Today I had lunch with a colleague from another interactive agency, and the topic of pay-per-click came up. We started into a discussion about the inconsistent emphasis placed on pay-per-click (PPC) over natural rankings. While both of our agencies provide these services to our clients we began to wonder why it seems that 80% of the interactive marketing budgets go to 20% of the search traffic, while only 20% of the budgets are applied to where 80% of the search traffic originates from.

Is it because PPC provides immediate gratification? Is it because natural rankings appear too difficult to affect change? Perhaps a combination of factors? Regardless, I think it is time that people realize that natural rank is not impossible to influence. While I’m not the first person to state the obvious, it needs to be restated. CONTENT IS KING!

Depending on the products or services you offer, PPC might make sense; however free traffic always makes sense. Pull back on your PPC budgets and use that money to hire content writers, ghost bloggers or technical writers. These professionals will get you far more mileage for your online marketing dollars.