Search engines remain a dominant means of driving traffic to websites, with research confirming that the majority of users continue to use them to find content and websites.  Your site can enjoy traffic from them either through pay per click advertising, or through natural search listings.  How do you decide which approach is best for your business?

Once your website has launched, you will be keen that it attracts as much relevant traffic as possible, typically in the form of customers, potential customers, sales leads, staff and key suppliers.  These various audiences will find your website through a variety of means, but statistics tell us that search engines remain the predominant tool which people use to locate your business or your products and services.

In recent years the search engine landscape has changed, and matured significantly for the better.  Businesses now realise that “getting to no 1 in Google” isn’t just a simple task to be completed when your site is going live.  Rather using search engines as a commercial tool is a lifetime’s work which requires constant ongoing monitoring and tweaking.

One key question which you will face when you are deciding on your search engine strategy revolves around the kind of exposure that you would like on search engines.  Would you like to be displayed primarily in the main (natural) listings, typically on the left of the screen, or would you like to be shown on the advert (pay per click) listings on the right of the screen.  In the natural results, your listing will gain greater trust from your online visitors, but in the pay per click results, you will get a chance to advertise your wares to audiences that otherwise simply wouldn’t have known about you.

It is important to recognise that natural listings aren’t “free”.  It is correct that Google, Yahoo and others don’t charge for you to be shown in the natural listings, but it isn’t free to get there.  Rather there are significant build implications to enjoying a good rating on these search engines.  It also requires a beefy time investment to optimise your website, organise internal links correctly, get relevant links from other websites, and monitor your performance on an ongoing basis.  There is no doubt that optimised natural search performance can form part of your online marketing campaign, but when you are calculating your return on investment from this channel, don’t perceive the channel to be free.

Perhaps the best name to describe natural listings on search engines is “organic”.  As the name implies, this means that you don’t get a deluge of customers immediately, rather it takes time and nurturing to grow into something healthy and with longevity.

Pay Per Click search advertising is entirely different, and you will have the power to get a range of customers to your site immediately, under key phrases of your choosing.  This allows you to take a very scientific approach to return on investment, as you can view exactly what it costs you to get one potential customer to your website.  By then reviewing what percentage of online enquirers you turn into customers, and the margin on your products, you can check to see how your website is performing for you.  Because this is so measurable you can increase or decrease your budget in line with how your site is performing for you.

This form of search marketing is also ideal for short sharp bursts of marketing.  For instance if you run a retail outlet which has a sale for a period of time, it makes sense to attract more online attention to this with a search marketing campaign that runs in parallel.  Alternatively if you have a radio or TV marketing campaign live, a pay per click campaign will guarantee a synchronised message across all media.  Effectively it gives you greater control of your brand online.

This is a key issue.  There are well documented cases of online businesses going bankrupt when Google or Yahoo changed their search algorithm.  These online businesses were enjoying prominent natural positions on the search engines, and were able to work off lower margins because of the low cost nature of this route to market.  When this route to market disappeared overnight, their margins weren’t high enough to support buying the same level of traffic using Pay Per Click marketing.

Take a balanced and prudent view when considering how search engines can help your business.  A well considered and planned natural search strategy, complemented by occasional (or start–up) Pay Per Click campaigns can pay significant dividends.  The approach needs to be different for each business, and crucially it needs constant and ongoing monitoring and maintenance.  In future years search engine management and marketing will be part of every marketers toolkit.  Until that time you can enjoy competitive advantage by being ahead of the pack in implementing it for your business.