Small Business SEO – The Secret You Can’t Afford to Ignore
Small Business SEO – The Secret You Can’t Afford to Ignore
Tom Wilson
Google pay per click often comes second to SEO in Internet marketing. Many web owners believe that SEO is more cost-effective. That organic rankings produce more clicks, higher conversions, and greater ROI. And, above all, they’re free.
Thus, many web owners see search engine optimization as the goal. By working at SEO they will ultimately reach that crucial first page. And then those “free” organic rankings will escalate their business by driving the leads or direct sales they’ve been expecting.
In the real world of Internet marketing, however, that’s not how it works. Here, you’ll discover that there’s a turning point at which paid search becomes by far the more cost-effective strategy.
Search results data shows that first page ranking may not be as powerful as many people assume.
According to research, clicks received from first page organic results are heavily weighted towards the top sites. The site ranked #1 gets the lion’s share, four out of every 10 clicks (42%). For the other sites on page one, the click through rate (CTR) goes downhill rapidly. The site that’s #2 gets only 12% and #3 gets 8%; so nearly two thirds of the clicks go to the top three.
Of course, these figures are generalised. They don’t apply precisely to every situation. But common sense suggests they’re pretty representative. This helps us compare the value of natural search with paid search.
The click through rate on ppc varies according to your type of market, product, service, and so on. It’s also about how good you marketing is. I’ve seen and I’ve achieved CTR’s of over 10% for clients. As a rough guide, you should be disappointed if you don’t get the CTR around 2-3%.
And this is the turning point.
To make that clearer, let’s debunk the myth that SEO is free. If you want to get to the top, and stay there, you have to pay. And you usually need professionals to help you. Standard rates for a minimal service start at 00 per month. And the top companies are paying thousands more per month, every month. Every year.
So, if you’re buying SEO services and your website ranks below the top two or three of the first page, you’re likely to be more successful by using PPC advertising. Because this is when paid search comes out the winner.
When it comes to this, paid search provides significant advantages over organic search. With pay per click, bid management can ensure your ad will appear on page one and you can even get higher up the page. For instance, if you get the marketing right, your ads can even appear on the same side as and above the organic rankings.
And, if you use Google AdWords, you can perform even better. The trick with AdWords is to ensure a good keyword quality score. In that way, you have the benefit of both reduced costs per click (CPC) and being bumped up to a higher position on the page. The outcome will be increased visitors to your site.
More importantly, paid search gives you control over the content the searcher sees on the results page. This is often not the case with organic search. Also, you can direct searches to a landing page within your site that is relevant to what you want to achieve, e.g. lead generation or e-commerce. Organic search results most often take the visitor to your homepage. This page is poor when it comes to creating conversions. Never mind driving more conversions.
Finally, PPC unlike SEO is measurable in terms of its costs, even to the granular level. So, you get fast and precise metrics that show you if PPC is working and producing the ROI you want. That way,it’s a lot easier to manage. Nor gobble up your hard-earned cash before you know if it’s working, in the way that SEO can do
If you don’t get high rankings in organic search, i.e. in the top half of the page at least, and stay there, then you may very well have reached the tipping point. When paid search is the best Internet marketing strategy for you.
Tom Wilson is an expert in Internet marketing. He specializes in ppc services and has been providing marketing services and consultancy for over 10 years. His website http://www.cluedup-ppc.co.uk offers SEO services and a range of PPC services. These include ppc management, campaign setup, mentoring, and AdWords training courses.
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