Is SEO worth the investment?
Good question. Let’s unpack.
When you’re doing SEO, sometimes it takes a while to see the fruits of your labour.
That’s why early-stage startups, especially the ones running on borrowed time and burning cash faster than they can raise it, often toss it to the backburner.
When every day feels like a sprint to hit your numbers, slow-burn strategies like SEO don’t exactly make your heart race.
But, here’s the thing — not every business needs SEO right out of the gate.
For some, it’s the wrong game plan entirely.
If you’re selling a product that people don’t even know they need yet, SEO might be as useful as a screen door in a submarine.
You can pour money into it, optimise every keyword under the sun, but if your audience isn’t actively searching for what you offer, then you’re building a beautiful road to nowhere.
SEO doesn’t fit perfectly into every marketing strategy.
A tale of two strategies
Let me tell you the story of how Airbnb was born.
We’ll wind the clocks back to 2008.
Our story begins with Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, two broke art school grads living out in San Franscisco.
Brian and Joe had a problem. Rent had been bumped up to $1,150, and the landlord was looking for it in a week.
Chesky had $1,000 in his bank account, Gebbia was broke, and they were both staring down the barrel of losing their place.
They’d known for weeks the rent was going up. But their backs were against the wall now, and they’d been tossing around ideas to scrape together cash.
Suddenly, an idea landed in Joe’s mind.
A design conference was about to flood San Francisco with tons of visitors. Every hotel room was booked out.
What if they turned their apartment into a bed-and-breakfast? They had three empty air mattresses, a living room, and a kitchen to offer. Throw in breakfast and voila – they had a plan.
They hired a freelancer to build the site, added a quirky description of the place, and priced each airbed at $80 a night.
Then, they fired off emails to design blogs and conference organizers, hoping to get the word out.
No time for SEO. They couldn’t afford to wait for organic traffic to roll in — they needed to pay rent next week.
Luckily, the design blogs picked up on the weirdness of it all, thinking it was a clever, offbeat solution.
Within days, they’d booked their first three guests: Kat, a designer from Boston; Michael, a father of five from Utah; and Amol Surve, an industrial designer from Mumbai.
They covered the rent, got some money in their pockets, and launched a business without relying on a single search engine.
Pretty impressive.
For Airbnb, SEO wasn’t even in the cards at the beginning — it was all about immediate survival.
Moral of the story? Sometimes, it’s not about planting seeds for tomorrow; it’s about figuring out how to keep the lights on today.
SEO starts slow, frustratingly slow, but as it picks up speed, it builds momentum that can bury your competitors.
It’s the best traffic source that doesn’t charge you for every click, and over time, it positions your brand as the authority in your niche.
When you’re sitting pretty at the top of Google’s search results, it’s not just traffic you’re winning — it’s credibility.
Because let’s face it, no one stumbles into that #1 spot by accident.
But SEO isn’t for everyone.
Especially not if you’re trying to keep the lights on tomorrow.
When you shouldn't invest in SEO
Here’s the truth: SEO isn’t always the right move, especially not at the start.
It’s the kind of thing that pays off over time, but if you’re a brand-new business staring down bills or a startup needing cash flow now, SEO is probably the last thing you should bet the farm on.
Let’s say you’ve just launched a new SaaS business.
You’ve got a revolutionary product, but no one knows you exist yet, and, well, Google’s algorithm sure as hell isn’t in a hurry to send you a congratulatory bouquet of traffic.
The reality? You need survival money today. Waiting six months to rank for a keyword isn’t an option when you’ve got payroll to make and rent to cover.
So what’s the move? Ads. Paid ads. You push out some Google Ads or Facebook campaigns, run A/B tests, and figure out what messaging and content gets people to actually pull out their credit cards.
You get traffic, you convert that traffic into sales, and then you start thinking about SEO in the background.
Paid ads give you instant feedback, which means you’re gathering valuable data on what content converts. When the time comes to get serious about SEO, you’ve already got a blueprint of what works.
SEO, in this case, becomes the slower, more stable sequel to your quick growth tactics.
Or maybe you’re running a massive product launch in 20 days.
SEO might not be the best option.
SEO is a marathon, and if you’re in a sprint, you need a strategy that’s built for speed, not endurance.
There are companies who dump thousands into SEO right off the bat and spend the next six weeks wondering where their money went.
It’s not that SEO won’t work — it’s that it needs time, and time isn’t always on your side.
So what's the alternative? When paid ads make sense
If SEO’s the marathon runner, paid ads are the sprinters.
Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram campaigns — they get your name in front of people now.
When you need traffic on the spot, when you need leads filling out forms and people adding products to their carts, paid ads can be a lifesaver.
Let’s say you’re launching a new product.
You throw up some Google Ads and target a specific audience with laser focus.
They click, they land on your website, and you can instantly see what sticks.
If it works, you double down.
If it flops, you pivot the messaging and test again.
With paid ads, you’re able to test and tweak in real-time, while SEO is still sitting in the corner, warming up its engine.
Of course, paid ads aren’t perfect.
They’re more expensive upfront, and the minute you stop paying, the traffic stops.
Should you invest in SEO or paid ads?
So how do you decide? Here’s how to break it down without having a meltdown:
- Short-term vs. long-term: If you need a quick hit of traffic or want to make a splash with a new offer, go with paid ads. But if you’re playing the long game, SEO is the smart bet.
- Budget: Let’s get real about your budget. If you’ve only got a few hundred bucks to spend on marketing, start with paid ads. But if you’ve got a few thousand lying around and you’re thinking about the next few years, SEO should be on your radar.
- Test, learn, pivot: Start small. Run a few paid ads, see what works, and then start building out your SEO strategy based on what you learn. It’s all about gathering data and making smart moves based on it.
The key here is understanding what you need right now. If you need cash flow today, don’t sit around waiting for SEO to save you.
But if you’re thinking six months, a year, or even further down the line, SEO is where you want to invest.
Thanks for reading.
Until next time, peace.
