When business owners hear the term "online marketing," many people immediately think of the more overt advertising that they see when surfing the web. Banner ads, PPC links on search results and pop-up ads are certainly all very common tools used by internet marketers. Yet many companies have been relying on more SEO-oriented techniques to get their brand's name recognized by internet users. This change of pace isn't due to lackluster results from PPC, but rather a repurposed focus on trying to elevate organic search results over paid efforts.

The popular internet advertising mindset these days is to reduce the amount of direct marketing a company does in favor of building traffic and conversion rates more naturally. SEO companies have adopted traditional paid links as supplemental components to more robust organic campaigns, and for good reason. While PPC and banner ads can certainly bring in visitors to a website, they generally tend to give SEO firms more to worry about in the long run. Some of the more common reasons for marketing firms preferring organic links over inorganic ones are as follow:

The Daily Barrage of Ads, Ads, Ads
The biggest issue with most marketing is the way it's perceived by potential customers. Sure, an advertisement here or there can get people to notice a company, but a flood of ads simply upset people. We've all been in situations where seeing the same banner or video ad ends up only making us annoyed at the piece of marketing in question or the company responsible for it. This ultimately achieves the exact opposite of what the marketing was intended to do - bring a person to a company's site.

High Cost for Short Term Payoff
While pay per click advertisements are very effective at bringing in traffic, they can be costly. More popular keywords and ad networks can quickly become financial sinkholes if a marketing firm is not careful. Even if these ads are approached correctly, sometimes the amount of resources put into the project is too demanding overall. PPC ads are an excellent investment when done right, but the resulting traffic often drops off sharply once the campaign ends. It's because of this that many SEOs are hesitant to rely too greatly on paid links for their clients.

Organic Marketing has a Higher Retention Rate
Despite all the issues that may arise with direct marketing, it's really the strength of organic linkbuilding that matters most to a SEO firm. Organically-focused marketing campaigns succeed by strengthening a company's online properties so they show up high up in the SERPs and bring in traffic without unnecessary financial investment. The conversion rates obtained through organic links are less resource-intensive and also benefit from previous work done to webpages and social media listings.

All these reasons add up to one inevitable conclusion: organic SEO efforts should always be the primary focus of any company's online marketing efforts. Should readers have any questions about organic SEO vs. paid links, I can be reached at jwerists@webimax.com.