Friday, September 30, 2005

Search Engine Advertising - What Works Best?

In a recent article (Sept 30/05) in WebProNews, Jim Hedger summarizes a number of studies that look at which listings searchers are more likely to click onto: "organic" (free) or paid (ppc/Adwords).

His conclusions boil down to this:

1. Searchers tend to trust organic (free) listings more than paid ones -- one study suggested a ratio of 6:1 in favour of free listings.

2. Being at the top of the search page is extremely important. Positions 1 and 2 get about 2/3 of the clicks; positions 9 and 10 get only about 1/10 of the clicks.

3. Site descriptions that show up in free searches are often what determines which listing gets the click. "Search users are reading before clicking."

For two programs that are aimed specifically at influencing search engine rankings see:

Article Promotions - Original articles written about your service, with links to your site, and then published on multiple websites.

Power Listings - Your site featured in search engine friendly listings and published on multiple sites.

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