Organic search engines could be the future

by Dr Tony Berg

The amount of money spent on Internet advertising in the UK soared last year, according to figures compiled by the World Advertising Research Centre (WARC) on behalf of the Advertising Association (AA).

The trade group says spending on online advertising in the UK rose 73 per cent during 2005, taking ad revenues to £1.13bn - way past other media such as consumer and business magazines, radio, outdoor and cinema.

This growth in online ad spending is set to continue as Internet usage continues to grow, and people spend more online.

Most of this online advertising spend is concentrated on keyword pay-per-click advertising on Google, Yahoo and the other search engines.

At Realnet we have watched this growth and seen the impact good search engine rankings can do for our clients. We have also watched the cost of online pay-per-click advertising increasing.

There must be a better way. Is it time more businesses concentrated on the 'organic' or free search engine results? By designing or updating your website to be search engine friendly, top rankings can be achieved without paying for each visit to your site. Whilst the results of organic search engine optimisation may not be instant, if properly done organic listings generate more traffic and of course dramatically reduce costs.

In our experience organic optimising is a valuable long-term investment that develops qualified traffic and that can pay for itself in just a few months.
As the cost of advertising online will continue to increase, organic search engine optimisation should be top of the list for any company that needs to find new customers on the Internet.

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

Article originally published in Cambridge Network Connection magazine Issue 18, 06/06/2006.

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