Organic Search Vs. Paid Search (PPC)

“Which is better, organic search marketing or pay-per-click marketing?”

It’s a common question that I hear from clients quite a bit. And just as you’d expect marketers are taking sides with equally compelling arguments for and against both options.

Here are some things to think about when considering your search marketing.  It will help you not only understand the pro’s and con’s of each, but determine which is right for your business.

First some facts:

• Organic: People prefer and trust organic search results more
  • Organic search is 8.5x more likely to be clicked on than paid search results (study by Jupiter research, a Forrester company)
• Paid: Paid search converts more
  • Paid search results are 1.5x more likely to convert from search engines (study by Jupiter research, a Forrester company)

Conclusion: The opportunity from organic search is 5.66x that of paid search.

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Local SEO Tips for the Little Guy

If you’re a local business with a small website, you want to get found – locally. It might not matter that someone half-way around the world can locate you online, especially if you’re not selling online, but it’s darn important that someone in the next-town-over knows exactly how to find you when they need you.

Here are five quick tips for your website that you can implement today to help you get the edge in local search.

1. Get listed in local search engines. The top 3 search engines are Google, Yahoo! and Bing and each one has its own local business listings where you can add your company’s information. Get listed. Here are links to the top three.

• Google Maps
• Yahoo! Local
• MSN Bing Local

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