Organic Search Traffic Is Top Dog For The Foreseeable Future
Those who believe ardently in the efficacy of organic search traffic can't help but
chuckle at all the noise these days surrounding different ways to get traffic to your sites. It seems that almost every week there is a new product launch that touts the amazing results of this method or that method, and if you look at the sales letters (or videos), there's almost always an element of ease surrounding it, as if to say, You don't have to do much work, and yet all this traffic can be yours! (Not to mention for three easy payments of $599!)
It's a bit hard to fault the marketers, as this is what's selling these days to those who just don't know better. If it's true that sex sells, money for nothing is a close second!
While many of these methods hope to exploit new avenues of traffic generation, such as Facebook Advertising, fan pages, Twitter, social media in general, mobile marketing, Google's Display network (formerly the Content network and no, it's not new!), PPV, YouTube, and others, the truth of it is that very little of it is actually anything new, and the promises of easy traffic and untold riches are entirely likely to be ethereal at best!
Moreover, there is even more evidence (not that we needed any!) that organic search is very much in control of the search engine results pages (SERPS) and will likely be that way for some time to come. A recent heat map study by SEOBook reveals what we've known for some time, with an exclamation point!
For those who aren't familiar with the term, a heat map is a picture of a search engine results page, with colors overlaid to indicate the areas on the page that visitors actually travel and click. What they came up with confirms the assertion that organic search traffic rules. The Google Adwords ads, along with any banners, are almost universally ignored, with the top PPC ads getting but 2-3% of the total clicks off the page, whereas the top organic search position gets a healthy 41-45%, fully 22 times more than the top PPC ad. Even the #10 organic result gets 4%, more than the best performing PPC ad. This alone should be enough to make the case for organic over PPC. (But I have more!)
More and more web surfers are increasingly savvy to the ads being shown them. They are wise to the positions and formats and are more ad-conscious than they may have been several years ago when it was all still so new. Also, the shift to a more review based, social referral type of model for finding what it is you're seeking may have a lot to do with this.
The case for working organic search for all it's worth could not be stronger. Besides the fact that this is where people are searching, there is the reality that content created for your organic campaigns will be there for a long time, whereas that click you bought today you'll have to buy again tomorrow. It's ludicrous to hear someone say they can't afford to pay for content when a PPC campaign (that will get you 22 times less traffic) will drive you to the poorhouse quickly! Food for thought!
There is also the question of links. If you ever hope to rank in the search engines, you won't do it by relying on PPC traffic alone. Conversely, an organic SEO marketing campaign can increase traffic to your website while helping to build your link profile at the same time!
Settle in for the ride and do the work necessary, and you'll find yourself rewarded with top rankings and some reasonable expectation, instead of waiting around for another Google Slap!
by: Heather Sneed
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