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27-Dec-2011 Google Adwords or SEO?
Here's what I can say, and it's not a personal opinion, but a common fact: Google Adwords or Pay Per Click (PPC) brings results fast, but you have to pay all the time. The sums get rather big. And you never know for sure, whether PPC will pay for itself, or it's just money down the drain.
SEO
is different, in terms of investment and effect. First you pay and some
months later you start getting dramatic results. Yes, SEO pays for
itself hundreds of times better, in the long run.
Here're five curious facts about web search:
- When Internet users look for information, services or products to buy, more than 8 out of 10 rely on search engines, not simple surfing.
- 85% of these searchers don't click on paid links.
- 63% of links that are naturally displayed at the top of search engines get clicks.
- Being naturally found at the top (due to SEO, not to payment) converts 30% higher ( = brings 30% more money).
- Over the last year, Pay-per-click (PPC) costs have grown 37%, and they go on rising.
What is Google’s Golden Triangle and the Reason Why Google Adwords Receives Only 12% of All Clicks.
“Paid
results get ~12% of all clicks on search results while organic results
garner the remaining 88% (and that's only on search results that display
paid ads - many searches, especially long tail style queries, contain
no PPC ads whatsoever) - Data via Enquisite's analytics research”
Welcome to the the Google Golden Triangle
is an apparent area of concentrated eye scan activity as we can see by the heat map below. Notice the red X on the Google Adwords Advert?
The
red areas shown in the triangle reconfirm the importance of a number
one organic search results ranking. Just like the letter “F”, studies
show that when looking at content human’s eyes start at the top in a
horizontal way first, then travel vertically along the left side of the
results page.
If
your listing isn’t located in the search engines "Golden Triangle" then
your chances of being seen by search engine users is severely reduced.
Enquiro
provided a great analogy – Think of the search results page as a
shopping mall, with users eye activity as foot traffic. A typical mall
has a few anchor tenants evenly dispersed throughout the mall. This is
done so foot traffic will go from one anchor tenant to another and all
of the others stores will benefit from the walk by traffic. The search
results page has one anchor, the organic result in the upper left
corner. Every other result is a detour during the route.
You’re probably wondering -
“well what about the top sponsored ad, that’s in the upper left hand
corner too”. It is true that the top sponsored results are highly
visible and receive a good number of clicks… mostly because that
results happens to grab your eyes attention on the way to the first
organic result.
For
the most part people do not look for sponsored links. Think of what
would happen if a mall only had one anchor tenant at one end of the
mall. The majority of the mall’s traffic would be at that end, with the
smaller stores on the other end receiving very limited foot traffic.
The
predominance of clicks that the first organic result gets comes from a
conditioned behavioral response associated with the natural pattern in
the way people assimilate information.
Why the Front Page of Google?
When
you do a search in Google, you get a list of results. 10 results per
page for X number of pages. When reviewing your attached report a
keyword rank of 6 translates to position 6 on the front page of Google,
Yahoo or Bing. A Rank of 16 translates to the second page -> position
number 6 and so on.
This is important to understand because
when someone does a search, they click on the top positions most often.
What that means is the higher up on the page, the more clicks you will
get. And more clicks = more leads.
Only 10.18% of traffic EVER even makes it past the first page!
Here
is a breakdown of the average percentage clicks per result. These
results are according to data released by Microsoft on research for
their search engine site MSN, which is now Bing and exclude pay per
click or advertising on top of your organic result.
1st result – will get clicked on 42.13% of the time. Wow!
2nd result – 11.90 %
3rd result – 8.50%
4th result – 6.06%
5th result – 4.92%
6th result – 4.05%
7th result – 3.41%
8th result – 3.01%
9th result – 2.85%
10th result – 2.99%
Only 10.18% of traffic EVER even makes it past the first page!
There is no second place.
Well, there is, but 1st place get 4 times the traffic of second, and 10 times the traffic of 6th.
8 reasons you need Search Engine Optimisation
- Search engines are the highest source of website traffic.
85%
of Internet users cite search engines as their primary method of
finding websites. No other marketing or advertising medium even comes
close.
- Search engines bring you the most valuable prospects.
Visitors
from search engines are extremely qualified prospects who are actively
looking for your product or service. Compare that to running a print or
TV ad and hoping that someone interested sees it.
- SEO generates the highest ROI of any form of marketing.
Dollar
for dollar, SEO is proven to yield a higher return on investment in
terms of generating website traffic, qualified leads, and customer
acquisitions. In fact, 40% of SEO campaigns that measure results achieve
returns of over 500%!
- SEO gets you to rank where the action is.
- A
full 60% of organic clicks go to the first 3 websites in the search
results, 89% of users never go past the first page of search results,
and 93% of users don’t look further than the second page.
- SEO works for your business non-stop, 24/7.
Your
optimised website promotes your business 24 hours a day, 365 days a
year. It also gives you long term market positioning – a strongly
optimised website can continue to pull in excellent traffic and sales
indefinitely.
- SEO builds trust in your brand.
- 33%
of users believe companies found in the top search results are a major
brand in their specific product/service category. SEO raises your online
profile and reputation.
- SEO makes your customers like you more.
- Optimisation makes your website more user-friendly, so your customers are more likely to return and buy from you again.
- SEO makes your business stronger.
- You
can invest the money generated by your SEO campaign into other
marketing streams – opening up the door for even more customers and
sales.
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