organic or sponsored positioning?

On the internet there are billions of web pages.

Only a very limited number of these websites can appear amongst the first results of the search engines for a given search criteria.

To arrive on the first page of results for a search engine search (Google, Yahoo!, MSN Live etc.) is highly desirable for any website owner, as this means more new people looking at their web site. Greater visibility generally means a higher return on investment for your website.

There are two ways to appear amongst the first results for a search: natural or organic positioning (SEO Search Engine Optimization) or internet advertising or sponsored links, also known as PPC (Pay per Click).

In an ideal world the combined strategic use of both methods should be part of any good web marketing strategy or SEM (Search Engine Marketing). In reality limits in budget and time bring people to choose only one of the SEM marketing strategies.

Which one is the right  one for you?

natural positioning (organic positioning) and SEO

With natural positioning, the position a web page obtains on a search engine is based purely on the relevance within the content of that given page. Search Engines make use of spiders (computer programs that browse the World Wide Web in a methodical, automated manner) to read all web sites, then it saves them and categorises them based on relevance of page content. The search engine using very complicated algorithms indexes the web pages based on the indexing submitted by the spider. When a user makes a search for a give keyword or combination of keywords, the Search Engine returns the webpage(s) categorised under the given keywords and assigns them a position based on content relevance on that page. by optimising code, categorisation of objects on your web pages and use of keywords, SEO guarantees that your page will be deemed more relevant by the search engines for a chosen keyword or combination of keywords.

Natural positioning has got many advantages compared to pay-per-click campaigns. Here are some of them:

• Inclination to click - Studies show that people tend to click more on the organic results than the sponsored links
• Trust - People trust a natural result vs. a sponsored links which are seen as a form of advertising and not a true result on relevance, i.e. a direct answer to their query
• Value to the user - Studies reveal natural results are perceived as more objective and thought to provide more useful information to the user
• Long term results - Although pay-per-click campaigns provide a quicker response, SEO optimization of your site is a long term investment which continues to produce results long after you have paid for it
• Relevance - Natural results are generally more relevant to the user query.

Natural positioning requires a well structured and well coded website, readable by the search engines (with no errors in the HTML code, no dead links, images with relevant descriptions) and not "invisible" to the search engines, for example sites developed exclusively using Flash or key messages graphically part of images rather than as text or labels. Web pages must have the right amount of keywords in their text, be enriched with pertinent information and have a substantial number of relevant inbound and outbound links.

Real result may take up to 60 days to see and will improve in time if one keeps updating the content following SEO best practises. The higher the competition on the keywords, the hardest it is to obtain a high rank positioning. Page ranking depends on many factors not least the market area and geographic area (Italy, Europe, USA).

Nobody can guarantee a good natural positioning. Search Engines present many unknowns in their calculation of page relevance and are the algorithms used by the search engines are constantly changing and evolving.

 

sponsored links, keyword advertising or Pay per Click (PPC)

Sponsored links are usually highlighted and appear on the right hand side and at the top of the natural results (see picture). The more you pay to the search engine the more relevant is the position of your web site. Pay per Click links can be extended to all networks of the search engines.

Google with its AdWords, for example, allows to visualise your adverts on Virgilio or Libero, and also on any other site using AdSense, through its content targeting. AdSense gives you access to Google's vast network of advertisers, so you can show ads that are suited to your audience's interests. Website owners can enrol in this program to enable text, image, and video advertisements on their websites. These advertisements are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis. Google’s pay-per-click service is called AddWords,  Yahoo’s  Yahoo!  Search Marketing (YSM), MSN/Bing’s Microsoft Ad Center.

To follow are some of the advantages of Keyword Advertising:

• Results - Results for PPC are immediate. PPC is more useful when looking to promote an initiative which is about to start, for seasonal business or for a short term promotion

• Budget - If you have limited budget you can still benefit from pay-per-click. By limiting the keywords to very specific words, you won't have a huge amount of traffic, but it will be very focused on your online business offering

• Easy to Manage - Natural positioning requires the intervention of a professional, while PPC can be managed very easily by individuals

• No Contract - When you manage your own pay-per-click campaign you can use a pay as you go scheme without having to sign a contract. This give you a greater flexibility to move to different marketing campaign should PPC not work.

conclusions

Organic positioning should always be done at a basic level as part of any serious website. At Lamar Web we think it essential to try to obtain a good natural (organic) search engine positioning without depending exclusively on internet advertising. Lamar Web offers basic to advanced SEO positioning, suitable for all budgets. If you are in a niche market or a geographically localised business SEO can return surprisingly good result and maximum return on investment. With a sufficiently high budget can combine the natural positioning with PPC. Study your options before starting a web marketing campaign, or ask experts like Lamar Web to advise you on the best campaign for your budget and needs.