In the first part of this series, we discussed what organic search consists of and why it should be taken seriously as part of your online marketing strategy.
As we continue to evaluate organic search, let’s look at the pro’s and cons to organic search. Examining the pros and cons of organic search may help you reconsider some of your annual spend with your online search engine marketing budget.
Benefit of Using Organic Search
There are many benefits to using organic search. Here are the main reasons for using organic search.
- Organic search is cost efficient and rather inexpensive. Organic campaigns are often cheaper than sponsored campaigns. The only costs associated may be incurred as a result of outsourcing a SEM company or training staff internally to perform search engine optimization.
- Organic listings tend to generate more click throughs as they offer unbiased product information. FACT: More people click on organic listings than sponsored listings. As we mentioned in the first part of this series, as much as 85% of all click throughs in Google are said to be organic.
- Organic results tend to be longer lasting. Unlike a sponsored campaign where a competitor can outbid you for top spot, a well-optimized site can remain in top position for weeks, months and even years. I have clients who have ranked in the top position for their main key phrases for years. In fact, I have a client who has ranked in the top spot in Google and Yahoo for a couple of very competitive key words for nearly four or five years. It easy to see how these top organic rankings help contribute to their achieving average online sales of 150-200K per month.
- Organic search can offer a better ROI. With the limited expense of using an organic campaign, the return can be great.
Difficulties of Using Organic Search
Personally, I think the benefits of using organic search outweigh the cons. However, I don’t want to be entirely biased here so we should discuss “the pains” of using organic search.
- Organic search can be difficult to measure. Without sound goals, key performance indicators, and analytics to measure your success, organic search efforts can be hard to associate a dollar value with.
Organic results take time. There something to be said in the world of search engine marketing for being patient. Unlike a paid campaign where results are immediate, organic rankings can take some time to generate. In some cases, (due to various factors such as competitiveness of key words, online competitors with larger budgets etc) you may never achieve top organic ranking for a key phrase.
With organic search taking longer and being harder to measure, organic search can often be a tough sell to management and decision makers in your organization. Search in general is a new media and many executives still do not think search is credible.
For me, I have seen many success stories as a result of using organic search. Whether it’s to promote your brand or to sell your product, organic search is a cost effective way of marketing yourself in the online world. I will mention it again, with Google as many as 85% of all click throughs are organic. If you do not have an “organic presence” you could be missing out on a lot of potential traffic to your site.
Organic search what’s in it for you? Well not much, just some visitor traffic to your site, just an online presence, just a cost efficient way of promoting your brand and/or product
If you haven’t thought about an organic search campaign you should. In the final part of this series, we will look further into what organic search can do for you.
*Originallly published at Enquiro
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Jody Nimetz
Search Marketing Strategist
Search Engine Positioning by Searchengineposition
Enquiro Full Service Search Engine Marketing
