Let me preface this report by citing advertisers in 2004 have spent 4 Billion dollars on search engine marketing according to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO).

Website marketers cited Search engine positioning was the top method to drive traffic to their sites (66%), followed by email marketing (54%). Source: Direct Marketing Association. Accordingly, the most cost effective way to market your web site online is to obtain several top 10-search engine rankings in the major search engines for your keywords.

According to a recent Jupiter Research Survey, searching on the search engines is one of the main uses of the Internet among 79% of users. Source: September 2002 Jupiter Research Survey. So that being the case, whatever your promoting you’ll want to make sure it can be found on the first page of the search engines results page.

The reason is numerically simple. An Iprospect Survey in 2002 reported that 78% of web users abandon their search if the first 3 pages don’t provide an answer to their question, and 28% don’t scroll past the 2nd page of results. Source: Media Post article reporting results of Spring 2002 IProspect survey.

Combine those facts with the Internets explosive growth rate of 1.8 Million people worldwide going online every week for the very first time, Source: Official Guide To Internet Promotion and you can soon appreciate what a top 10 ranking can mean to you. Google receives approximately 39.4% of all search engine traffic. Yahoo receives approximately 30.4%. They’re simply the largest search engines being utilized online today.

Bringing up the rear is MSN at 29.6%, and AOL 15.5% then Ask Jeeves with 8.5%. Source: Nielsen//NetRatings January 2004

How much traffic is that? Well, Google and its partner sites were reporting a whopping 250 million searches a day in February 2003.

Overture and its partners were reporting over 167 million searches per day. Inktomi reported 80 million followed by LookSmart with 45 million per day.

FindWhat reported 33 million while Ask Jeeves reported 20 million, Alta Vista reported 18 million and finally Fast reported 12 Million searches per day. Source: Searchenginewatch.com 2004.

With all said, you can easily see how your search engine rankings are directly proportional to the traffic your web site receives, and your site traffic is directly related to your potential to profit online.

Oh, and in case your wondering how much money is spent online; a recent Forrester Research Report indicated that online spending reached $95,700,000,000 million in 2003!

That’s a cool 95.7 billion dollars. Projected online spending is estimated to grow to $229 billion in 2008! A whopping 139% increase in online spending! Source: Forrester Research

Now with these facts in mind I’m confident you can clearly see what a top 10-search engine ranking can mean for your bottom line. Although it does leave a question unanswered in my mind, what has a higher ROI… organic search engine optimization or paid search?

According to SEMPO’s key analysis, the U.S. & Canadian SEM Industry Size Estimate by tactic in 2004, organic SEO accounted for 12% of the market share or $492,057,200 while Paid Placement accounted for $3,341,878,176 or 81.8%.

Interestingly, 9 out of 10 respondents are actively engaged in organic SEM marketing programs accounting for 89% of the respondent advertisers. This trend can be contributed to the average cost of popular keywords continuing to escalate.

If the escalation continues to rise it could make paid search engine advertising exponentially cost prohibitive for all but the largest advertisers… the 900lb gorillas!

Simply put, ROI is outpacing inflation: SEMPO’s key analysis indicates advertisers could afford to pay on average 33% more for their keywords and remain profitable, while they say prices have gone up 26% on average in the last 12 months. That’s leaves a 7% advertising margin to maintain current profits for 2005!

SEMPO’s data also noted that advertisers will get smarter about managing their paid placement programs before they cut back on spending.

This is also consistent with a report released by Nielsen/NetRatings indicating that the growing demand for search engine advertising is outstripping the supply of currently available advertising space.

These findings seem to indicate the inventory of keywords is approaching a critical demand problem however; most advertisers felt they still have some degree of price flexibility in their paid placement programs before they will reach the threshold of diminishing returns.

Is there any wonder why organic search engine positioning has gained popularity for online marketers in 2004? Could it be higher (ROI) return on investments?

SEMPO also cites that 43% of advertiser respondents have shifted their budgets away from other marketing programs for Organic SEO.

So what does it all mean? Let the numbers speak for themselves.

Organic SEO is undeniably gaining favor over the lower ROI paid advertising. This is evidenced by virtue of the fact that paid advertising is becoming less profitable.

Although paid advertising will continue to hold a large portion of the market share, as paid advertising returns diminish and keyword costs soar my early 2005 forecast is for the materialization of a progressive organic SEO market trend to facilitate the need for advertising space.

Copyright 2005 Lawrence Deon

Lawrence Deon is a Search Engine Optimization/Marketing Consultant, Author and Developer of the popular search engine optimization and marketing model Ranking Your Way To The Bank. http://www.rankingyourwaytothebank.com

Search Engine Optimization has emerged as a powerful Internet Marketing tool in recent years. Search Engine Optimization is the success story behind most of the web portals on internet. Search Engine Optimization is a complex, and articulate subject which requires deep understanding of Organic SEO.

Search Engine Optimization is one of the techniques followed by webmasters, and seo experts across the world to make their respective websites rank on top. Without going into details of Search Engine Optimization techniques, I will take you through the various benefits, and drawbacks of this form of Marketing.

Some of the benefits are: -

1) You can optimize you website for keyword, and you don’t need to pay a single penny to search engines like google, yahoo, and msn.

2) Some of the top level PPC keywords like “Online Casinos”, can cost you around thousands of dollars. If you can optimize your website for the same keyword on Natural listings, then you can make your website a golden goose.

3) Your Google PR depends upon the number of inbound links to your website. Websites with higher PR are considered as popular websites, whereas those with lower PR are considered as low traffic website.

Some of the drawbacks of Natural Search Engine Optimization are: -

1) It’s requires great efforts to make a website come on top for competitive keywords.

2) It requires deep understanding of each and every aspect of SEO.

3) You have to constantly monitor your website. There are several other benefits, and drawbacks pertaining to Natural Search Engine Optimization. It requires dedicated efforts to make a website come on top for competitive keywords. Natural Search Engine Optimization is the real test of any professional Seo. Best of Luck

Seohawk, India

Name: Bhupinder Singh

Occupation: Working as webmaster for BSOLUTIONS, http://www.bsolutions.s5.com, and seoexpert in http://www.seohawk.com. I have worked for several international clients from UK, US, CANADA, and India. Having experience of more than 3 years in web development and Search Engine Optimization, I have evolved a wide expertise in Search Engine Optimization Techniques.

Contact me: bhupinder@bsolutions.s5.com OR bhupinder@seohawk.com

What’s the difference?

For those who aren’t quite clear what the term "natural" or "organic" search engine-listing means, they describe the "editorial" search results on any particular engine. These results are professed to be non-biased - meaning that the engine will not accept money to influence the rankings of any individual sites. This is quite different than the paid advertising (Pay Per Click) that appears in the "sponsored" or "featured" results, in which higher positions are awarded to the companies willing to pay the most per visitor or click.

Why is organic search important?

Although paying for Pay Per Click listings initially seems the obvious answer, organic search listings are still very important to both searchers and web site advertisers. Knowledgeable searchers, who understand the difference between paid and organic results are more likely to hold the natural results in a higher regard, much like a person reading a newspaper or magazine would be more positively influenced by an article about a particular product or service than by a paid advertisement from the company that sells it. In addition, organic results even the playing field. Companies or individuals with smaller marketing budgets can complete with larger organisations as the natural results are based on relevancy to the search term rather than the amount you are willing or able to pay for each click through to your web site.

What are the cons?

Unfortunately, it takes a certain amount of knowledge and programming skills to optimise for organic search listings. It can also take a ridiculous length of time to be indexed. It often takes anywhere from two days to as much as six months to be listed on a search engine. Several weeks is the norm, but you could get lucky and submit just a couple days before an engine does a complete refresh of their database.

Which One Gets More Clicks?

I am frequently asked "Which listing type do searchers click on more often: natural “organic” search engine results or paid “sponsored” adverts?" Recent studies have confirmed my standard response, that the answer is a classic case of…it depends!

Searcher behaviour varies greatly depending on the demographics of the searcher (men v women, experienced Internet users v novices), the type of search a person is conducting (information-oriented v purchase-oriented) and the engine where the search is being conducted.

To reach the greatest number of potential customers and maximize the results of your advertising campaign, you must be visible in natural organic results AND sponsored listings.

Here are six possible scenarios to help you prioritise and decide which path(s) to follow when setting up your search engine marketing campaign:

1. Limited Advertising Budget
If budgets are tight or nonexistent and you can’t afford to pay for website visitors, even after taking into account the value of their desired online action, you will want to place a great deal of emphasis on effectively implementing search engine optimisation in-house. If you don’t already have the knowledge or skills to implement this, download our invaluable guide to optimising your web site for both organic search engine listings and visitor use here: “Start at the Beginning”: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_2.html

2. Website That Can’t Be Modified
Optimisation for organic search engine listings typically involves modifying a site’s design, content, and navigation. For example, heavy reliance on Flash, frames, or graphics may need to be changed in order to incorporate more optimised text. However, some businesses feel that an optimised website does not provide the multi-media experience their customers require or expect. If your business falls into this category, then Pay Per Click advertising may be the only way to achieve good results.

3. Need Immediate Results
A basic Pay Per Click campaign on Overture or Google can be up and running and driving visitors to your web site in a matter of hours. Significant improvement in organic rankings may take several months to achieve. If you require immediate results Pay Per-Click advertising will need to be your top priority.

4. Guaranteed Top Placement
No-one can guarantee consistent, top organic listings for high volume key phrases in a competitive market sector. Search engines change their algorithms (indexing criteria) regularly and no one can control how or when sites are indexed, except the individual search engine itself. If you absolutely must guarantee consistent top placement on high-volume keywords in a competitive market sector, you will need to rely heavily on Pay Per Click advertising and have sufficient budget to fund it. Investigate current bid rates, can you afford top placement on the highest-volume words? If not, expand your keyword list beyond the most obvious and popular key phrases and advertise across a larger number of less popular, more specific and cost-effective phrases. Remember that most searchers enter two or three words to form a key phrase rather than a single word.

For a complete guide to setting up and managing your Pay Per Click campaign, download our guide: “Maximising Your Pay Per Click Campaign” read an excerpt here: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_5.html

Ultimately, focus on the keywords that work best and achieve the best conversion rates and the highest return on investment (ROI). For more detailed advice on how to measure your conversions and ROI, download our guide: “Measuring Success”, read an excerpt here: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_6.html

5. A Need To Change Advert Content or Timing
If you need to frequently change the content of your adverts, for example to promote particular products or to make seasonal offers, or if you want to be able to turn your advertising on and off, you will need to rely on the control and flexibility offered by Pay Per Click advertising.

6 Ad-Adverse Audience
More Internet savvy search engine users recognise information that is displayed as a purchased advert and this limits its credibility. In this case the integrity associated with a high natural ranking is invaluable. If your target market is likely to be Internet wise (IT professionals, students, etc), optimisation should be your main focus.

The above guidelines will help you assess the relative priority of optimisation and Pay Per Click advertising, but how should you implement each method? Simultaneously or one at a time?

Generally speaking I would recommend that you start the Pay Per Click campaign slightly before the optimisation of your web site. The immediacy of a Pay Per Click campaign will bring you visitors in the short term, and more importantly it will also allow you to measure what is (and is not) working on your web site; are the landing pages for your adverts converting your visitors, are you targeting the most effective keywords, etc.

Armed with the results of this testing you can optimise your web site effectively and avoid costly delays that occur while waiting for search engines to re-crawl newly optimised pages. Only when you are completely happy that your web site is the best it can be should you submit it to the search engines.

When these organic listings start to bring visitors to your web site, you can re-evaluate you Pay Per Click spend. It may be that your ROI on these adverts is acceptable and you continue as is, or you may wish to reduce your advertising spend. A quick calculation on your conversion rates should give you the answer. For more information see our guide: “Measuring Success”, read an excerpt here: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_6.html

Today, most marketers accept that web site optimisation for organic listings and Pay Per Click advertising is not an either/or proposition. For a well-rounded and effective search marketing campaign that reaches the greatest number of searchers, marketers should blend both natural and paid listings, capitalising on their complementary strengths and weaknesses.

For a complete guide to marketing on the Internet, including:

· The General Principles of Internet Marketing
· Start at the Beginning
· Writing Text that Sells
· Building Online Relationships
· Maximising Your Pay Per Click Campaign
· Measuring Success

Why not purchase the whole series of downloadable guides for the discounted price of £64.95. Click here for more information: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/promo_ebooks.html Justine Curtis Enable UK Internet Marketing Information and Resources Make your web site work harder! Web: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk Email: info@enable-uk.co.uk Article from Internet Marketing Tips Newsletter, a monthly publication of Enable-UK Copyright © 2004 Enable-UK.

If you’re going to sell any type of product or service online, you’re eventually going to have to optimize your Web site for the Search Engines, in order to boost traffic and sales.

Many years ago, it was quite easy to draw effective traffic, as a good content-driven site, with good products, was enough to get a Web site ranked highly in the Search Engines. The competition has increased one thousand times over since then, with billions of Web sites existing online now, making for some very stiff competition in the area of Search Engine placement and rankings.

This increase in competition has given rise to many different styles, and many different methods of Web site optimization. Optimization is simply the method of making a Web site "Search Engine friendly", by using methods of enhancement that will increase rankings and placement by placing the Web site higher in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages).

Everything from software to increase rankings and placement, to Search Engine Management and Marketing Firms exist, with many online merchants becoming confused about what or "whom" to use and how to effectively use the various services to increase rankings and placement.

The real battle seems to exist between those that favor "Organic SEO" as opposed to those that prefer "Non-Organic SEO". The term organic itself is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as: instrumental; acting as instruments of nature or of art to a certain destined function or end (Webster’s: 1913: 3).

Organic SEO, also called Natural SEO, is the most time consuming, and the most tedious method of optimization for placement and rankings. However, it is prone to longevity of results, as it has a focus on content, meta-tag enhancement using proper descriptions, keyword enhanced copy within the appropriate specified densities of the Search Engines, and link exchanges. In addition, keyword dense reports, articles, and other content materials are usually added in a routine fashion to a site to maintain the densities necessary and increase rankings and placement.

Organic SEO, if done properly in a step-by-step approach, can literally promote increased traffic and rankings for years. It can also contain overall marketing costs, as the use of PPC (Pay Per Click), is not needed as much with this method. The main drawbacks with this type of SEO, however, are the length of time it takes to properly implement all the steps necessary, and the length of time it takes the Search Engines to thoroughly spider and index a site that has implemented Organic SEO.

Non-Organic SEO, also called Artificial SEO, can take many forms, and can use some Organic SEO coupled with other techniques. These techniques can include software generated keyword enhanced pages, some methods of re-directs, whereby traffic is shunted off from other sites, with their permissions, and software generated doorway pages and meta-tag descriptions. There are many different techniques that can be employed including rather controversial ones such as hidden text loaded with keywords, and tiny text.

Overall, Non-Organic SEO methods are quite popular, as it is a much quicker means to rankings and placement. Links might be purchased from "link farms" which are simply services that specialize in the promotion of links to others.

Although Non-Organic SEO can speed up rankings and placement initially, care needs to be given when using any of these methods. If keyword dense pages are automatically generated en masse, the Search Engines might view large sites, with large numbers of such pages as "Search Engine Spammers" and a risk of being banned does exist. In addition, pages may initially place very high, only to drop lower rather quickly, as the Search Engines still place a great emphasis on good content, which is not usually the focus of the Non-Organic type of SEO.

All in all, it really depends upon the overall purpose of a site, and the longevity of results desired by a Web master/site owner. It also depends upon how quickly results and sales are needed. For some seasonal sites, such as holiday-theme sites that only remain up for a few weeks or months, then the quicker method of Non-Organic SEO can be quite effective. On the other hand, if a Web master/site owner promotes a product or service to which they are committed for years, or perhaps a lifetime, then Organic SEO would definitely be the better choice of optimization method.

No matter which type of SEO methods are chosen or implemented, an ongoing campaign of optimization does need to exist, as the parameters that are used for the rankings and placement by the Search Engines, change frequently, and research into current methods needs to be done routinely.

As the old saying goes, "Different strokes for different folks", really applies to Search Engine Optimization and rankings and placement. The whole Search Engine Optimization process is really more art than science, and continues to change daily.

———–
Vishal P. Rao is the owner of Work at Home Forum, an online community of people who work from home.
———–

With the advent of Google Local, a service that helps Web users find local businesses by typing in a search term and a city name, many questions arise concerning its impact on Natural Optimization.

Google Local tracks down local stores and businesses by searching billions of pages across the Web, and then cross-checking these findings with Yellow Pages information to locate the local resources Web users wish to access. In addition to local business listings and related Web links, Google Local also provides maps of the desired region and directions made available by MapQuest. This makes Google Local convenient for Web searchers and extremely useful for local businesses, if their sites are optimized for local-searches. If not, some businesses could be missing out on a tremendous increase in local site visibility and traffic.

Case-in-point: The Home Depot, whose Web site features its own Store Finder with zip code-accessed location listings. Type "Home Depot" into Google Local and while a list of local stores appears, no related local landing pages come up. In fact, none of the related Web links even direct Web users to Home Depot’s home page. Most large sites that have retail stores have a search feature or "enter your zip" option. Google and other Search Engines will never be able to index this content. For retailers looking to increase sales and traffic from their Web sites, this could prove to be a big problem.

The Home Depot is not alone. Countless other large and small businesses alike do not have city-oriented pages accessible through local search sites. Many are not listed in the top 15 return results for related keywords for Google Local, despite their location in the immediate proximity to the search location. Google Local ranks listings based on their relevance to the search terms the user enters, not solely by geographic distance. This means that unless your site has a city and/or county-oriented landing page for each location, Google will not be able to access your contact page, no matter how relevant your site is to a search term, or how close you are in geographic distance.

Natural Optimization specialists never really focused on the optimization of contact and location pages on websites, but now it’s becoming a vital tool to drive more qualified traffic to the sites. In order to make sites local search-ready, they should start creating sitemaps that include every store location and then build individual landing pages for each specific location with a brief overview of the store along with a map and detailed directions. Without this, Google does not have a path to index the pages and information. Doing this small step will increase your qualified traffic as well as increase sales in your retail store or business.

By making your keywords city-specific and including more location-specific information on your site, Google Local can access your contact information and, as a result, drive more related traffic to your site.

Take Hard Rock Café. Their Web site is an ideal example of a site that is perfectly optimized for local Search Engines like Google Local. When entered in as a search term, Hard Rock Café’s number one listing links to their home page’s restaurant location page. Search users can instantly access information on Hard Rock Café in general, as well as learn more about location and contacts.

Local search is one of the most hyped areas of development in the Search industry today. Other Search engines including Yahoo!, Ask Jeeves, MSN and CitySearch are hot on Google’s tail to perfect their own versions of local Search Engines. Soon, not having your site optimized for local Search Engines will make your business’s site obsolete. The impact of local search is already apparent, and it is still only in its infancy.

About The Author

Rob Young, Manager of Natural Optimization and Creative Director of full-service interactive marketing and advertising agency UnREAL Marketing Solutions, has been with the company since its inception in 1999. Young oversees the Natural Optimization and Creative departments. www.unrealmarketing.com

rob@unrealmarketing.com

The attraction of Pay Per Click (PPC) online advertising is undeniable. Each click costs virtually nothing, you only pay for the clicks you get, and you set your own daily budget so you know exactly how much you’re going to spend. Most importantly, your listing appears instantly.

On the other hand, a high ranking in the natural search results seems unobtainable. There’s a perception that hundreds of thousands of other businesses are competing for your keywords, and that makes it seem like a real rat-race. And it also seems like such a big mountain to climb; it’s true that it can take months to reach the first page for your target keywords. To make matters worse, thousands of opportunistic (and some very dodgy) ‘SEO companies’ have emerged, looking to make a quick and big buck out of market naivety. So to CEOs, BDMs, marketing managers, webmasters, and business owners, the road to natural search ranking seems expensive, risky, and beset with traffic.

But does this mean you should forget natural search?

Definitely not!

Firstly, most user studies to date have found that people pay more attention to natural search results because they’re more relevant. That’s the foundation of the success of companies like Google and Yahoo (and the reason they keep their indexing rules a secret).

What’s more, it’s important to put things in perspective. Hundreds of thousands of other businesses may be competing for your keywords, but in most cases, they’re at least as confused and disheartened as you. So the sooner you figure out the real story, the sooner you’ll have the jump on them.

And yes, it can take a while to reach the top, but because your competition is – for the most part – traveling blind, your early progress will normally be quite quick. In fact, for most businesses, it’s not until you reach the top few pages that your progress will slow.

And again yes, there ARE some dodgy SEO companies out there. But there are also some very good ones. (Go to WebProNews.com and sign up to a forum if you want to find out who they are.) So long as you know the basics of SEO you won’t be taken for a ride. (See www.divinewrite.com/SEOCEO.htm for a rundown of SEO basics in layperson’s terms.)

But let’s talk bottom line…

Is it more expensive to obtain a high ranking?

Certainly not! In comparison with other forms of advertising – even PPC in the long run – reaching the top of the rankings is NOT expensive. The following case study explains why.

CASE STUDY

For the past year, I’ve been working hard on the natural search results for my copywriting business, Divine Write. For my primary keyword, I’m now on page 1 of Google.com (out of approximately 900,000 search results). I’ve done this with article PR (simply by writing helpful articles and submitting them for publication on the Internet). Luckily for me, I’m an SEO copywriter, so writing articles is all in a day’s work. But had I paid an SEO copywriter to write my articles for me, I’d have spent approximately USD$5,000.

Over the same period, I spent approximately USD$3,000 on Google AdWords (my ads appeared towards the top of the paid listings).

Now I hear what you’re saying; my natural search campaign definitely cost more in the first year than my AdWords campaign. But now that I’ve reached the top of Google.com, I’ve paused all my AdWords ads, so I’m not paying anything. If I hadn’t chased the natural search results, I’d have continued paying for AdWords, spending at least another USD$3,000 next year on AdWords, and another USD$3,000 the year after that, and so on.

Of course, I have to retain my high ranking. If I was paying someone to write my articles, that would involve an investment of approximately USD$1,000 per year (a saving of 67% each year).

So it breaks down like this:

Google AdWords investment:
2 yrs = $6,000, 3 yrs = $9,000, 4 yrs = $12,000, 5 yrs = $15,000

Natural search investment:
2 yrs = $6,000, 3 yrs = $7,000, 4 yrs = $8,000, 5 yrs = $9,000

Conclusion

Obviously the competition for keywords in the copywriting field isn’t as fierce as in a lot of other industries, so the actual dollar investment discussed in this case study may not apply directly to your business. The important thing to understand is that – over time – a high ranking in the natural search results can actually cost less than a high position in the (arguably less effective) paid listings.

Also, these figures are based on me submitting articles to various article banks on the Internet myself.

* Glenn Murray is an SEO copywriter and article submission and article PR specialist. He is a director of article PR company, Article PR, and also of copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit www.DivineWrite.com or www.ArticlePR.com for further details, more FREE articles, or to download his FREE SEO e-book.

If your looking for long term online marketing results then Organic Search Engine Optimisation is the solution for you. On the contrary for quick effective results there is nothing to beat Pay Per Click Listings. It would be wise to use both the services to gain maximum control over your key phrases, but the advantages of Optimisation should not be minimised.

Organic Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

With organic SEO methods you can add value to branding and increase visibility in the search engine rankings with much lesser outgoings. Reports say that click through rate on Organic listings is upto 70%. It is also a well known fact that search users opt for organic listings to sponsored listings in most cases. Once you have your site optimised properly and listed in the Search Engines you can be rest assured to receive long lasting quality traffic.

Natural or Organic search engine optimisation is a lengthy stressful process involving Content writing, onpage optimisation and link building. But if you are looking for long time profitability then organic seo is a must and will enable your site to stand out among other ppc competitors. In most cases you will only need to pay one time upfront fee unlike pay per click advertising.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

With Pay per click methods, you can only appear when you have enough capital to spend. The more higher you bid, the higher you appear in the sponsored listings. One advantage is that you have better control with Pay per click methods as far as conversions are concerned. Also tracking and measuring of ROI (Return on Investments) will be more organised with PPC as compared to SEO.

PPC marketing can also be thought of low risk marketing as you are in control of every penny you spend. You will be able to acheive good results with proper maintenance of your ppc campaigns, but the downside to this type of marketing is that you will only be seen in search engines as long as you invest in it. PPC is also known to attract fraudulent clicks, click frauds vary from 10% to 40% depending on the type of industry and keyword.

Conclusion

Identifying and recognising the unique benefits between each route will strike a balance between these disparate elements. In either case your target must be to acheive high ROI sales.

Visit http://www.affordable-seo.co.uk for more information on Search Engine Optimisation news, articles and service. Article by S Prema - Search Engine Specialist (Star Internet Ltd.)

When does long term SEO show ranking results? It takes time for optimization to produce targeted traffic to your website. Organic SEO requires time to take effect, just as it takes time for your web pages to start showing up in the search engine results.

Clients regularly ask me about the timing of a search engine optimization campaign and when those results will be seen in the search engine listings. A long term marketing campaign based on search engine optimization takes time: patience is the name of the game.

Optimization Timeframe

SEO’s timeframe depends on a number of factors. Part of this involves the accuracy of keyword phrase choices: is the keyword phrase one your visitors would use to find your product or website? If your keyword phrases are targeted to your audience, you will gain optimum results. Did you use Paid Inclusion and/or PPC services? The best combination for success involves using a combination of SEO, Paid Inclusion and PPC services. If you do not use Paid Inclusion or PPC, using organic SEO only, it takes more time to achieve results.

Paid Results

When you use Paid Inclusion or PPC (Pay-Per-Click) bidding, your results show up sooner than traditional SEO. Paid Inclusion submissions state the time-frame in which your page will be indexed by the search engine robots when you sign up for services. PPC bidding results show up as soon as searchers start clicking on your PPC ads. This type of search engine marketing requires an annual budget to renew Paid Inclusion submissions and payment per month for PPC click-through costs. If you are paying too much for your PPC services, organic SEO combined with PPC often helps to keep the prices down for the paid service. By generating additional targeted traffic on those costly terms you may be able to bring the bidding prices down in your PPC campaign or even eliminate some keyword bidding.

The timeline given for paid submissions means the search engines are generating income through this process. Paying for results also gives you a guarantee the listings will be relatively stable in the database.

Paid Inclusion submissions will always take precedence over free submissions because the company makes money from Paid Inclusion. For this reason most search engines will implement free search engine submissions over a longer period of time than paid submissions. When using SEO without the paid submission choices, the process is the same but the optimized pages take longer to be processed into the search engine databases.

Organic SEO

Organic SEO works differently. The best reason to use organic SEO is that it is a low-cost method to promote your website. It can take up to three to six months to see the full results of optimizing your website, especially if you are only using organic optimization. The plus to an organic approach is that once you optimize your pages, the main part of the work is done. You may tweak your keywords and text here and there, but unless you completely re-design your pages, you have what you need in place to begin drawing in targeted traffic. Continue checking your ranking status and reading your log statistics, especially for new keywords visitors are using to find your website.

When using free submissions, expect a three to six month wait before seeing most of the long term results showing in the search engine listings. If you build on a link popularity program and have links pointing back to your website, the search engine robots will find your website through the links, eliminating the need for free submissions. Look at it this way: you pay once for basic optimization and over time the results improve to optimum level. You don’t have to keep paying for this service because, unless search engine databases drops your free submission pages (which is not often these days), you will be visible and present to the search engine users when they search on your targeted keyword phrases. Over time you should see a progression in your ranking, depending on how competitive your keyword phrases are.

Budget SEO

What if you can’t afford Paid Inclusion or PPC services? Organic SEO is a great way to increase targeted traffic to your website over time. If you do not have a budget for Paid Inclusion submissions and PPC programs, organic SEO will give you good results if you are willing to wait instead of gaining immediate results. Combine organic SEO with plenty of good content and a solid link building program for optimum results. Remember, the search engine listings may entice visitors to come to your website, but you must give them a reason to stay once they arrive. Build your content to keep your new visitors at your website.

Patience Pays Off

Organic SEO is "common sense" promotion. Not a lot of fancy bells and whistles, and it takes time. The addition of good navigation, good content with your keyword phrases throughout the pages and topical sites pointing links back to your website equals long term success.

Practice patience when going organic for your SEO campaign. It may take time but it will be worth the long term results you reap.

Daria Goetsch is the founder and Search Engine Marketing Consultant for Search Innovation Marketing, a Search Engine Optimization company serving small businesses. She has specialized in Search Engine Promotion since 1998, including three years as the Search Engine Specialist for O’Reilly Media, Inc., a technical book publishing company.

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It is now two months since we started to regroup our efforts in contemporary SEO strategies. A real estate start-up was taken as the guinea pig for the exploration of our new SEO techniques - and with staggering early results. As one can imagine, a huge uplift in the site hits of a property company is worth a awful lot of money.

The site is still only four months old and therefore in the pending tray of Google’s, and to some extent Yahoo’s ’sandbox’. Still, the strategies we have employed this year has seen site traffic quintupled, after taking advice garnered from a raft of sources, especially SitePro News and ProBlogger.

The days of organic submissions are still with us but those of reciprocals, unless of specific benefit, are moribund - thankfully. Our latest methods have been passed on to our partners in the UK, Strategy Consulting, and they have been integrated into their new year’s marketing efforts.

What we did was to install WordPress as a seamless addition to the website, fill it with highly relevant copy, with Technorati trackbacks, register all of its pages with Google Sitemap and ping a hundred or more news aggregators. Blogcrawler now dominates the referrers list.

Alongside the on-site blogs, we saw that a certain blogspot was appearing above many of the established estate agents in Bangkok. We therefore researched (via Overture) all the property-related keywords and set up blogs with Blogspot for each, slightly amending the on-site copy - so as not to get blacklisted - and optimised the selected keywords, linked them all together with them all pointing to the website. Now, when searching for ‘tenancy management bangkok’ the site completely dominates the stage: the website plus blogs are #1-14 on MSN. As the site does not reciprocate, they now have twenty quality inbounds, helping the site’s real keywords to succeed.

Another helpful addition is article writing for sites having high PR. They seem to burn and fade very quickly from the search engine’s perspective, but very still a valuable part of our strategy.

So, in 2006, we can now offer our clients a five-pronged assault on the majors: quality, well-researched SEO on url, title, metas, alts, content and outbounds; relevant one-way, high PR link building; on-site blogging, thus elevating PR, building relevant content and auto-pinging RSS feeds; intelligent registration of keywords on Blogspot with specifically-crafted copy, with headline and alt tagging key phrases, linking them all together with links into the main site; last but not least, writing atricles for sites such as this to get feedback from experts to further enhance the strength of these strategies.

Now, we can also offer small companies templated but effective CMS solutions through WordPress for $250.

But how to relate this information to clients outside of demonstrating results?

Media Director of V9 Design & Build (http://www.v9designbuild.com), providing both local and outsourcing web and SEO services: we provide both brochureware and custom-designed websites, with tasteful design and branding, professional design and build, proven and successful SEO and e-marketing, e-commerce-driven database integration and content management systems.

What are they looking for? We talk about “the customers expectations” a lot throughout our site. We feel this is one of many areas that should not be overlooked during a campaign, especially an online search oriented campaign. It’s a big factor in all media efforts (print, radio, TV, etc) but in those mediums you have only polling numbers and market share estimates to go by. A lot of complex data, and data a small to mid sized business does not have access too, or time to go through. Instead the magazine gives you it’s demographic numbers and you decide if your budget can take the hit for a while to find out if it’s true.

Why is it different in a search campaign? Well, because we know what they searched for. Ah-ha, yeah I know it’s not a huge epiphany or bright light bulb. It’s simple, and simple is so overlooked in today’s huge markets. The beauty is in it’s simplicity, since you know what they searched for, you know what to show them. Example: Some just visited your web site after searching for “Arizona injury lawyer”, yet another searched for “Peoria Medical malpractice lawyer”.

When the technical portion of the marketing campaign is done properly, and if it’s in line with the overall strategy of the campaign, you can display a different page for each of those visitors. Each page speaks more to their specific needs based on what they searched. So the one that needs an injury lawyer instantly views a page related to your experiences with injury law and what forms they can fill-out on your site (right now) to get started with the case, the one who needs to take his doctor to court can see all of the cases where you succeeded in taking care of your clients legal needs related to malpractice. If the visitor searched “help in my practices malpractice suite”, you can show where you have helped the doctor win cases.

It’s interesting (to us anyway) how different a specifically placed word can explain what that visitors intentions are, what condition they are in, what side of the story they are coming from. For example, if you sold legal text books you would know that someone searching for “important legal text for my customers” is probably not a lawyer. Because lawyers use the word ‘client’ not ‘customer’. Plumbers, Electricians, construction workers, doctors, teachers, all use a different word for the same thing in many cases.

Do you know your audience?

Being more specific about the whole concept here, I want to discuss how you get a sale based on all this. Think of your website as your outsourced sales force. You have to teach your sales force, you have to give them the tools, you have to research your customer (surveys: “how are we doing, where can we improve, what did you like about” etc). All those things would be considered if you either hired a sales force or if you set out to build a sales force. Do you know your client, do you know your customer, do you know their fears, their concerns, their state of mind (perspective on this ‘issue’ –the issue of this particular sale –whether that be you selling them a radio/car or tax returns). I would bet that you do. So what does it mean…

It means you have powerful information and you can sell to more of the people that come to your site than you ever thought possible. Hopefully this is a good example.

When searching for technical services the CEO does not know what good technical support is. When selling services you must sell something that does not exist, to someone who does not know what a good one is. How do you possibly do this? Well it’s not done well and it’s not done often. Knowing what the customers perspective is on this ‘issue’ and what their ‘pain/concerns’ are helps tremendously. Typically what happens here is the person looking finds what he/she believes are the top 3 and divides their gut feeling into the overall price. Then they stick with that decision for far too long (as is the case most of the time, until they are hurt badly enough to start the process again). What if your technical support company was the one that spoke to them directly. What if you were the only one that had a third variable in this equation. You know how they feel, you speak clearly to them about a subject they know nothing about, you show them instantly that they are important to you (which is their pain).

They searched for “understandable technical support for mid size business in phoenix”.

How were you able to speak to them, know their perspective, and know their pain? I can put it into one word “search”.

Is your website really selling for you?

Adam Yax is CTO of http://www.phoenixsynergy.com; which provides internet marketing in Phoenix, AZ.