Things have definitely changed a lot since I posted this. The biggest of which has been the blending of local and organic search results within the past month.

And, you’re right, Google has been doing a really good job of cleaning things up. There have been some niches outside of Internet marketing, like locksmiths, that really needed it too!

Adam

There are also other factors including branding and keyword usage in the title tag that they probably figured would never come to an end so why not just shut the locals down in this arena. These things have also helped Google tighten up the local results within other niches. Although Google has gotten a little aggressive lately with taking local reviews out that are legit they have mostly done a good job cleaning up the local rankings.

Your name just came up in a conversation I had with Fred Miller earlier today. Thanks for visiting my blog and for your comment. I agree that PPC can be especially helpful at the beginning of a campaign. I would say, however, that if your PPC campaign is generating a positive ROI that instead of scaling back, you buy as many more profitable clicks as you can for your business no matter what your SEO efforts are producing.

Thanks!
Adam

I would add though that whether you use SEO or PPC, it’s wise to be collecting email addresses on your website so you can follow up with past visitors via email marketing. So while the train may stop, you should leave a car or bus at the station so the passengers’ journey doesn’t completely grind to a halt (not sure if that analogy makes sense or not, but I’m going with it!).

Anyway, this is a great discussion and the bottom line is it shows that there is not one silver bullet when it comes to Internet marketing. There are pros and cons to all the strategies out there and the best strategy is to use as many of them as possible.