The attraction of Pay Per Click (PPC) online advertising is undeniable. Each click costs virtually nothing, you only pay for clicks you get, and you set your own daily budget so you know exactly how much you’re going to spend. Most importantly, your listing appears instantly.

On other hand, a high ranking in natural search results seems unobtainable. There’s a perception that hundreds of thousands of other businesses are competing for your keywords, and that makes it seem like a real rat-race. And it also seems like such a big mountain to climb; it’s true that it can take months to reach first page for your target keywords. To make matters worse, thousands of opportunistic (and some very dodgy) ‘SEO companies’ have emerged, looking to make a quick and big buck out of market naivety. So to CEOs, BDMs, marketing managers, webmasters, and business owners, road to natural search ranking seems expensive, risky, and beset with traffic.

But does this mean you should forget natural search?

Definitely not!

Firstly, most user studies to date have found that people pay more attention to natural search results because they’re more relevant. That’s foundation of success of companies like Google and Yahoo (and reason they keep their indexing rules a secret).

What’s more, it’s important to put things in perspective. Hundreds of thousands of other businesses may be competing for your keywords, but in most cases, they’re at least as confused and disheartened as you. So sooner you figure out real story, sooner you’ll have jump on them.

And yes, it can take a while to reach top, but because your competition is – for most part – traveling blind, your early progress will normally be quite quick. In fact, for most businesses, it’s not until you reach top few pages that your progress will slow.

And again yes, there ARE some dodgy SEO companies out there. But there are also some very good ones. (Go to WebProNews.com and sign up to a forum if you want to find out who they are.) So long as you know basics of SEO you won’t be taken for a ride. (See SEO for CEOs for a rundown of SEO basics in layperson’s terms.)

But let’s talk bottom line…

Is it more expensive to obtain a high ranking?

Certainly not! In comparison with other forms of advertising – even PPC in long run – reaching top of rankings is NOT expensive. The following case study explains why.

Puzzling studies and reports suggest that businesses are missing out when it comes to ROI, including a whole host of metrics that should confirm or shape search engine marketing strategies.

You can’t accomplish much if you’re not even implementing SEO right way. We’ve seen web site after web site that includes scores of individual keywords in META keyword set (that many search engines ignore anyway). The SEO team not only used wrong individual keywords (search phrases are better), but they didn’t bother to include keywords in page title or description. And, of course, they didn’t think it was worth their time to focus on multiple pages– not just homepage.

Hint: If you’re selling dinnerware, “laundry” probably shouldn’t be one of your keywords.

A WebTrends report cited in an eMarketer in 2004 showed following ROI:

Using Complete ROI analysis35.4% Click-through rates only24.2% Conversion metrics18.7% Don't measure21.7%

Barely one third figured a thorough ROI analysis was worth effort.

More than 80% of companies surveyed are dissatisfied with their “ability to benchmark their marketing programs,” according to “Measures + Metrics: Assessing Marketing Value + Impact,” a stunning report based on a 2004 survey by CMO Council, a Palo Alto, California-based organization. The CMO Council represents senior marketing and brand decision-makers in global technology industry.

“Less than 20% have developed any meaningful and comprehensive measures and metrics for their marketing organizations,” report said.