Integrating Paid &
Natural Search Listings
The combination of using
natural and paid search listings in an integrated manner to attract web
traffic is more effective than using either one on their own.
Interestingly, there is anecdotal evidence that achieving top ranking
in both natural and paid listings concurrently can triple
click-through-rates.
This result has been supported
(but not equaled) in a recent report by iCrossing that concludes
"running an integrated natural and paid search campaign leads
to improved online performance over running either a natural search or
paid campaign alone." This is probably because when a searcher sees an
organic and paid listing concurrently the credibility of the site is
reinforced.
When the results of paid
search campaigns were compared to the results of paid campaigns in
which the same keywords also had natural search results occurring at
the same time, it was found that online performance dramatically
improved. For one business, an online marketing company, click-throughs
increased by over ninety percent, visitors increased by over forty
percent, orders increased by nearly forty five percent and time spent
on the website increased by over thirty eight percent.
While iCrossing's research
results are not as significant as some anecdotal
observations, they still strongly indicate that webmasters will receive
much greater benefits if they can achieve a top rank in organic search
listings at the same time as running a paid search campaign.
Both paid and organic search
traffic is highly targeted, however a recent study conducted by
WebSideStory Inc of fifty seven million search engine visits found that
paid search engine listings had an order conversion rate of 3.40
percent over 3.13 percent for natural search listings. However, with
paid search listings webmasters and marketers are able to get rid of
keywords that do not perform well and replace them with higher
converting terms.
Paid search listings also
allow control of the landing page and the initial message the visitor
receives whereas organic listings cannot be controlled in the same way.
This means that on their own, paid search listings are more effective
than organic listings. The two together, however, produce a synergy
that enhances these results substantially.
Natural listings are free of
charge and the result of doing the hard yards of optimizing your
website pages for search engines. They are a well earned result that
should be aimed for by providing relevant content that is optimized for
keywords and related words and phrases. To increase your natural search
engine position, make sure your website is well structured with
appropriate internal and external links and keep to a single main theme.
To achieve top listing
organically takes a lot of time and effort. Therefore, it is
understandable that most marketing campaigns relying on search engine
listings take advantage of pay per click advertising. The key to the
best results is to use paid search listings while optimizing your
website to achieve high search engine results placement over the longer
term.
When you achieve natural
listings at the same time as your paid listings appear, you can expect
to receive additional website traffic than you would if only the one or
the other appeared at a time. This synergistic benefit expresses the
real value of integrating paid and natural search listing strategies to
increase targeted website traffic and sales.
Brett Smith has been placing customer's ads at the
front of the search results of the major search engines for over 12
years. Discover how to increase your sales, get better cashflow and
increase your customer base with targeted effective search engine
advertising.
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