PLANNING YOUR NEXT STEP
SEO, Google Ads or a new website: where should you start?
A practical guide to choosing the next piece of work around your business situation.
Runic Lab · Published 23 October 2026
01 / THE APPROACH
Start with the business question
Before choosing between SEO, Google Ads and a new website, write down the problem you want to solve. “We need more traffic” is a starting observation, but it leaves several questions unanswered. Which service needs more demand? Who is the right customer? What action should a useful visitor take? How will the team respond when that person contacts you?
Read the detail
A better brief might be that the company wants more relevant consultation enquiries for a specific service in Dubai. A dental clinic might want enquiries about a particular treatment within its actual catchment. These are different objectives from increasing all website visits. A clear brief gives every later decision a purpose.
Also record the constraints. Staff capacity, service coverage, available content and implementation access can change which work is sensible first. A campaign that generates calls is of limited value if the team cannot answer them.
02 / THE APPROACH
Check the destination before increasing traffic
Open the page you expect a customer to visit. Does it explain the offer without relying on a sales conversation? Can someone identify the location or service area? Is the next action clear? Does the page work comfortably on a phone? These basic questions can reveal why additional visits may not lead to better enquiries.
Read the detail
Look at the match between the source and the destination. A person clicking an advertisement about a particular service should not have to search a general home page for the information promised. A visitor finding a treatment question through organic search needs an explanation relevant to that question, with an appropriate route to contact.
If these foundations are missing, website work may need to come before traffic growth. That does not always mean a full redesign. A stronger service page, clearer navigation or a repaired contact route can be the most focused intervention.
03 / THE APPROACH
Understand what SEO is meant to contribute
SEO helps organise the technical foundations and content of a website around relevant searches. A sensible plan identifies the pages that need to exist, improves their usefulness and addresses barriers that make them difficult to discover. It connects keywords to business services rather than treating a keyword list as a publishing schedule.
Read the detail
For a company offering several services, that may mean separate landing pages with clear scope and internal links. For a dental practice, it may mean treatment information and accurate location pages. Supporting resources can answer the questions people ask before they are ready to contact a provider.
The evaluation should include query relevance, landing pages and commercial actions where they can be measured. More impressions for unrelated queries are not a reason to declare the strategy successful. A ranking report becomes more useful when it explains which part of the business the visibility supports.
04 / THE APPROACH
Give local search its own role
A local business needs practical information to be consistent: name, genuine location, opening hours, services and contact details. Its website and business profile should help a nearby customer understand whether the business is a suitable option. Local SEO focuses on that context rather than simply adding the city name to every paragraph.
Read the detail
Start with actual operating locations and service coverage. A business serving customers at their premises has a different setup from one welcoming visitors to a staffed office. A registered company address should not automatically be described as a walk-in branch. The website needs to reflect the real arrangement.
For several branches, distinguish the information relevant to each one. A location page should help someone choose or contact the right branch. If two pages say the same thing except for the neighbourhood name, consider whether the second page adds anything useful.
05 / THE APPROACH
Choose advertising around an offer and an action
Paid advertising needs a clear role in the acquisition journey. Search campaigns can respond to an active service query. Paid social can introduce an offer or encourage a relevant person to start a conversation. The channel is selected after understanding the audience and the action, rather than because a platform is fashionable.
Read the detail
Campaign planning should connect the targeting, message and landing page. Geographic coverage must fit what the business can deliver. Language choices should match both the audience and the team handling enquiries. For a service based on telephone contact, hours and response availability can affect the practical result.
Account access, billing and conversion definitions need to be agreed before launch. Agency work and platform media spend should be distinguished in the proposal. A budget figure by itself does not describe the quality of the offer, page or response process, so it cannot guarantee a specific outcome.
06 / THE APPROACH
Separate an enquiry from a customer
Useful measurement starts with definitions. A click on WhatsApp shows someone opened a contact route. A submitted form shows information was sent. A phone call may be relevant, irrelevant, answered or missed. None of these events automatically proves that a new customer has been acquired.
Read the detail
If your team records later outcomes consistently, you can discuss connecting those stages to marketing reporting. For a clinic, that might mean booked and attended consultations. For another service business, it might mean a qualified opportunity or signed engagement. Each stage needs its own definition and a reliable source.
When the downstream records are unavailable, reports should say so. It is still possible to use the evidence you have, but the language must remain accurate. Calling every contact a sale can hide the very problems that measurement is supposed to reveal.
07 / THE APPROACH
Review how the business handles contact
The acquisition journey continues after someone presses a button. Who receives the enquiry? How quickly can they respond? Do they understand which service the person is asking about? Is there a clear process for a missed call or a request outside normal hours? These operational details belong in a practical marketing conversation.
Read the detail
You do not need a complex system to start understanding them. A consistent business-level record of the enquiry source, service requested and outcome can help reveal patterns. The record should contain only information appropriate to the process, with sensitive information handled through suitable channels.
A campaign may appear weak when the actual issue is a confusing handover. Equally, a busy inbox may contain mostly irrelevant contacts. Looking at both marketing and follow-up prevents those different situations from being treated as the same problem.
08 / THE APPROACH
Decide whether to combine channels
SEO, local search, advertising and website work can support one another, but that does not mean they must all start together. Look for dependencies. If a landing page is unclear, both paid and organic visitors may struggle. If the site is strong but the business has little visibility, the next task may be acquisition rather than design.
Read the detail
A phased plan makes those decisions explicit. The first phase establishes the destination and tracking needed for a focused campaign, or addresses important technical and content gaps. Later phases can expand the services, locations or channels supported by evidence.
Ask what each workstream contributes and how it will be reviewed. Several suppliers can deliver a connected plan when responsibilities and handovers are clear. One supplier can still deliver disconnected work if the channels are measured independently without a shared business objective.
09 / THE APPROACH
Know what to ask an agency
Ask the agency to describe the actual deliverables, who carries them out and which tasks depend on your team. Find out what access is required and who owns the website, profiles and campaign accounts. A proposal should also explain the review process and how changes outside the scope are handled.
Read the detail
For SEO, ask how keywords map to pages and how implementation is checked. For advertising, ask what counts as a conversion and how enquiry relevance is reviewed. For web design, ask about content responsibility, mobile usability, existing URLs and the handover after launch.
When reviewing a case study, ask about its period, starting point and measurement. An impressive number can still need context. A result from a different country or sector is evidence of that project, not a guaranteed forecast for yours. Clear explanations are more useful than a promise nobody can substantiate.
10 / THE APPROACH
Prepare a useful first brief
Bring your website address, main services, target market and a summary of current activity. Explain what is working and what is frustrating. If you have search or campaign data, mention that it is available, but do not send passwords or grant broad account permissions before there is a reason.
Read the detail
For a dental clinic, add the clinic location, priority treatments, number of branches and appointment capacity. The initial conversation needs business context, not private patient records. For a Dubai service business, make the actual service area and the team’s contact process clear.
The aim of the first discussion is to identify what should be investigated and what a sensible scope could look like. You should leave with a clearer problem definition and an understandable next step. That is a stronger foundation than choosing a marketing channel before understanding the business.
A CLEAR NEXT STEP
Let’s define your next move.
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