MODMACRO has always been an advocate of organic search optimization. That is, working to get your website ranked highly in Google’s natural (or organic) results. We continue to present organic rankings as our primary recommendation to gain long-term, valuable exposure for your business. It usually takes a little patience, but the pay-off is well worth the effort and wait. We’ve developed dozens of techniques for organic SEO, but we also recommend paid search marketing as part of a well-rounded strategy.
Paid search advertising, like Google Adwords continues to be a technique we encourage and use. But it’s important to know that people are less likely to click on paid ads – by a factor of about 7 to 1 in fact. After performing a Google search you’re presented with organic search results, and usually paid results as well. The paid ads, often referred to as pay-per-click or PPC, are presented above and to the right of the organic results.
The latest data shows that 85 – 90% of users will click on organic results, while only 10 – 15% will click on the ads. That’s an important distinction to be aware of. This statistic certainly makes the investment in organic search optimization more attractive, and strengthens the argument we’ve always presented. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that PPC is a bad idea. Given the nature of Google pay-per-click advertising, it’s okay that a smaller percentage of users will click your ads because you only pay when they do click. You’re not paying for the ads to be seen. So yes, much lower click-thru rates are common with PPC campaigns, but they still offer great ROI in most industries.
