Why organic search is best
A question we are regularly asked by our business-to-business clients is ‘should we be spending on Adwords?’
Google Adwords or PPC (Pay Per Click) is certainly the only guaranteed way to get your business on page one for key search terms, but does the spend really warrant the result for companies in the construction and manufacturing sectors?
Here we look at why we believe organic search, which mainly involves posting well written authentic content on relevant authoritative websites, really is best.
- It is long lasting and has residual value for b2b companies
With Adwords/PPC the results may be instantaneous in terms of your search ranking, but like an advert, as soon as you stop paying, there is no residual value and you soon fall from the rankings. With organic search, you build up more slowly to a page one position and because the articles we post remain on the internet, you remain higher up the search results, for longer, even if you stop this activity. However, it is advisable to retain a consistent organic SEO campaign if you wish to retain a strong position in the search engines.
- Adding regular content is good for search engines and good for visitors too
Not only is adding regular content, news stories and blogs good for the search engines, it is great for your visitor traffic too. Web users are more likely to visit your site more often if the content is fresh and regularly updated, which will increase your level of returning visitors, as shown on Google analytics. This increases the chance of these web visits deciding to trade with you.
- It works really well as part of an online PR campaign.
So SEO is all about generating and posting good content online, who do you think are the best people to do this? SEO companies often don’t dedicate the time to understanding a business, an industry and a company’s products and services. For PR companies like Dragonfly PR that have SEO expertise, we can offer a very detailed understand of all aspects of our client’s operations, especially in the business to business sector. This means not only do we have well established contacts with bloggers and online media contacts, we also have the ability to write and post great quality content. SEO works best as part of an integrated PR campaign and this is where Dragonfly PR is delivering some fantastic results for business to business clients, particular in construction and manufacturing.
- Genuinely interested parties are more likely to click on an organic link, than a sponsored link (Adwords).
We recently surveyed a group of our customers in the manufacturing sector and asked about their behaviour when searching the web for products and services. Interestingly 60% of people said they would never click on an Adword link, unless there was no viable alternative. Put yourself in their shoes, if you are an OEM in the marine sector looking for a component supplier – say valves, if you are faced with three adwords results and three genuine organic company results with good meta descriptions, don’t you agree it is more likely that you would click on the organic listings?
- Organic search has been found to work better for b2b companies where there is a more complex decision making process than in consumer markets and where decisions are made over a long period of time. Companies searching for suppliers in the b2b sector are more likely to take their time to browse relevant websites that they find purely via organic search, whilst making an informed decision about the products and services they are seeking. In the consumer markets, where purchases are usually lower value and require less time to make a decision, we have seen PPC campaigns work very well.
- Searches can be very low in many business to business sectors. This means that the results provided by Adwords to help you decide which keywords to support may be under 10 searches per month. As a result of this it would be very difficult to build a meaningful PPC campaign. With organic search, you can target a wider range of keywords, with a view to achieving a higher level of search and better results. Deciding on your top 10 keywords is essential and this is the first area where we support our clients when we begin an integrated PR and SEO campaign.
So is Adwords a waste of time for business-to-business customers? We certainly think that Adwords/PPC has a place in the business-to-business marketplace, however it should not be relied upon to generate lots of sales enquiries. A PPC campaign should be supported by a robust organic SEO campaign, which is more likely to deliver better, longer lasting results.
Here at Dragonfly PR, we provide fully integrated PR and online marketing campaigns, covering SEO, online PR and social media, to help you reach your target audience and achieve your goals.
If you would like to discuss your online presence call our digital team on 01709 300130 or email enquiries@dragonflypr.co.uk