People often ask about the difference between Organic and Sponsored Results.
When you do a search on Google, or just about any other search engine, you usually get at least two types of results – Organic and Sponsored. In some cases you may also have Local Results.
Sponsored results appear at the top and right of search results. If your website appears in sponsored results, you are paying a fee every time someone clicks through to your site. Sponsored results can get your site listed at or near the top of search engine results very quickly, but they go away as soon as you stop paying for them and can grow to be very expensive. Visitors consider sponsored results to be less trustworthy than organic search results so even when people click-thru to your site, only 1 in 100 will take action beyond that.
Organic or natural search engine results appear below and to the left of sponsored results. Organic listings are free on a click-for-click basis, but a website must first be optimized to improve its search engine rankings. Costs for that vary, but as a rough guideline, assume optimization will probably cost as much as it did to build the site in the first place. Organic optimization takes 6 to 12 months before its full impact can be measured, but it produces longer lasting, less expensive, and more profitable results.
Below is a chart that illustrates the different placement of Organic and Sponsored Results.
Organic vs Paid Search Listings
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The process of getting your listing (or Ad) on the Sponsored Results is called Pay Per Click Advertising. Google’s pay per click program is called Google Adwords.
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The process of getting your site listed on the Organic Results is called Search Engine Optimization. You can hire us to do this or take a workshop to learn how to do it yourself.
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Below is a chart that illustrates the differences between Organic and Sponsored Results. It includes characteristics of Search Engine Optimization and Pay Per Click Advertising, too.
| Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
ORGANIC RESULTS |
Sponsored Search / Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
SPONSORED RESULTS |
|
| How it Works | Your website appears: in the organic section by maintaining, optimizing & promoting according to best SEO practices.
Pricing: A click to your website does not cost you anything. Setup and management fees vary by company. |
Your website appears: In the sponsored area of the search engine result page for keywords that you choose.
Pricing: You are charged a small fee for each click. Plus any fees the company managing your campaign charges. |
| Top Rankings Achieved in: | Weeks to Months. | A Few Hours. |
| Stopping Efforts Will: | Depend on industry. Rankings could remain for weeks – years. | Cause immediate rankings loss in the sponsored area. |
| Tracking | Keyword and traffic performance can be tracked with an analytics program.
Rankings can be used to track performance, but as personalized search grows, this will be an increasingly unreliable statistic. Personalized search means that people are starting to search by more diverse terms. |
A diverse range of tracking available depending on who runs your campaign. Track email addresses, record calls received from clicks, ROI per click, A/B split test different landing pages, and many more.
If running SEO and PPC simultaneously, use PPC feedback to optimize SEO performance. |
| Searcher’s Impression of Website | More clicks than sponsored listings on same page.
Higher trust in results. |
Fewer clicks than organic listings on same page.
Less trust of results. |
| Number of Searches you may appear for | Will depend on how each search engine’s algorithm views your website and the size of your website. | Infinite – as many as you set up. |
| Conversion Rate | About Equal
Organic listings receive more clicks, but searchers are not as commercially motivated to purchase. Higher probability that they are in the research phase of their search. |
About Equal
Users don’t click sponsored results as much, but when they do, they are more likely to have an intent to purchase. High probability that they are in the purchase phase of their search. |
| Upfront Investment | Do It Yourself: Cash: Low. Opportunity Cost: High. Can be a DIY project, but high rankings will take even longer to obtain due to a substantial learning curve.
Hire an Expert: Cash: Medium. Opportunity Cost: High. Depends on who you hire, what your general marketing budget is, how big and in what shape your website is in. |
Cost: Varies. Opportunity Cost: Medium.
Decide on your monthly budget. Budget amount will depend on the competitiveness of your online industry. |
| Short Term ROI | Opportunity Cost: Medium. Ahead of your competitors who haven’t started SEO efforts, but behind those who already have.
Cash:Low – Medium. Make an investment, results could take weeks – months depending on the competitiveness of your industry. |
Opportunity Cost: Low. Make an investment, get immediate results.
Cash: Low – High. Depends on how competitive your industry is and what your profit margin is. |
| Long Term ROI | High. Rankings can last for some time and you aren’t paying for every click. | Low – High. Depends on Industry and your profit margin. |
| Ability to Target Local Customers | Medium. Target local customers by optimizing for keywords plus geographic keyword modifiers. | High. Target local customers for any keyword phrase within virtually any geographic area you choose from specific cities to a radius around a certain city, to entire states or countries. |
| Level of Control | Medium. Pages can be optimized for certain keywords, but the management of the conversion process is slightly less customizable because a variety of keywords bring people with different goals to the same page.
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High. Highly customizable marketing message. You manage the entire marketing message from title and URL appearing in the ad, to the landing page people arrive on to the specific call to action you want visitors to take |
What is most effective? Much has been written about this and all agree that Organic Results are more effective than Sponsored Results. The problem is that Organic Results are not guaranteed and they may take months to achieve. Therefore, many effective websites employ both techniques and constantly monitor and maintain them.
The most successful companies view search engine results as dynamic advertising campaigns.
A study conducted by Penn State reinforces the need for companies to include organic or natural search engine optimization into their online marketing programs. Over 80% of the test searches conducted, respondents went to the “organic” search results.
“Consumers have a bias against the links that businesses pay search engines to rovide,” said Jim Jansen, assistant professor in the Penn State School of Information Sciences and Technology (IST). “By themselves, sponsored links appear not to be a viable business model and should be only one part of an online advertising campaign.”
Source: AllBusiness.com
