Sponsored versus Organic SEO

You know you need to get the word out about your small business if you want to grow and thrive. You know that in most cases growing your presence on the Internet is your best bet mixed in with some offline marketing. And as a small business entrepreneur, you know you must focus on those activities that leverage your personal strengths and produce the biggest results. You decide that you’re going to outsource your marketing to a consultant. You simply don’t have the time. You set a budget. How much of your marketing budget do you allocate to organic activities versus sponsored advertising?

This is a difficult question for many small business owners, especially if you have little experience with Internet marketing. Hopefully, you’ve chosen wisely whom to hire as your marketing consultant. If you have, they should be able to provide you with an educated recommendation.

Before we go further, let’s get into some examples of what are sponsored and organic activities.
Sponsored

• PPC ads through Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter

Banner ads

Organic

• Blogging
• Articles and article submissions
• Press Releases and submissions
• Social media on major networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter

While paid-for campaigns can be a great way to get quick traffic to a site quickly if properly implemented, it usually results in lower CTR (click thru rates) than organic links on the first page of a search where everyone wants to be. Why? Because people trust organic links more than they trust advertising. And page 1 gets more click thru success than the following pages. Don’t believe us?

The following is a breakdown of the percentage of clicks the various sections of a search page receive on page 1:

Top Paid Results (those ads that appear under the search bar and above the top organic listings) receive 2% – 3% of page clicks.

Side Paid Results (those ads that appear on the right side of the page) receive 1% – 2% of page clicks.

Organic Result #1 (the first organic return) receives 41% – 45% of page clicks.

Organic Results #2 receives 11% – 18% of page clicks.

Organic Result #3 receives 7% – 15% of page clicks.

Organic Results #4 – #9 receive 2% of page clicks each.

Organic Result #10 receives 3% – 4% of page clicks.

If you’re PPC campaigns get 1% – 3% of the clicks on page 1 (and that’s IF your ads get to page 1), you’re still far behind the number of click thrus you will get if you have top organic link ranking. The average even falls below the number of clicks you will get if you have the organic link on the bottom of page 1. Plus, statistically the clicks you receive from organic listings have a higher conversion into buying customers than those that click on paid ads.

Don’t get us wrong, we’re not suggesting that you don’t consider sponsored Internet marketing. There are some great, targeted opportunities for gaining visibility, building a list of prospects, and converting customers using paid-for marketing. However, we wouldn’t suggest you only use this method. You need to balance your sponsored Internet advertising with organic SEO tactics.

So when you are considering how you are going to spend your time and / or money to attract customers online, if you don’t get started with organic SEO tactics now, then when?

If you need help with your SEO, contact us through SmallBizMedia.TV. We’re here to help.

Maria Fuster & Doug Dolan
Small Biz Break
Strategize. Optimize. Socialize