Organic or Pay-Per-Click

Organic or Pay-Per Click is a very good question. I have been asked that question a lot lately. I used to sell a lot of Pay-Per-Click campaigns. In the beginning it was very lucrative for me and profitable for my clients, but today you are competing with the whole world. There is nothing unique about you or your site if you are shown in the paid section of a search.

Organic or Pay-Per -Click

Several years ago I was big believer in Pay-Per-Click or PPC. My clients we ranking on the first page and selling their products or services. I even used it for my own company. But today I do not believe it is a good long term strategy. Yes some believe in it, and do well. But today I know it has limited applications.

In Browser Real-estate

My company measures the actual in browser space for searches and keywords or terms my clients want to be ranked for. The average amount of real-estate used by Google PPC is about 65% of the space on a normal search, sometimes much higher. However, when asked, or pressed for the percentage of clicks in that space Google said it is only 5% of the click-through. That means 95% of the searchers are either clicking in the Organic space, or refining their search.

Knowing that internet users are getting better at searching is good information to have. Over the past several years the number of words in the average search has been increasing. That means searchers are getting better at finding what they are looking for. That also combined with the high number of clicks in the organic space means your sites are far better off in the non-PPC area or organic space.

How much does Google make?

Doesn’t worry Google is not going to go broke! I recently read an article stating that Google made $103,835,616 a day during 2011. And at the end of business last Friday Google shares closed at $800 dollars. I think they are doing just fine. They still control over 1 billion searches a day. That is still a lot of PPC revenue, even ant just 5% of the traffic.

In Conclusion

Although I sound skeptical f PPC, Google and PPC are going to be with us for a long time. You just need to make good decisions about when it should be used. I believe it is totally appropriate for a new site launch, or even an overstock application, but it is not a good long term growth strategy.

Use it wisely and you and your clients will be pleased with the results.

Always use a professional SEO firm to improve your organic Ranking!