Search Engine Marketing Consultant

Search engine marketing (SEM) is the umbrella term for promoting your business through search engines like Google. It covers two main approaches: SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and PPC (Pay Per Click advertising). SEO focuses on improving your organic rankings so you appear naturally in search results when people look for your products or services. PPC involves running paid ads that appear at the top of search results, where you pay each time someone clicks. Both approaches aim to get your business visible when potential customers are actively searching for what you offer. Most successful businesses use a combination of both to maximise their visibility and results. The key is understanding which approach works best for your specific goals, budget, and timeline.

SEO is a medium to long-term strategy focused on earning organic rankings through optimising your website’s technical structure, content, and authority. You don’t pay for clicks, but it takes time to build momentum – typically 3-6 months before you see significant results. Once you’re ranking well though, that traffic keeps coming without ongoing ad spend. PPC delivers immediate visibility by placing your ads at the top of search results. You pay for each click, but you can start generating enquiries from day one and have complete control over budget and targeting. SEO is more cost-effective long-term, while PPC gives you quick wins and works well for seasonal campaigns or competitive markets. They’re not competitors – they complement each other. Many businesses use PPC for immediate results while their SEO builds, then reduce ad spend as organic traffic grows.

It depends on your goals and situation. If you need enquiries quickly – launching a new service, running a time-sensitive promotion, or competing in a crowded market – PPC gets you visible immediately. If you’re playing the long game and want sustainable growth without ongoing ad costs, SEO is your foundation. Most Hampshire businesses I work with benefit from both, but at different stages. Start with PPC if you need results now while building your SEO in the background. Once organic traffic grows, you can reduce ad spend or redirect it to more competitive terms. If budget’s tight, prioritise SEO for evergreen growth, but understand it takes patience. The businesses that dominate their market long-term? They run both strategically – using PPC for quick wins and testing, while SEO builds their sustainable traffic engine. It’s not either/or, it’s about timing and balance.

Honestly? Because there are too many cowboys in this industry. I’ve been doing SEO and PPC for 15 years, working with Hampshire businesses who need genuine results, not vague promises and jargon. Being local means I understand the market – the competition you’re up against, the customers you’re trying to reach, and the realistic expectations for your sector. You get direct access to me, not a junior account handler reading from a script. I’ve managed and audited dozens of Google Ads accounts over the years, so I know what good (and bad) campaigns look like. More importantly, I’m accountable. You’re not locked into a faceless agency contract – if something’s not working, we have an honest conversation and fix it. You want someone who’s been around long enough to know what actually works, who speaks plain English, and who treats your budget like their own. That’s what you get with a local specialist rather than an agency production line.

You should always know exactly what’s happening with your campaigns. For SEO, I track keyword rankings, organic traffic growth, and most importantly – enquiries and conversions from search. You’ll see which pages are performing, where traffic’s coming from, and how it’s trending month-on-month. For PPC, it’s even more transparent – you can see exactly how much you’re spending, which keywords are converting, your cost per click, and your return on ad spend. We review performance together in regular catch-up calls – looking at what’s working, what’s not, and what we should do next. No pages of meaningless graphs or jargon-filled reports that are out of date before you’ve read them. Just honest conversations about results and next steps. If traffic’s up but enquiries are flat, we talk about why and what to fix. If a campaign’s not delivering, I’ll tell you straight. You’re paying for results and straight answers, not mystery.

A good strategy starts with understanding your business goals, not just chasing rankings or clicks for the sake of it. What are you actually trying to achieve – more enquiries, higher-value customers, better local visibility? Your strategy should map back to that. It needs the right mix of tactics – maybe that’s local SEO to dominate your area, PPC for quick wins on high-intent keywords, or technical SEO fixes to stop you losing traffic you’ve already earned. Crucially, it has to be flexible. Search marketing isn’t set-and-forget – Google updates algorithms, competitors change tactics, your business evolves. A good strategy adapts based on what’s actually working, not what the textbook says should work. You need proper tracking in place so you can see what’s driving results, and someone who’ll be honest when something needs changing. Cookie-cutter approaches don’t work – what works for a solicitor in Winchester won’t work for a builder in Southampton. Your strategy should fit your business, your market, and your budget.