This is the first in a series of posts that I will be making to offer my reflections on The SES (Search Engine Strategies) Conference in New York last week. The 3 day agenda included 5 tracks of presentations and discussions as follows:
- Search & the Fundamentals
- Search & the Fear Economy
- Search & the C-Level Executive
- Search & Measurement
- Search & the Future
The conference was well attended by many corporate advertisers as well Search Engine Marketing Companies. Although I have been in the industry since 2005, this was my first attendance at an SES conference.
I found several of the presentations to be very worthwhile on a number of levels and I will be sharing them on future posts. While I could only attend one presentation at a time, all of the presentations will be posted for registered attendees and I will be viewing those in the days to come. I hope to share with our readers certain relevant insights and information along the way.
One thing I can say for certain. I was really kind of shocked regarding the continuing huge emphasis on Google Adwords and Paid Search. By itself, this didn’t really bother me; however, the combined lack of emphasis on organic search, relatively speaking, made we wonder if the industry is in some form of denial.
Here are the facts as presented even here at SES New York. Paid Search is commanding 88% of the online marketing dollar while paid search usage represents only 10-15% of the market. In other words, 85-90% of searches result in an organic click and NOT a paid click, yet 88% of the dollars are chasing the paid clicks.
Those of you familiar with Optimum7 and the wealth of content on our site and on our blog can probably understand where I am going.
It appears the industry, as a whole, continues to focus on the least productive piece of search marketing (PPC or Paid Search) while not grappling with the hard work and realities involved in Organic Search Engine Marketing. It appears that, as a group, that don’t want to deal with it. Here are the reasons:
1. It involves a massive commitment to content.
2. It involves patience as the results are almost never immediate.
3. It involves hard work to make the website work in the eyes of Google for ranking purposes.
4. It’s a hard sale to prospective clients because results are neither immediate nor guaranteed AND involve significant commitments beyond the financial ones.
5. It involves strong skills and processes that go well beyond the web page.
It just comes down to a restatement of what is obvious. Everyone says they want to be on the first page of Google, but very few are actually willing to do those things, make those commitments to actually achieve first place organic rankings.
So, this energizes me more than ever. We are so focused on getting strong visibility and bottom line results for our clients that the hard work isn’t hard at all because it’s a labor of love. Nothing excites us more when we achieve page 1 results for clients and concurrently see the traffic graph move from the lower to left to the upper right.
Bookmark or follow me on Twitter or Facebook or just RSS this blog so you know when you can view the next post of my impressions in this series on the SES New York Conference.
Don’t forget … your comments are always welcome.
Arthur Cooper
http://twitter.com/arthurcooper
http://www.linkedin.com/in/optimum7arthurcooper
9 Comments
Hi
I think main reason for people to go for the paid search is instant results. You need some business in order to survive for the long term. I think people must use paid search and while doing that they must make sure that they reach higher in organic results.
I couldn’t agree more with what you say. We feel PPC is important for exactly what you say … those needing immediate results in traffic and conversions while organic SEO is “in the oven.”
Thanks for the comment.
Arthur
Hi all … Arthur as soon as I landed on this page I knew instantly it was going to be a good read educational and a person to follow I was right on all my points just as I now realize you are to on all your bullet points … its ever so obvious when you see a class page like this one to others so many to mention here … great topic and like Arnie says … I’ll be back
It just comes down to a restatement of what is obvious. Everyone says they want to be on the first page of Google, but very few are actually willing to do those things, make those commitments to actually achieve first place organic rankings.
All my best to you and your SES
Phillip Skinner
Love the picture
Loved your article. I myself have just “realized’ this as a strategy to promote my business and a new skill set to teach my team. The longer the rest of the world sleeps the better.
Thanks for all you do,
Paul
I think you’re definately on to something here. I’ve been to SES a few times and the focus has always been SEO, which had been a more practical goal. I think the shift to PPC is an indication that the SES community recognizes the increasing difficulty of effective SEO.
I’m finding merchants still are focused on that “top listing”, but I don’t think it will be long till they too shift toward PPC as “the cheep way out”, especially for highly competitive markets.
Regards,
Steve
Very interesting, thanks for the info
PPC is where the money is for Google and the rest. And they must be feeling the crunch too. Corporations looking for a quick cash flow need PPC. Organic SEO takes work and constant learning. It’s a challenge that I enjoy. Looking forward to the rest of the series. (I could get lost for the weekend in this blog.)
I agree that there doesn’t seem to be enough emphasis on organic search. I have been working hard with regard to organic search and just starting to put time in to PPC.. maybe I am backwards? I like seeing those results on the organic side of the Google page!
Hey nice piece!
We tend to let clients dip their toe in the water first with adwords, if this proves successful, we then look to discuss a wider SEO strategy. Sometimes clients are happy with Adwords, and then it comes down to budgets etc, so they know adwords produces a return, but aren't willing to expand into organic results.
Having worked alongside many traditional offline and brand marketers, I know I have a number of arguements to contend with in terms of what comes first – brand vs keywords. Often I have lost this arguement as the tradionalists seem to grab most of the office kudos (no idea why lol) – but essentially I can then use both arguments when creating an adwords campaign which is significantly harder with organic SEO.
Please note last point only really happened when working for bigger companies!