SERPs: The Difference Between Pay Per Click and Organic Listings

by

James Al Winsoar

A quick look at Google (or any one of the other search engines for that matter), will reveal that the typical search engine results page (SERP), has three easy to identify elements. On Google, these components include:

* Pay-per-click (PPC) or ‘sponsored’ results.

Usually, these are on the far right of the page, going down the page. For some search terms, there will also be PPC results at the top of the page, above the organic results.

* Products, Local and others

Below these paid for (PPC) results in the main area of the results, are sometimes different kinds of results. These will depend a lot on the particular phrase you searched for. These results may include local business results, up to date news results, social networking results (such as Twitter and Facebook), and videos from YouTube.

* Organic results

Below these results, is where all the natural search results can be found. In all three of the leading search engines (Google, Bing and Yahoo), the organic results do take up more of the page. Interestingly, the less popular the keywords or search phrases, the fewer PPC ads will appear, and you will see more space occupied by the organic search listings.

Most searched for keywords however, present a whole host of challenges. SERPs for these are often mixed, with lots of PPC and organic results. Standing out through all the clutter for high traffic keywords is harder to accomplish. It is far easier targeting keywords that are less popular, but that are still relevant.

On the other end of the scale, are niche (and often complex) keywords. For a lot of of these keywords, there are no PPC ads whatsoever, and therefore all of the results found on the SERP are natural. Optimizing your site and your pages for this type of keywords therefore, can result in the highest conversion rates, as the competition is lower. Most of the leading corporations and brands online will usually optimize their websites for the broadest and most popular search terms possible, with no regard to the conversion rates they are getting out of it. With their deep pockets, they can often afford such a shotgun approach to marketing.

That aside, the vast majority of internet users do trust organic search results. Industry bodies and analysts have done lots of research that all points to the same conclusion. Over 60% of internet users do click on organic search results most of the time. Heavy users, and more experienced internet users actually click on the organic results even more often. Pretty much the only industry where this is not the case, is the insurance sector, where nearly all of their traffic comes from sponsored results.

Obviously, using only online advertising, will mean you are not getting the most from your website promotion efforts. Alongside driving traffic, you can increase branding for your site and brand through SEO efforts to improve your organic search results and ranking. Any aspiring site owner, especially those whose target demographic is experienced internet users, would therefore be advised to put a considerable amount of effort into search engine optimization.

SEO is really not rocket science. Anyone can do it. You can decide the amount of technical detail you wish to get into when you embark on it, but do it you must.

James Winsoar is a

Nottingham SEO Consultant

specialising in both on-page and off-page search engine optimisation. He can help your company to get a higher ranking in the search engines. Visit his website at http://www.jw-enterprises.co.uk/ or call the SEO hotline on 0115 9400 899.

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SERPs: The Difference Between Pay Per Click and Organic Listings