Search Engine Marketing:
Organic Optimization or Pay Per Click?

There are two main types of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) in use today. Organic, or “natural,” optimization modifies your website content to target specific keywords. Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is just that, paid advertising. To better understand how organic optimization and Pay Per Click can help your online presence, let us look at both more fully.

Organic optimization looks at the keywords you want your website to target. Based on these keywords, organic optimization redevelops content on your website such that it targets these keywords more successfully. By using organic optimization, you gain control over certain aspects of listing content, such as tags and page text. Organic optimization also potentially targets every search engine worldwide.

Pay Per Click advertising is also based on keywords, but it is a managed campaign where you pay to be listed in sponsored results on search engines. Each time a search engine user clicks on your listing, you pay the search engine a fee based on your ranking in the bidding process and other factors. PPC advertising is based by search engine, and only certain search engines (most noticeably Google, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL) use sponsored searches.

So which strategy should your company use? The answer most studies and SEM firms give is “both.” Ignoring organic optimization and relying only on PPC will only bring a fraction of potential customers, resulting in a low position in search engine rankings. This means potential clients will visit your competitors instead. JupiterResearch has found that more than 80% of clicks on search engine result pages go to organic listings.

However, ignoring PPC completely and focusing solely on organic optimization usually is not enough. Certain keywords you target may also be targeted by a large number of other companies. By adding PPC to organic optimization you still appear high enough in search engine listings to get results. The best strategy, according to Frank Marckini of iProspect, is to use a paid strategy to complement your organic strategy.

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