This Is Search Marketing: A Guide to Stop Wasting Your Budget
Search marketing isn't a dark art. It’s not magic. It’s a system, much like the plumbing in your house.
When it works, you don't even think about it. Water flows, waste disappears, life is good. When it’s broken, it’s a catastrophe. And a lot of businesses have catastrophic plumbing.
They pour money into a digital marketing system leaking from every joint, clogged with nonsense, ultimately delivering a nasty smell and a hefty bill.
Let’s sort that out.
- Search marketing comprises SEO and PPC: Both strategies are essential; SEO builds long-term value, while PPC delivers immediate visibility.
- SEO is a slow investment: Significant results take 6-12 months, demanding time and consistent effort to achieve sustainable traffic.
- PPC is a direct approach: It allows immediate traffic and testing of keywords, but costs accrue only when ads are clicked.
- Avoid vanity metrics: Focus on metrics that indicate profitable actions, like form submissions, not just traffic or rankings.
- Content should address customer questions: Create helpful content based on real customer queries to enhance relevance and improve SEO.
What Search Marketing Actually Is
Most people think search marketing is about “getting on Google.” That's like saying architecture is about “using bricks.” It misses the entire point.
Search marketing makes your business visible on a search engine results page (SERP). It’s about being the answer when a potential customer asks a question.
That's it. Simple.
Don't let any agency overcomplicate it with jargon. When you strip it all away, you're left with two core engines that drive the entire machine.
The Two Sides of the Coin: SEO and PPC
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): This is the unpaid stuff. It’s the long, hard graft of earning your spot on the results page. You’re convincing Google that you are the most relevant, authoritative, and trustworthy answer to a person’s query. This is organic traffic.
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC): This is the paid stuff. You're buying your spot at the top of the page. You bid on keywords and pay when someone clicks your ad. This is paid traffic.
Everything else—SEM (Search Engine Marketing), content marketing, local search—is just a way of discussing how you use these two engines. They are the entire game.
The Slow Burn: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
SEO is about building a long-term asset. It’s like buying a property instead of renting. It takes more upfront effort and time, but the value is immense and sustainable once you own it.
It breaks down into three main areas.
On-Page SEO: The Foundations You Control
This is everything on your actual website that you can fiddle with. It’s the words you use, the structure of your pages, headlines, and images.
It’s about making it painfully obvious to users and Google what your page is about. If you’re a Belfast-based accountant specialising in startups, your website had better say “startup accountant in Belfast” and not “synergistic financial solutions.”
Be clear. Be direct. Answer the questions you know your customers are asking.
Off-Page SEO: Your Reputation on the Digital High Street
This is what other websites say about you. In the world of search, the most powerful vote of confidence is a link from another credible website to yours. These are called backlinks.
Getting good backlinks isn’t about spammy tricks. It's about earning them. You earn them by creating genuinely helpful content, building relationships, and being a recognised authority in your field.
It's a reflection of your real-world reputation. If you're trustworthy and respected, people will talk about you. Simple as that.
Technical SEO: The Greasy Bits That Stop Everything Working
This is the plumbing. It’s the stuff most business owners don't see, but it’s critical.
Does your website load quickly? Is it secure? Can Google’s robots easily crawl and understand it? Is it mobile-friendly? A site that fails on these points is like a beautiful shop with a permanently locked door. According to a 2024 study, 47% of users expect a webpage to load in two seconds or less. If you're slower than that, you're already losing.
You can have the best content in the world, but if your technical SEO is a mess, no one will ever see it.
A Brutal Truth About SEO Timelines
Here's the bit nobody wants to hear: SEO is slow.
Painfully slow sometimes.
You won't see meaningful results in a week or a month. Anyone who promises “guaranteed first-page rankings” in 30 days is a liar. They are selling you snake oil.
You should expect to wait anywhere from 6 to 12 months to see a significant return on a new SEO strategy. It’s a long-term investment. Treat it like one.
The Fast Lane: Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
If SEO buys the house, PPC rents a massive, flashing billboard outside the train station. You get attention immediately, but the billboard comes down when you stop paying.
You're Buying Attention, Not Affection
With PPC platforms like Google Ads, you are paying for access. You bid on specific keywords that your potential customers are searching for. For example, a florist in Manchester might bid on “same day flower delivery Manchester.”
When someone searches that phrase, your ad can appear at the very top of the page. If they click it, you pay the agreed-upon amount (the cost-per-click, or CPC). If they don't, you pay nothing.
It’s a direct, controllable tap for traffic. Need more leads tomorrow? Turn the tap on. Budget getting tight? Turn it off.
The Anatomy of a PPC Campaign That Doesn't Burn Cash
A successful PPC campaign has three crucial parts:
- The Right Keywords: You need to target the phrases that signal intent to buy, not just casual curiosity.
- Compelling Ad Copy: The ad has to grab attention and give someone a reason to click your ad over the competitor's right below it.
- A High-Converting Landing Page: This is where so many people fail. The page the user lands on after clicking the ad must be a direct continuation of that ad. If your ad promises a “50% off summer sale,” the landing page better have that sale front and centre. Not your homepage. Not your ‘about us' page.
Get one of these wrong, and you're lighting money on fire.
Debunking the Biggest Lie: “PPC is Just Too Expensive”
This is an excuse. PPC isn't expensive; being bad at PPC is costly.
If you spend £1 to make £5, would you call that expensive? You'd do it all day long. The problem isn't the cost; it's the return on investment (ROI).
PPC is one of the most measurable forms of marketing on the planet. You know how much you spent and how many leads or sales you got from it. If the numbers don't add up, you're either targeting the wrong people, your message is incorrect, or your website isn't closing the deal.
The cost is a symptom, not the disease.
The Question Every Client Asks: SEO or PPC?
This is the first question I always get. And it's the wrong one.
It’s like asking a builder whether to build the foundation or the walls first. You need both. They do different jobs but work together to create the house.
The Real Answer: It’s a False, and Frankly Stupid, Choice
Choosing between SEO and PPC is a sign of a flawed strategy. They are not competitors. They are partners.
- Use PPC for speed and data. You can get immediate traffic and test which keywords and messages lead to sales.
- Use SEO for sustainability and authority. You build a long-term asset that generates “free” traffic and reinforces your brand's credibility.
How They Work Together (The Flywheel Effect)
Here's where it gets clever. A good search marketing strategy uses one to fuel the other.
You run a PPC campaign and discover that the keyword “eco-friendly packaging for small business” converts at a ridiculously high rate. Great. Now you take that proven keyword and build a comprehensive, long-form SEO content around it. You already know it's a winner.
Your strong SEO presence gives your brand more authority, which can increase your Quality Score in Google Ads. A higher Quality Score means you pay less per click than your competitors.
See how it works? SEO makes your PPC cheaper. PPC tells your SEO what to focus on. It's a self-reinforcing loop. Trying to do just one is like rowing a boat with a single oar. You’ll just go in circles. This integrated approach is at the heart of any effective digital marketing service.
The Single Biggest Mistake I See Businesses Make
It’s not a technical mistake. It’s not about budgets. It’s a mistake in thinking.
The most significant error is focusing on metrics that stroke the ego but do nothing for the bank account.
Chasing Vanity, Ignoring Profit
Vanity metrics are things like:
- “We're ranking #1 for [some obscure, long keyword nobody searches for]!”
- “We got 10,000 impressions this month!”
- “Our website traffic is up 20%!”
Who cares?
Impressions don't pay the bills. Traffic from the wrong audience is worthless. Ranking #1 for a term that brings you zero customers is a complete and utter waste of time and money.
The only metrics that matter are the ones that measure a profitable customer action: a form filled out, a product purchased, a phone call made. That’s your ROI. Everything else is just noise designed to make marketing agencies look busy.
A Quick Story: The Plumber and the Pointless Ranking
I once had a consultation with a plumber. He was immensely proud, chuffed even. He showed me on his phone, over a cup of tea that was mostly sugar, that his business was ranking number one on Google.
I asked him what the search term was. He beamed. “Best s-bend pipe fitter near me.”
I didn't have the heart to tell him that almost no one on earth searches for that. They search for “emergency plumber,” “blocked drain,” or “leaky tap repair.”
He had spent six months and thousands of pounds with an agency to dominate a keyword his customers would never use. He had a #1 ranking and an empty phone. He was chasing vanity, and it was costing him a fortune.
How to Not Get Fleeced: A Practical Starting Point
Feeling overwhelmed? Don't be. You can avoid 90% of the common search marketing pitfalls by following a few straightforward, logical steps.
Step 1: Define What a “Win” Actually Looks Like (Hint: It’s Money)
Before you do anything else, define what a successful conversion is for your business. Is it a completed contact form? A phone call? A direct online sale?
Get specific. Calculate what a new lead is worth to you. If you know a lead is worth £100, you can make much more intelligent decisions about how much you will pay to get one.
Step 2: Understand Your Customer's Language
Stop guessing what keywords to target. Your job is to find out what your customers type into Google when they have a problem you can solve.
Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or just common sense. Talk to your existing customers. How did they find you? What words did they use? This is keyword research. It’s not a technical task; it’s a customer empathy task.
Step 3: Sort Your Website Out
Your website is your digital storefront. It must be clean, fast, and easy to navigate, especially on a mobile phone.
Go through your site. Is it immediately clear what you do? Is your phone number easy to find? Can someone contact you in two clicks or fewer? If not, fix it. All the traffic in the world is useless if your shop is a frustrating mess.
Step 4: Create Content That Genuinely Helps
Stop writing blog posts about your company news. Nobody cares.
Instead, create content that answers the specific questions your customers are asking. Take the keywords you found in Step 2 and build a helpful page or article for ease.
If people search for “how to choose a wedding photographer,” write a definitive guide. If they search for “signs of a damp problem,” create a simple checklist. Be the most helpful answer—Google rewards helpfulness.
Step 5: Measure, Tweak, Repeat. Don't Guess.
Set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console. They are free.
Look at what's working. Which pages bring in traffic? Which keywords lead to conversions? Do more of what works and less of what doesn't.
Search marketing isn't a “set it and forget it” activity. It's a constant process of measurement and refinement.
A Final, Blunt Observation
Search marketing is not about tricking an algorithm. That game is over.
Google's multi-billion-dollar business model is based on providing the most helpful, relevant answer to a user's question.
Your job is not to “game” Google. Your job is to help Google. You do that by being the best possible answer for your potential customers. Be the clearest. Be the fastest. Be the most trustworthy. Be the most helpful.
Do that, and the traffic will come. The rest is just noise.
More Observations & Direct Input
This is the thinking that should drive your marketing. If you want more observations on how businesses can grow, you'll find them on our blog. If you've had enough of theory and want these principles applied directly to your business, that’s what our services are for. Request a quote, and we can talk about your plumbing.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What’s the difference between SEO, SEM, and PPC?
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation): Unpaid activities to earn organic rankings.
PPC (Pay-Per-Click): Paid ads appear on search results.
SEM (Search Engine Marketing): This umbrella term includes SEO and PPC.
Is SEO or PPC better for a new business?
It depends on your goals. If you need leads and data now, start with PPC. If you are building for the long term and can wait for results, focus on SEO. The best strategy uses both.
How long does SEO take to show results?
Be patient. You'll likely see minor movement in 3-6 months, but expect 6-12 months for significant, business-impactful results.
Can I do search marketing myself?
Yes, you can. The basics—like creating helpful content and optimising your pages—are accessible. However, professional expertise often pays for itself by avoiding costly mistakes for technical SEO and competitive PPC campaigns.
How much should I budget for search marketing?
There's no magic number. Start with what you can afford to test and measure the return. A better question is, “What is my customer acquisition cost?” Work backwards from what a new customer is worth to you.
What is “user intent”?
It's the “why” behind a search query. Is the person looking to buy something (“buy black running shoes”), learn something (“what are the best running shoes”), or find a specific website? Matching your content to the user's intent is crucial for success.
Why are backlinks important for SEO?
Backlinks act as votes of confidence from other websites. A link from a trusted, relevant site tells Google that your content is credible, which helps improve your rankings.
Is keyword research still necessary?
Yes, but it's evolved. It’s less about stuffing keywords and more about understanding the topics and questions your audience cares about. It’s the foundation of any good SEO or PPC strategy.
What is a good Click-Through Rate (CTR) for Google Ads?
This varies wildly by industry. Instead of focusing on a universal benchmark, improve your CTR over time by testing ad copy and targeting. A rising CTR is a sign of health.
How do I measure the ROI of my search marketing?
Track conversions, not just traffic. Use tools like Google Analytics to set goals (e.g., form submissions, purchases). Divide the revenue or value generated by your marketing spend. For example: (Value of Sales from Search – Cost of Search Marketing) / Cost of Search Marketing.
What is E-E-A-T?
It stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It's a concept from Google's quality guidelines. This means that Google wants to rank content from credible sources with real-world experience on the topic they are discussing.
Does my website design affect my search rankings?
Indirectly, yes. A poor design leads to a bad user experience (e.g., slow load times, hard to navigate). This can cause visitors to leave quickly, sending negative signals to Google that your site isn't helpful, harming your rankings.
