Paid Search is Huge – But what about SEO?

Some outstanding figures have been reported in The Australian: paid search revenue is up 51% in just three months! It now represents 47% of online advertising spend. That is even bigger than most advertising players expected.

Clearly companies realise how important search is to generate business. Paid search is increasingly an important part of many companies’ marketing mix. But all this money spent on paid search seems to me to be ignoring the fact that most searchers will click on the ââ?¬Ë?natural’ results first.

Getting to the top of the results page in search is obviously very important. Paid search seems to be the easy (though increasingly expensive) way out. But Search Engine Optimisation is a lower cost, highly effective alternative.

Research done by several marketing companies shows that searchers trust natural results more, and will generally click on them first. SEO gets your page to the top of natural results, and, unlike paid search, it doesn’t cost you each time a searcher clicks through to your site.

Spending more and more on paid search is one way to get to the top. SEO is the smart way.