SEO Experts Blog

There are lots of reasons why organic search engine optimisation is superior to pay per click and here are some of the insights into why.

1. Price paid for each click is increasing. While Pay per click has its place, it is important to understand that as more competition enter the pay per click market for your main keyword phrases then the price paid for each click will need to increase to hold similar positions.
2. No cap on bidding. There is no cap on the amount that can be bid by a company for a keyword or phrase, in fact Google encourage this competiton. The most extreme case of high value pay per click is attributed to the phrases associated to Mesothelioma (lung cancer related to Asbestos). Two years ago the bidding for these high-value keyword phrases reached $325 per click (USD $250).
3. Eye-tracking. It needs very little introduction as shown below are the results of an eye tracking study conducted on the Google search results and undertaken by Marketing Sherpa in 2008. Clearly evident is that the searchers eyes are automatically drawn to the organic results first and that the pay-per-click sponsored links on the right are nearly always ignored. Content shown above the red line, which runs across the image, shows the fold of where content showed on the visitors browser screen. Below the red line meant the searcher had to scroll down the page to view the content.
   

   Eyetracking of Google Search Results

4. Decline in the amount of people clicking on pay per click results. While the number of clicks on sponsored listings is increasing the percentage of clicks is actually decreasing. This means that searchers are less inclined to click on pay per click results and sponsored listings. Much like people tune out or walk away when TV adverts come on, people are now more than ever doing the same with search results and pay per click advertisements.
5. Click fraud. Over 28.6% of all sponsored listings on the Google advertising network are fraudulent. In simple terms, for every $1000 you put into your Adwords account you can write-off $286 as wasted due to fraudulent clicks. While Google has done some things towards improving click fraud it is not to their best benefit as PPC is their income.
   

   Google Click Fraud Rate