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Search advertisers are offered two basic marketing models,
paid-ads and free organic ads. While there are advantages and
disadvantages to both models, one clearly stands out as a
better advertising option than the other. Why is it then that
advertisers from small business to mega-corporation tend to show
higher interest in the more expensive and least effective of the
two?

Most SEOs speculate that advertisers understand paid-advertising
better than organic placement. As much of search marketing is
conducted in-house and optimization is a learned-skill,
corporate marketing departments lean towards the very simple
model of paid-search. Organic search engine placement continues
to be perceived as a nebulous service that can take time to show
results. On the other hand, paid-ad placements tend to show up
minutes after they are established and bidding one’s way to top
spot is relatively easy.

With search ad-spends sometimes topping five or six figures per
month, many SEOs shake their heads at businesses that refuse to
invest a much smaller (generally low to mid four figure) sum on
organic optimization. Ranging from small to mega sized
operations, the number of paid-ad advertisers that ignore
organic optimization seems to be growing.

Over the past three years, independent research has consistently
confirmed that search engine users tend to click on the center
column organic (free) ads far more often than on paid ads.
Earlier this year, search marketers benefited from a number of
published studies that clearly demonstrate the higher value of
organic placements. While the results of this research is easily
available to all, traditional and tech media stories tend to
focus on paid-search advertising.

Two studies that made an enormous impact on the search marketing
field this year are the Eye Tracking
(http://www.enquiro.com/eye-tracking-pr.asp) research conducted
by Enquiro CEO Gord Hotchkiss and a whitepaper published by Lisa
Wehr, CEO of OneUpWeb titled, “Target Google’s Top Ten to Sell
Online (http://www.oneupweb.com/landing/google_topten.htm).”
Gord’s study shows the basic F (or triangular) shape search
users’ eyes tend to follow when examining search results. Lisa’s
study found that search users are up to 6X more likely to click
on the first few organic results as they are to choose any of
the paid results.

A third study, “Accurately Interpreting Clickthrough Data as
Implicit Feedback” (http://www.cs.cornell.edu/People/tj/
publications/joachims_etal_05a.pdf), released earlier this week
by Cornell professor Thorsten Joachims looked at the links users
found on search engine results pages and questioned why they
choose which link. The results show again the importance of high
organic search engine rankings. The researchers asked subjects
to perform searches and looked at which results they viewed,
which they clicked on, and what happens if those links are
mixed up.

The Cornell study found that search users tended to view (look
at) the first five organic results with a high percentage of
them (approx. 2/3) viewing the top two listings with 42% of them
selecting or clicking on that link. The number of search-viewers
halves to approximately 1/3 of users viewing sites appearing in
positions 3, 4 and 5. The numbers drop to about 1 in 10 users
tending to view the 9th and 10th placed sites.

When a search user views search listings, it doesn’t necessarily
mean they click on those listings. In this context, to view
means to examine. Users tend to examine the text used to phrase
the reference link as well as the descriptive paragraph
appearing beneath the link before deciding to click on it. This
is especially true for the smaller number of searchers who view
listings found in the 3rd to 10th positions as users who
examined those listings tended to spend more time on the results
page before choosing the link to click first. In other words,
1/3 to 1/10 of users are conducting preliminary research by
seriously reading the text used to phrase the results before
clicking.

This finding was backed up in another part of the Cornell study
that showed when the same Top 2 results were reversed, the text
used in the link and description had a notable influence on
which link the user clicks. The research found that when results
were switched around, 34% of the users would still click on the
site ranked in first place, even when they had seen the now #2
site there earlier. This left about 8% (nearly one in ten) who
recognized the switch by reading the text used in the link and
description. While 8% might seem like a low number, the
researchers believe it is statistically important. They also
note that some search subjects might have been looking to see if
the new #1 site was more relevant.

In his Alertbox review (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/defaults.html)
of the Cornell study, Jakob Nielsen succinctly notes, “If users
always clicked the best link, then swapping the order of the two
links should also swap the percentages, and this didn’t happen.
The top hit still got the most clicks.”

These findings led the research team to suggest there are two
biases playing out in the minds of search engine users. The
first is the Trust Bias, which leads the searcher to believe
that a site ranked in the number 1 position is there because it
must be the best reference for that keyword. The second is the
Quality Bias, in which viewers consider the link-text and
descriptive paragraph as well as rankings to determine which
site is most relevant to their search.

For search engine marketers and more importantly, search engine
advertisers, there are two glaringly obvious implications.

First of all, it is extremely important to be found at the Top
of the search engine results. Being in the Top10 is likely
sufficient for many businesses but the sites getting the most
business are found at the top. To further these findings, Gord
and Lisa’s research clearly shows that searchers are choosing
organic placements over paid-ads.

Secondly, the copy used in your Title tag and site content has
to be more compelling than that of your competitors. Search
users are reading before clicking. If they have to make a choice
between three sites that are all perceived to be equal (those in
the 3rd to 5th positions), they will almost always choose the
one with the most topically relevant descriptive text and
link-copy.

Put together, the results of the three studies show that search
engine users are able to tell the difference between paid and
free listings and tend to trust the free organic listings more
than they do the paid ones. The studies also show that search
users, while still tending to put a higher bias on the Top 5
results are becoming sophisticated enough to seriously consider
descriptive copy before choosing to select a link. In other
words, the search users are starting to make what appears to
them to be the wisest choices when selecting search advertising.
The advertisers are advised to do the same.

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By Jim Hedger, (c) 2005 StepForth News Editor,
StepForth Placement Inc.
Jim Hedger is a writer, speaker and search engine marketing
expert based in Victoria BC. Jim writes and edits full-time for
StepForth and is also an editor for the Internet Search Engine
Database. He has worked as an SEO for over 5 years and welcomes
the opportunity to share his experience through interviews,
articles and speaking engagements. He can be reached at
“jimhedger@stepforth.com”