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 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. (This is a routine task requiring little skill. You should be able to purchase a list of 50 or more article submit sites from your SEO copywriter or consultant for as little as USD$99.)
About The Author
* Glenn Murray is an SEO copywriter and Article Submission Specialist. He is a director of PublishHub and also of copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit http://www.divinewrite.com or http://www.publishhub.com for further details, more FREE articles, or to purchase his e-book, 'SEO Secrets'.
Google is the major search engine webmasters have to deal... Read More
SEO or search engine optimization strategy now becomes widely popular... Read More
Search Engine traffic accounts for nearly 80% of the Internet... Read More
For anyone looking to enhance their Google Page Rank (PR)... Read More
Keywords are terms or words related to particular topic. Keyword... Read More
Woaah! Wait a minute. Before I exclusively reveal these insider... Read More
I just wanted to share a little Search Engine Optimization... Read More
In order that someone finds your website and buys your... Read More
Have you heard of the SETI Project? SETI stands for... Read More
Why valid HTML code is crucial to your web site's... Read More
Everyone packs their website with keywords in order to feed... Read More
The date: 29th July 2005. The time: early morning. I... Read More
Search Engine OptimizationSearch engines still remain the #1 tool to... Read More
Duplicate content penalty. Ever heard of it? This penalty is... Read More
There are many techniques that SEM/SEO experts use to optimize... Read More
Part 1. Wordtracker for keywords.A problem for all new webmasters... Read More
Google uses PageRank to rank your pages. To maximize your... Read More
In a fluke, I was able to notice something about... Read More
PageRank is one of the factors that Google uses to... Read More
A recent Search Engine Experiment Demonstrates how by combining Key... Read More
According to author Frank Peretti, "A fixed point of reference... Read More
So you want to get listed on Google? And you... Read More
Search Engine Listing And OptimizationIn the world of website marketing,... Read More
Through search engines and directories, the Internet provides a quick... Read More
Search engines are one of THE best resource for free... Read More
In the following article I will give you some basic... Read More
There is a lot of competition to get good spots... Read More
This is a serious matter, can Google really deliver top... Read More
There are four basic types of Search Engines: Free Search... Read More
There's no denying it: Search engines are a dominating force... Read More
In October 2002, the Yahoo! portal changed the way it... Read More
I often talk to people who have lost faith in... Read More
MLM has been around way before the Internet. It is... Read More
Is your web site well ranked (In the top ten... Read More
Today, SEO is swiftly approaching saturation point. More and more... Read More
Back in November, when the Google Dance began, Barry Lloyd... Read More
There is a lag time between the indexing or updating... Read More
The World Wide Web contains more than ten million websites... Read More
Welcome to the second part of our series of articles... Read More
Being listed in search engines and ranked high on searches... Read More
The robots.txt file is an exclusion standard required by all... Read More
Web marketers, do you hear what I hear?"Click-click BOOM"That's the... Read More
The most difficult area of SEO is building link popularity.... Read More
"Dear David: I just created a website on baby toy... Read More
From the perspective of a business owner, webmaster, or marketing... Read More
Nothing could be simpler than the title you give to... Read More
In order that someone finds your website and buys your... Read More
Non-Reciprocal Link Building For Higher Search Engine Positioning By Dave... Read More
Why valid HTML code is crucial to your web site's... Read More
Search engine marketing vs traditional offline marketing. Most often, traditional... Read More
No matter who you are or how much you pay... Read More
For anyone looking to enhance their Google Page Rank (PR)... Read More
The sun seems to be setting on the world of... Read More
There are many Black Hat techniques that people use to... Read More
OK. So you've created a nice website with lots of... Read More
Localized search engine optimization is often overlooked as an excellent... Read More
Part I of this article discussed some of the points... Read More
Search Engine Optimization is the creation of a web page,... Read More
Long before the days of researching phrases with the helpful... Read More
It's difficult to dispute the rational behind the rant since... Read More
By Catherine FranzSearch engine spiders read and record page titles... Read More
Every once in a while--and probably more often than we... Read More
If you would like to know when your site was... Read More
If you are confused about terms like "search engine optimization"... Read More
I want to touch base with selecting the title of... Read More
After the latest PR update at Google and MSN's beta... Read More
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) |