Tool

SEO or paid search? A decision helper

Six questions. The helper shows which of your answers pushed it which way, so you can disagree with the reasoning rather than the verdict. It runs in your browser, and your answers go nowhere.

Your situation

How soon do you need enquiries?
Do your customers search for what you sell?
Compared with what a click is likely to cost, what is a new customer worth?
How much could you spend on advertising each month, beyond any management fee?
How well does your website turn visitors into enquiries?
Could you handle more enquiries tomorrow?

What the answers suggest

Answer the questions to see the reasoning.

    This is a rule-of-thumb aid, not advice on your specific market. The rules are deliberately simple and listed below. See the longer argument in SEO or PPC for a small business.

    How it decides
    • Urgency: weeks favours paid search strongly; six months or more favours SEO strongly; in between favours both slightly.
    • Demand: plenty of searching helps both; little searching counts against both and points to paid social or other routes.
    • Margin: strong margin favours paid search; thin margin counts against it and favours SEO.
    • Budget: almost none counts heavily against paid search; a comfortable budget favours it slightly.
    • Website: a weak or unknown site overrides the result with “fix the website first”.
    • Capacity: limited capacity adds a caution, not a score.
    • If one side leads by two points or more, the helper leans that way; otherwise it suggests both.
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