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Archive for June, 2009

An impressive article in the Aztek Marketing Blog called “PPC vs Natural Search? A Cost Comparison Case Study” caught my eye recently. As the title suggests, the post compares the costs of PPC with those of obtaining a first page ranking in the ‘natural’ search listings.

I agree with much of this article’s well reasoned argument, but take issue with the conclusion.

… over time, a high ranking in the natural search results can actually cost less than a high position in the (arguably less effective) paid listings.

Let me explain …

The author rightly points out that searchers typically pay more attention to natural search results than PPC ads. Many studies have already shown that for the most popular queries in almost any niche, the natural listings can be clicked on as many as 10 times more often than any PPC ad.

And yes, as also correctly pointed out, it can take some time to reach the top positions on the results pages for natural search against any meaningful query. In fact, for the more popular keywords, it can take years.

But, once you have that elusive high natural ranking, you can’t just sit back and congratulate yourself on a good job well done!

You see, the search engines don’t play fair with your natural listings. The boffins in white coats at Google HQ are regularly tweaking the way in which they calculate a sites relevance.

This means that one day your listing can be near the top of the first page of results and bringing in lots of good quality visitors to your web site, many of whom will buy from you. The next day, that same listing can be ranked on the third or fourth page of results and all those leads and sales are gone.

And there is nothing you can do about it other than start the whole process again.

Your traffic from PPC may seem to cost more than from the natural listings and you will get less of the available market share from your PPC ads, but the traffic you do get is considerably easier to obtain and keep. Your online advertising is therefore much more predictable.

Most business owners want to start seeing a return from their web site today, not in many months time. And for most online businesses,  a PPC campaign is the quickest and most efficient way of getting a return on their investment fast.

And if you base your campaign on profit rather than cost, it’s not even less effective.

So, should business owners ignore the cost advantages of natural search and put all their efforts into a PPC campaign?

Absolutely not!

The right thing to do is both.

Start an Adwords campaign today, begin to attract qualified visitors to your web site and convert them into sales.

When your PPC ads are making you money, start working on your natural search engine listings with well written and targeted articles, either written by yourself or your SEO copywriter.

You’ll then very soon start to enjoy the best of both worlds. The benefits of a more regular traffic flow from Adwords AND high visitor volumes from the natural listings.

For help with everything Adwords, visit Key Searches, making Adwords more profitable for you.

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