Traffic or Clients

by Dr Tony Berg

5.7 billion web searches in January - a 39% increase from the previous year, according to Nielsen NetRatings.

Never before has it been so important to have a well-engineered solution that is found easily on the Internet.

But should promotion be through the main listings in the search results (organic) or Pay-Per-Click?

More searchers are becoming aware that paid results are a marketing tool whilst organic search results are seen as non-biased.

In addition organic listings are trusted more with reports showing up to 6 times the traffic generated from organic listings over paid Ads.

Meanwhile, Pay-Per-Click costs are rising steadily. Between October 2004 and December 2005, average keyword prices more than doubled.

But Pay-Per–Click results are immediate and offer an excellent opportunity to do live market research on the most effective search phrases. In addition they offer small budget marketing programmes for companies unable to afford the upfront investment in an organic solution.

Both Pay-Per-Click and organic optimising carry benefits and sometimes the best solution can be to use a combination of the two.

At Realnet we recognise the value of all forms of promotion but it can be a poor investment if the website does not convert the traffic into clients.

We have repeatedly demonstrated that a successful marketing programme on the Internet requires a well thought through campaign. This includes capturing as many visitors as possible from the growing number of searches but also must convert visitors to clients with the maximum efficiency.

Dr Tony Berg
Managing Director - Realnet Ltd
tonyberg@realnet.co.uk

Article originally published in Cambridge Network Connection magazine Issue 22, 01/10/2006.

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