 |
|||
| |||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
|
Search Engine Metrics: Organic Search vs. Paid Placement
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
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Keep Your Content Fresh with this Quick and Easy Tip Some of the Search engines want only original content. So if the Search Engine Get's to your web Page on your Site and realize they have already seen this Page they won't Index it again, This can be a real hazard if you submit Articles for free Re-Distribution. Website Promotion: 10 Search Engine Optimization Blunders to Avoid If you want to develop a successful search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, go out of your way to avoid blunders that limit rankings.Here are 10 to keep in mind:1. Beat Google's Dampening Link Filter with SEO Articles Most Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts agree that links back to your site have a great impact on your ranking in the major search engines. Think of it like an election; your site is a candidate and every link to your site is a vote. Google Patent Application - User Data As Part of Ranking Process In this third article, we continue to dig into the patent application of Google regarding the method used to rank sites in search results. Interestingly, Google asserts in the application that it "might" consider user data as a factor in organizing search results. Link Building for Hilltop Hilltop is one of the major concepts underpinning Google's search algorithm, yet its workings and implications are often misunderstood.After the infamous Florida Update, many webmasters were aghast as their rankings plummeted; and again, when the mysterious "sandbox" was implemented, some webmasters could not get a Web site to rank well, period. How to Prevent Duplicate Content with Effective Use of the Robots.txt and Robots Meta Tag Duplicate content is one of the problems that we regularly come across as part of the search engine optimization services we offer. If the search engines determine your site contains similar content, this may result in penalties and even exclusion from the search engines. Basic Search Engine Promotion I can't tell you how many times people have asked me, "Howto do I get my site to come up in the top ten of the searchengines so I can get hits and sell my product?"What they really want to know is, "How can I get people toshow up to my website without spending any money onadvertising my site!"People usually don't like my answer because accomplishing a"top ten ranking" on any search engine always requirescareful thought along with a significant amount of work.Three types of "Search engines" abound on the Internet. Google Loosing Fan Base? "Nothing last forever but the Earth and sky." - from Dust in the Wind by Kansas. Dont Make the Top 30 SEO Mistake SEO consultants will tell you that you need to be in the Top 30 or you can pretty much give up any hope of getting a visitor to your web site.Yes, there is truth in that Top 30 goal. List Building vs. Search Engine Optimization It seems the excitement about search engine optimization fades in and out from time to time. The more people talk about search engine optimization (SEO) the more it seems to be the logical choice for bringing customers to your site. Optimze Your Web Site on a Shoe String Budget Let me start off by saying I'm not a marketing guru or work for a fortune 500 advertising company. I don't even have a marketing background. The Google Strategy Webmasters across the Internet were totally floored by what happened to their Google ranking recently. Those whose pages wereranked on top seemed to totally disappear, and many who had beenranked at the bottom were suddenly in the top 10. Google Is Taking Descriptions From Alexa! In a recent study looking at the "descriptions" of website search engine listings, we have noticed that your main SERP listing is being manipulated by Alexa.com. Search Engine Robots - How They Work, What They Do (Part I) Automated search engine robots, sometimes called "spiders" or "crawlers", are the seekers of web pages. How do they work? What is it they really do? Why are they important?You'd think with all the fuss about indexing web pages to add to search engine databases, that robots would be great and powerful beings. Increase Web Site Sales with a SEO Proposal - Part 2 Part I of this article discussed some of the points that should be included in a search engine optimization proposal. Visit the resources section at the bottom of the page if you wish to get a copy of the whole article. The SEO Game - Do You Play It? Most people do not think of SEO as a game. Let me take 5 minutes of your time and explain how SEO is simply a game of Chess. Crash Course in Getting a #1 Google Ranking First, here's the rundown of some of the terminology I'm going to use -Inbound Links - Links coming into your siteOutbound Links - Links leaving your siteCross Links - Links that you have "traded" with another site (ie, they've got a link from their site to your and you've got a link from your site to theirs)PR (Page Ranking) - Google's measure of how "important" your site isSEO Is Not DeadOk, now lets talk about what you really want to hear - how to get those coveted 1-10 ranks for your keywords. Remember this - SEO is not dead. Why Pay-Per-Inclusion Search Engines are Dying A Pay-Per-Inclusion search engine is a service in whicha search engine charges you a certain amount to spiderand include your website in its database. For this fee,regular repeated spiderings are guaranteed, so you aresure to be indexed. 10 Minutes to Your Google Sitemap Google's calling your name.. PPC Advertising - The First Step In A SEO Marketing Campaign Often, sites view seo and PPC marketing as exclusive marketing techniques. Each marketing method has its advocates.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
