We have found that internet users tend to utilize the organic search engine listings more than the pay per click results (both Adwords and Yahoo's Overture - now Yahoo Search Marketing). They do so because they understand that the sponsored results are all businesses that have chosen to be listed among the SERPS. Organic results are also different because a lower percentage of these are actual businesses selling goods or services. Google and Yahoo organic results give precedent to valuable web pages - pages that give information, tools, or news to web surfers. There is no guarantee that your search for "AT&T cordless phone" would bring up anything more than a website with a schematic of transistors and speed dial features. Educated buyers comprehend that the first few organic results that are in fact businesses providing what they need will most likely be the most reputable companies around. This fact is indeed more consistent with the Google corporate philosophy. As we have just seen, Pay Per Click "PPC" advertisements and natural results do put forth two conflicting messages - click on the listing because it is relevant, or click on the advertisement because Google has to pay its utility bills.

We've looked at hundreds of Overture and Adwords reports; We usually see an average PPC advertisement click through rate of between 1- 4% (although inter-industry numbers vary dramatically). We also study statistics (often from the analytical tool called Google Analytics) that shows us the number of visitors a site gets for both PPC and natural search engine listings. Our findings show that organic listings on the average drive more traffic than PPC ads. This isn't always the case, but it is the trend we have seen when analyzing the data. If surfers are more likely to click on natural search engine listings, it also seems logical to think that the website conversion rates would also be higher. Our look at the numbers do suggest that this is true more times than not. Does Google publicize the click through rate or conversion rate for typical organic search queries? No way - that may encourage businesses to utilize natural Search Engine Optimization (SEO) companies as opposed to PPC advertising programs.

87% of educated web surfers utilize the organic area of a search engine.

 

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