One of the questions I’m asked most often is what’s the best
option for advertising a web site, Pay Per Click adverts or
search engine optimising to achieve top crawled or “organic”
listings. My usual answer is “a combination of the two”. Both
have their uses and their own pros and cons. In this issue we
will focus on “Pay Per Click versus “Organic” Search Engine
Listings” and aim to give you some clear guidelines and business
scenarios to help you plan a successful, integrated campaign
that is tailored to your business goals and market situation.
What’s the difference? For those who aren’t quite clear what the
term “natural” or “organic” search engine-listing means, they
describe the “editorial” search results on any particular
engine. These results are professed to be non-biased - meaning
that the engine will not accept money to influence the rankings
of any individual sites. This is quite different than the paid
advertising (Pay Per Click) that appears in the “sponsored” or
“featured” results, in which higher positions are awarded to the
companies willing to pay the most per visitor or click. Why is
organic search important? Although paying for Pay Per Click
listings initially seems the obvious answer, organic search
listings are still very important to both searchers and web site
advertisers. Knowledgeable searchers, who understand the
difference between paid and organic results are more likely to
hold the natural results in a higher regard, much like a person
reading a newspaper or magazine would be more positively
influenced by an article about a particular product or service
than by a paid advertisement from the company that sells it. In
addition, organic results even the playing field. Companies or
individuals with smaller marketing budgets can complete with
larger organisations as the natural results are based on
relevancy to the search term rather than the amount you are
willing or able to pay for each click through to your web site.
What are the cons? Unfortunately, it takes a certain amount of
knowledge and programming skills to optimise for organic search
listings. It can also take a ridiculous length of time to be
indexed. It often takes anywhere from two days to as much as six
months to be listed on a search engine. Several weeks is the
norm, but you could get lucky and submit just a couple days
before an engine does a complete refresh of their database.
Which One Gets More Clicks? I am frequently asked “Which listing
type do searchers click on more often: natural “organic” search
engine results or paid “sponsored” adverts?” Recent studies have
confirmed my standard response, that the answer is a classic
case of…it depends!
Searcher behaviour varies greatly depending on the demographics
of the searcher (men v women, experienced Internet users v
novices), the type of search a person is conducting
(information-oriented v purchase-oriented) and the engine where
the search is being conducted.
To reach the greatest number of potential customers and maximize
the results of your advertising campaign, you must be visible in
natural organic results AND sponsored listings.
Here are six possible scenarios to help you prioritise and
decide which path(s) to follow when setting up your search
engine marketing campaign:
1. Limited Advertising Budget If budgets are tight or
nonexistent and you can’t afford to pay for website visitors,
even after taking into account the value of their desired online
action, you will want to place a great deal of emphasis on
effectively implementing search engine optimisation in-house. If
you don’t already have the knowledge or skills to implement
this, download our invaluable guide to optimising your web site
for both organic search engine listings and visitor use here:
“Start at the Beginning”:
http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_2.html
2. Website That Can’t Be Modified Optimisation for organic
search engine listings typically involves modifying a site’s
design, content, and navigation. For example, heavy reliance on
Flash, frames, or graphics may need to be changed in order to
incorporate more optimised text. However, some businesses feel
that an optimised website does not provide the multi-media
experience their customers require or expect. If your business
falls into this category, then Pay Per Click advertising may be
the only way to achieve good results.
3. Need Immediate Results A basic Pay Per Click campaign on
Overture or Google can be up and running and driving visitors to
your web site in a matter of hours. Significant improvement in
organic rankings may take several months to achieve. If you
require immediate results Pay Per-Click advertising will need to
be your top priority.
4. Guaranteed Top Placement No-one can guarantee consistent, top
organic listings for high volume key phrases in a competitive
market sector. Search engines change their algorithms (indexing
criteria) regularly and no one can control how or when sites are
indexed, except the individual search engine itself. If you
absolutely must guarantee consistent top placement on
high-volume keywords in a competitive market sector, you will
need to rely heavily on Pay Per Click advertising and have
sufficient budget to fund it. Investigate current bid rates, can
you afford top placement on the highest-volume words? If not,
expand your keyword list beyond the most obvious and popular key
phrases and advertise across a larger number of less popular,
more specific and cost-effective phrases. Remember that most
searchers enter two or three words to form a key phrase rather
than a single word.
For a complete guide to setting up and managing your Pay Per
Click campaign, download our guide: “Maximising Your Pay Per
Click Campaign” read an excerpt here:
http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_5.html
Ultimately, focus on the keywords that work best and achieve the
best conversion rates and the highest return on investment
(ROI). For more detailed advice on how to measure your
conversions and ROI, download our guide: “Measuring Success”,
read an excerpt here:
http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_6.html
5. A Need To Change Advert Content or Timing If you need to
frequently change the content of your adverts, for example to
promote particular products or to make seasonal offers, or if
you want to be able to turn your advertising on and off, you
will need to rely on the control and flexibility offered by Pay
Per Click advertising.
6 Ad-Adverse Audience More Internet savvy search engine users
recognise information that is displayed as a purchased advert
and this limits its credibility. In this case the integrity
associated with a high natural ranking is invaluable. If your
target market is likely to be Internet wise (IT professionals,
students, etc), optimisation should be your main focus.
The above guidelines will help you assess the relative priority
of optimisation and Pay Per Click advertising, but how should
you implement each method? Simultaneously or one at a time?
Generally speaking I would recommend that you start the Pay Per
Click campaign slightly before the optimisation of your web
site. The immediacy of a Pay Per Click campaign will bring you
visitors in the short term, and more importantly it will also
allow you to measure what is (and is not) working on your web
site; are the landing pages for your adverts converting your
visitors, are you targeting the most effective keywords, etc.
Armed with the results of this testing you can optimise your web
site effectively and avoid costly delays that occur while
waiting for search engines to re-crawl newly optimised pages.
Only when you are completely happy that your web site is the
best it can be should you submit it to the search engines.
When these organic listings start to bring visitors to your web
site, you can re-evaluate you Pay Per Click spend. It may be
that your ROI on these adverts is acceptable and you continue as
is, or you may wish to reduce your advertising spend. A quick
calculation on your conversion rates should give you the answer.
For more information see our guide: “Measuring Success”, read an
excerpt here: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_6.html
Today, most marketers accept that web site optimisation for
organic listings and Pay Per Click advertising is not an
either/or proposition. For a well-rounded and effective search
marketing campaign that reaches the greatest number of
searchers, marketers should blend both natural and paid
listings, capitalising on their complementary strengths and
weaknesses.