine marketing.

“Unlike Paid Search, in which it’s a requisite to continually monitor and optimize one’s campaign in order to navigate through a dynamic auction-based environment, SEO is a job that is essentially a one-time task, not a continuing responsibility requiring the services of an outside firm”.

Ouch. Lets just say, not all agreed with that particular argument. David has 3 main points why the SEO industry is ailing -

1. Marketers Are Discovering That SEO Isn’t Rocket Science
2. Marketers Are Realizing That SEO is a “Fix-it-Once” Task, not an Ongoing Service
3. Marketers Are Wary of Pushing the SEO Envelope

Rustybrick over at the SERoundtable has analysed each point and given his thoughts, which are fairly on the fence but he makes a good point. Neither are exactly rocket science, they just require well organised solid foundations to start with and to be continually analysed and optimised moving forward.

Much of Davids arguments make sense, but at the same time, they are far to sweeping, generalised and just miss reality. I did like this particular quote though -

“SEO practitioners like to view themselves as Jedi Knights who are magically endowed with powers which can magically decrypt the occult secrets of search engines’ algorithms. This glamorous self-image is reinforced each time the mainstream business press reports on their edgy antics. “

It’s an interesting debate as a whole, but one which is missing the greater picture; that neither SEO or PPC will be going anywhere in the world of search engine marketing. Both, make up a fundamental part of a SEM strategy, but there are other factors (paid inclusion, feeds, social media optimisation) which can be equally important to a SEM campaign in difference circumstances. Without looking at all techniques a business would be missing out on opportunities whatever way you look at it.