Pay Per Click (PPC) versus Natural Search on Google

Over 49% of the UK consumer market is searching for products and services on the three major search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN). How does your website get found in amongst the millions of others battling for exposure? There are two main ways to capture leads online and they consist of having a pay per click advertising campaign or appearing in the top five pages of the main three search engines. The big difference between the two is that pay per click comes with a price and achieving a natural position in the organic search results doesn’t. This article discusses the pros and cons of using PPC versus organic search and which of the two gives you a better return on investment.

To pay or not to pay

Getting a good return on investment... requires a great deal of research and analysis

Deciding on which route to take with online advertising will very much depend on the keywords your customers are using to find the products and services you sell. Certain keywords are extremely competitive, try using tail searches such as “car servicing Milton Keynes” rather than generic searches like “car servicing” to narrow down your competition and improve your targeting. Using tail searches will cut down on cost per click and improve the click through rate.

Getting a good return on investment from this method of advertising requires a great deal of research and analysis into keywords and advert copy. Getting the right balance in place to generate enough leads for your business is the main challenge you face with this form of advertising. There are many elements to consider, it is not a simple case of placing an ad and paying for it. Getting the right keyword balance is the first challenge; secondly you must produce the right ad copy. The beauty of pay per click is that you can change your advertising at any time and the changes you make are instant. If you are getting the click through’s but not converting any into enquiries, your landing page needs to be reviewed. Create the right landing page and the return on investment will improve dramatically.

As a marketing channel, PPC is an efficient route to market with more or less predictable, reliable results. The downside is, it can be expensive and there is a great deal of monitoring and administration required to get to this point. It is not a simple case of placing an advert and seeing the enquiries roll in.

Go Organic

... keep your website updated with good content and changes...

Appearing in the natural search results has become something of a science and there are many businesses offering to get you to number one on Google within 24 hours. This may or may not be possible but there is one certainty you will discover when trying to achieve the holy grail of a high Google listing; it takes a great deal of hard work and is very unpredictable. The only way to keep a high position is to monitor your competitors, keep your website updated with good content and changes and make sure you are linked to from sites with a higher page rank than you. There are many other more technical activities that will help you achieve a high position but the general point to make is that your website must be treated like a child; constant monitoring, regular feeding and nurturing will give you a well rounded site that will grow into your hardest working asset and provide the return on investment you need to increase the sales into your business.

There are many other sources of traffic available online that will support your organic search position. Advertising, social networking and affiliate schemes will all deliver valuable traffic to your site as well as increase your position on search engines. The key thing to remember about internet marketing is to make sure the site you are promoting is worth the journey. If someone clicks on your pay per click advert or your organic position on Google, make it worth their while and create a landing page that will convert the click into a customer.

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