You know the question. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Well, if you accept the Bible’s word on creation, on the Fifth Day of Creation Week, God made “every winged fowl after kind.” Then He instructed them to “be fruitful and multiply”—i.e., lay eggs. Clearly then, the chicken came first. Here’s another question that seems to trick business people. Which came first, digital marketing or website development? If you’re unsure, ask yourself the purpose of digital marketing. It’s not intended to spark a transaction or even make the phone ring. Digital marketing drives traffic to your website. Period. 

Every email you send, every blog you post, every tweet and update you share, and every Google and Facebook ad you place has one intention: Go to my website. When these potential customers reach your website, what will they find? Is it intentional? Have you constructed it to be informative, engaging, and easy to navigate? Will they wander around and then share their contact information, or slip away like someone who suddenly realizes they’re in the wrong place? A successful website attracts traffic and then fuels the interest of these visitors. It is strategically planned, written, designed, coded, launched, and maintained. All of the digital marketing activities funnel to the website. 

Which came first? And which comes next?

Digital marketing was spawned from the need to harness the new toolbox that has been filling up with such goodies as social media marketing, pay-per-click ads, email blasts, SEO, SEM, and squeeze pages—all of which are pointing the way to the aforementioned website. So, it seems quite logical that the best source for your digital marketing is the one that came first—the professionals who developed your website. You can go to an Ad Agency or a digital marketing firm, but isn’t that working backward? Since the bull’s-eye is your website and the website developer knows how to make the website powerful, this particular agency is more equipped to maximize the potential of digital marketing. Would you trust something as critical as your influence in a competitive marketplace to a firm that doesn’t understand the intricacies of the website? 

The people who are driving a higher position for your company in the organic search are certainly the better choice to handle search engine marketing. You will gain more value from a combined website development and digital marketing firm. It’s like getting both the chicken and the egg.