SEO Game Plans: Organic Search Results or Pay Per Click?
 by: Mary Lewis-Pierce


When deciding on an internet marketing strategy, there are many decisions to be made. One of the most basic is whether to pursue natural and organic search engine results or to use paid placement. Of course, your company may choose to do a combination of both.

Organic or Natural SEO is the pursuit of web site traffic by placing high in the SERPs or Search Engine Results Page. Organic results is what occurs when you type in a key word like “Home Mortgate” and FannieMae.com and other mortgage brokers show up. This is different from Pay Per Click Advertising which are the sponsored links that are also placed on the page. You do not pay for organic results. They are the result of either search engine optimization or just dumb luck.

Ranking high for targeted key words in the search engines can make a measurable difference to your business. However, since it is so profitable, ranking for competitive keywords often requires the help of a professional SEO consultant.

Also, the search engines are always concerned about the integrity of their results, so a SEO campaign targeting organic results can often take a considerable amount of time before you see results. This can be unnerving especially if you are a small business that relies on the internet for results.

Paid advertisement on the search engines, also known as Pay Per Click Campaigns allow a new web site to immediately place itself on the top of search results. This is a great benefit especially if you have a new domain name that is experiencing the Sandbox or time delay that search engines sometimes impose in order to weed out spam. Also, a pay per click campaign can give you immediate information on which keywords are the most effective. If you track the information carefully, you can also see which ads are leading to sales.

There are some significant issues however. A Pay Per Click campaign can be costly, especially for competitive key words. It is imperative that a company does an ROI (Return On Investment) to make sure that it makes economic sense to bid on the key words. I have seen many companies set up expensive campaigns and then completely ignore the results. This is a really good way to throw away money. If you don’t have the time or resources to monitor your campaign then this is not a good strategy for you. Also, be sure to check your ROI. If you are generating a lot of traffic but the money you are making from it doesn’t cover your campaign cost, it doesn’t make sense to continue.

Though organic search results require more of an investment up front, in the long run, they are a more sustainable way to drive traffic to your web site. What is imperative, however, is that you do a thorough job of researching keywords before beginning. You do not want to spend your valuable time generating embedded anchor links only to decide the keywords you targeted are not the best. You will want to make sure you know which are the most effective keywords to target. Web sites like http://www.wordtracker.com/ and http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ are good places to start.

This is also one way that the two approaches can work together. You can use a Pay Per Click campaign to research which key words bring in the most traffic and result in the most sales.

These are a few of the issues to think about when embarking on a Search Engine Marketing Campaign. No matter which strategy or combination of strategies you decide upon, make sure you have thought about the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches then take the path that makes the most sense for you.

About The Author
Mary Lewis-Pierce is a consultant who provides SEO for the small business and non-profit web site. She specializes in organic search results. To learn how to increase traffic to your site, visit her at http://www.seo-boston.com.