Search Engine News from Piedmont Design

Nice post at thegooglecache.com/ on the difference between paid and organic listings:

People who rely on PPC for traffic are renters. There is nothing wrong with this and it certainly has its perks. You can start and stop renting at any time - no waiting for a house to be built. On the otherhand, you are always paying someone else’s mortgage.

SEO on the otherhand, is more like ownership. Sure, your house could be blown away by a storm or destroyed by fire. But, if you maintain it well, and don’t take too many risks, you can save a lot of money and get A LOT MORE HOUSE. You can always go back to renting if it doesn’t work out for you. 

One thing worth noting is that to hire an SEO pro, it costs money up-front (liek buying a house) but there is not equivalent to a bank through whom you can finance.

This article: http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2006/sep/18prt.html is inherently biased because it’s written by a guy selling SEO services rather than by a site trying to inform you (does that mean this blog is “inherently biased?) but his stats in particular are interesting:

Study after study indicates people are less likely to clíck on paid search ads rather than on results from organic search engine optimization. For example, one study found that search users are up tö six times more likely to clíck on the first few organic results than they are to choose any of the paid results [1], while an eye tracking study [2] showed that 50 percent of users begin their search by scanning the top organic results. Other studies have shown that only 30 percent of search engine users clíck on paid listings, leaving an overwhelming 70 percent who are clicking the organic listings. [3] And a 2003 study found that 85 percent of searchers report clicking on paid links in less than 40 percent of all of their searches, and 78 percent of all respondents claim that they found the information they were searching for through sponsored links just 40 percent of the time.[4]

I have been contemplating starting an SEO blog for some time but have been quite hesitant as the market seems crowded and the quality of many of the blogs is quite high.  Why then have I chosen to do it?  A couple weeks ago I read a post at SEObook.com (which has one of the best SEO blogs I’ve come across) talking about experts who fail to archive their answers when they help people.  I’m not sure I’m comfortable calling myself an SEO expert, though I sell my SEO services to clients. (I’d never thought about that before!)  I do believe that I have provided clients a good bit of value through the years by passing along what I know.\

Honestly though, what I want most for this blog is a place to point friends and clients who are interested in SEO but not interested in paying for SEO.  I follow read some great blogs and come accross valuable resources weekly… rather than talking with folks and trying to remember URLs and communicate the basics, it would be easier to put that here. 

I do hope to provide some value to users and I appreciate you taking the time to read my blog.  I’m always open to feedback and suggestions.