ORGANIC SEO PAY-PER-CLICK

ORGANIC SEO PAY-PER-CLICK

Understanding Searcher Behavior It s no wonder that you re vying for a top spot in SERP (search engine results page) rank; you want people to find you when they re looking for a product or service solution. But what s the best way to get there: organic SEO or PPC (pay-per-click)? Did you know that in 2012 there were more than 5 billion searches done on the internet every DAY? (Google, 6/18/2013) 2

Understanding Searcher Behavior Before implementing PPC or organic SEO initiatives, it s important to understand searcher behavior, as well as the potential impact and strengths & weaknesses of each initiative. While both PPC and SEO have their place in an online marketing program, it s important to look at which gives you the best chance of converting prospects. Searcher Behavior: This image is a heat map showing what areas of a Google results page get the most eyes where searchers most often look as they select pages to visit for answers to their queries (and where they don t). The chart compares organic vs. sponsored ad visibility shown in a percentage of participants looking at a listing in that location. RANK ORGANIC SPONSORED 1 100% 50% 2 100% 40% 3 100% 30% 4 85% 20% 5 60% 10% 6 50% 10% 7 50% 10% 8 30% 10% 9 30% n.a. 10 20% n.a. 3

Understanding Searcher Behavior What this means is that 100% of people searching look to the first, second and third ranked organic results; on the other hand, only 50%, 40% and 30% respectively look at those same results positions in the sponsored (PPC) ads. Across the board, far more people look at the sponsored ads. More importantly, though, today 85% of clicks resulting from a search are on organic links! That s because people trust these results far more than paid ads. RANK ORGANIC SPONSORED 1 100% 50% 2 100% 40% 3 100% 30% 4 85% 20% 5 60% 10% 6 50% 10% 7 50% 10% 8 30% 10% 9 30% n.a. 10 20% n.a. 4

Understanding Searcher Behavior Next, let s take a look at the features of ORGANIC SEO v(. PPC 5

Organic SEO & PPC Comparison FEATURE ORGANIC SEO PPC Payment Upfront Pay per response Available metrics SERPs, Ranks, Site Analytics and Links Click-thru rate and daily expenditures Percent of overall click-thru/ search responses 85-90% 1-7% Measurable yes yes Lasting results yes* no, stops as soon as budget is reached or campaign ends Seen as credible yes no; it s understood that these results are paid Open to competitive manipulation no yes, competitors can quickly use up a daily budget to stop your ad from appearing Valuable to search engines yes no Easy ROI evaluation no (but see following pages) yes Enhances SEO yes no Requires frequent oversight no yes Immediate results no** yes * While organic SEO activities impact long-term site performance, on-page activities should not be seen as a one and done activity. Ongoing link building and fresh content creation are crucial to maintaining organic SEO impact. ** Organic SEO takes time to populate since crawlers must find the information you re putting out. PPC populates immediately once the campaign starts 6

Measuring Organic SEO s ROI One of the questions we receive most often from clients and prospects interested in boosting their online performance via organic SEO is, How can we measure ROI of our SEO efforts? ROI requires new business or increased business activity that generates revenue. However, improved organic SEO performance doesn t necessarily lead directly to increased revenue. For example, your site could rank in the #1 spot of a search engine results page, but if that traffic isn t converted, no new revenue is generated. That doesn t mean the organic SEO hasn t done its job or that you re not getting your money s worth; it means the rest of your site and/or your sales organization needs to do more to drive conversions. That being said, there are definitely metrics that should be tracked to make sure your organic SEO efforts are paying off. 7

Organic SEO Measurement Keyword SERP Ranks What position is your site ranking on key search terms? How do those ranks compare to your rank before executing an organic SEO program? Keep in mind that click-thru rates drop off exponentially after the first page of search results so every position of improvement is extremely valuable. Organic Site Traffic The goal of organic SEO is to get more visitors to your site. Organic SEO s goal is to continually increase visitor volume. Monthly analysis of your site s traffic will tell you what search terms are performing well, which should be modified and which should be cast aside. In addition, monitoring traffic volume and sources will help you make decisions regarding link building and crucial off-page optimization activities. Inbound Links One of the best indicators of the success of your off-page SEO is the number of credible inbound links generated. Google looks at high-powered inbound links as votes for your site so the more quality links to your site, the more likely search engines are to positively rank your site. Page Rank PageRank is a component of Google s analysis that assigns a number or rank to each web page on the internet. The basic purpose of PageRank is to list web sites from the most important to the least important. While not as big of a part of Google s algorithm as it used to be, PageRank still impacts search engine results on specific search terms. When done well, organic SEO activities help boost a site s PageRank helping it to appear more credible and reliable to search crawlers. 8

Organic SEO Measurement Visitor Source This is how you measure the method to which visitors are finding your site. Ideally, you ll want to see a large amount of traffic coming from organic search. Bounce Rate One of the goals of your website should be to keep people on it and view as much content as they can. Bounce rate is a measurement of how quickly someone bounces away from your site. A lower number is what you re looking for here. Good organic SEO that accurately describes your page will attract and keep visitors looking for that information. Search Term Here s where you ll check to see if visitors are finding your site in search engines by searching for the keywords that you ve optimized around. If users are coming to visit your site via other keywords, you can instead optimize around those, if they re relevant. Branded vs. Non-branded Keywords If most of your traffic from search engines is coming from branded keywords (your company name or product name), you should focus more on attracting visitors to your site through non-branded keywords. 9

Do You Need Organic SEO? You know you need organic SEO if: You conduct a search for your primary products or services and your company does not appear within the top 10 results You conduct a search of your company name and your website does not hold the #1 position Your website does not currently incorporate on-page meta data or keywords Links to your site are very few or non-existent You'd like more relevant traffic to your website You re getting almost no interaction on your site Visitors spend very little time and/or view only a few pages on your website Your direct competitors are much easier to find on the web than you are You ve gotten little or no sales/revenue from your website 10

Want To Know More? Weidert Group can help you maximize organic SEO through the power of inbound marketing the kind of power that turns your sales funnel into a opportunity magnet, with the best prospects powerless to resist. Give us a call: 920.731.2771. Ask for Greg Linnemanstons, our president, at extension 231. Or email at gregl@weidert.com Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Tweet This 2014 Weidert Group Inc. weidert.com 11