Let me put an end to SEO vs. Paid Marketing For Once And For All

[Jerryll Noorden]

Hello my little Munchkins!

I wanted to show you all something pretty significant.

There is this eternal debate going on between SEO and ... well everything else. The best way of doing things is of course leveraging all methods where they fit and apply.

BUT were you to put SEO vs. paid advertising face to face... this is what you get:

I did a search for "We Buy Houses In Connecticut".. the highest bidding keyword in my market.

I found 3 competitors in the PPC section. 2 of them where ranking #1 (depending on the keywords) before well a "certain company" came along ahem ;)

Look at the competitors results...

The first company was in business for a LONG time: When I came along, they dropped from the ranks and the only way they can stay in business is PPC

Now they spend over $5K a MONTH to get leads!

Now let's look at the next competitor.

These guys (supposedly a woman is the lead here, I don't buy it!) were the other #1 ranking site before. As you can see they are constantly struggling with SEO. Now they recently got themselves a brand new (very pretty) little site. I guess they are now ramping up their SEO efforts. We will see how that goes for them. pffft

Now look at these guys:

Not much going on here. Looks like brand new group.

Not much to say here:

Now lets compare these handsome guys:

Now here is where you have to focus as this gets mind blowing.

Here, there is 0 paid advertising! Clicks are obtained for free, the competitors would have to pay OVER $6 GRAND a MONTH to match that! And keep in mind... this is totally free. And here is what is so mind blowing.

Remember that there is absolutely no paid advertising. It is not that we get the same amount of leads (while the only thing is that our leads are free and theirs are not)... no no, look how FAR that gap is!!

It would be impressive enough that this "certain company" gets all for free, what the other competitors have to pay a fortune for. But what is way more impressive than that, is that this company gets FAR MORE leads (for free) than what they get by paying for it. There is a gigantic gap between the leads between that certain company and their competitors.

SEO results in about 10 times as many organic clicks as they get PAID clicks.

Now does ANYONE still dare debating that your FB ads threatens SEO?!

No?

Didnt think so!

;)

[Mark Sewell]

BEST.  THREAD.  GOING.

Great stuff @Jerryll Noorden

@Jerryll NoordenExcept I will suggest that SEO in a smaller market works better/faster than it does in a bigger market. But that is OK, it still will work.  

Now on the flip side, doing PPC in a place like Houston is insane.  You better be prepared to spending the equivalent of a small rental house every single month if you want that to pay off.  And the big players are quite open about it.  You aren't going to drive anybody out of business here, or in DFW or other crazy markets using PPC.  

I am running FB ads and getting traffic, but I am really just wasting my money right now.  I'm kinda OK with that, on some level, because I am testing what works and what doesn't.  It would be nice to be getting steady leads but that isn't happening (yet).

Why?  Crappy leads?  Bad targeting?  Wrong messaging for wrong audience?

Nope, I don't think so (possible but I don't think that is it).  Simply my SEO isn't baked yet.

This has to be the foundation that we build on.  There has to be certain level of credibility that you can show to prospective sellers.

In fact, if you have not bought a house as an investment project, and if you haven't got some testimonials or some level of social proof to display, then doing SEO is going to be that much harder to do.  Not saying impossible, but you are not going to get the same results, for sure.

As for SEO people, you can find them that focus on REI. I got a guy in TN that does work for other investors and he is an investor himself. Good references, and he only takes one client per major market. So I cannot even hire him for full-service SEO, but I can hire him for ala-carte work like local citation building. And that is the plan.

I don't even care if I am not able to even buy another house in 2019, but I will get this SEO thing sorted out - even if that is the only thing I accomplish.