Long-term investment:Instant gratification :: SEO:___

There is no sugar coating this – realizing results from search engine optimization takes time.  Researching and choosing keywords that will drive quality traffic to your site takes time.  Optimizing your content for not only the search engines but also for your potential customers takes time.  Reinforcing what your site is relevant for through quality link building takes time…not to mention luck in many cases.  Obtaining rankings that will drive traffic to your site takes time.  And time is money.

We want results and we want results now!

Paid search can not only be extremely effective but it can be extremely effective extremely quickly.  And we have the paid search department with the data to prove it.  So why should a company invest in a business endeavor that won’t show a return in the first month and possibly won’t show a return in the first six months?

Chances are you’re like the roughly 70% of search engine users who neglect the paid search results in favor of focusing their attention on the natural, or organic, search results.  This is one of the main factors that makes investing in natural search real estate so cost effective in the long term. Obtaining an above the fold natural search position will result in more traffic to your site than bidding to the top position in paid search results.  Not only that, but investing in natural search is an investment that has long term payoff while bidding in paid search is a short term investment that is only effective if you continue advertising.  The greatest benefit of natural search optimization is its potential for longevity.

When I obtain visibility on the first page of natural search listings, can I stop paying per click for my keywords?

You certainly can, however, we generally do not recommend it as there are some great benefits related to showing in both natural and paid search listings.

• You would be giving up the opportunity to take up more real estate by appearing in both paid and organic search results
• People who click on paid search ads are, in some cases, more ready to buy
• There is a certain degree of inherent trustworthiness built when appearing in both paid & organic results

Ultimately, choosing whether to continue to pay per click for a keyword that you rank well for in natural search will come down to the effectiveness of your paid ad.