Your words are your bricks, and with them you are responsible for constructing a website’s organic keywords, and pushing it to the top of the natural search results.

A natural search campaign is about building concrete foundations. Once your website’s relevance is robust enough to be on page one then your there for good, and able to do business with the steady stream of customers flowing through your doors.

People trust you because they know you have spent time laying the groundwork to be there. You are not a fly-by-night organisation who has just bought your way onto their screens.

Paid search is like setting up a market stall at somebody else’s shop

However, research on people’s shopping habits suggests that copywriters are now a vital part of a site’s maintenance team.

Not only are they needed for the initial decorations, but also for regular refurbishments and constant building work to make the website as big, bold and prominent as possible.

A report, commissioned by Tamar search conversion agency, provided some interesting insights into the UK shopper’s attitude to search results:

• Over half will switch to a competitor if they see negative comments about a company in the search results.
• 7 out of 10 will abandon a search altogether if they see negative results.
• 43% know the difference between natural and paid search.
• 9 out of 10 prefer natural to paid.
• Women prefer natural results because they are seen as more relevant.
• Men are cynical of the keyword manipulation tactics used in paid search, and don’t trust them.

The study reinforces the need for businesses to approach their online marketing as a long-term commitment.

Getting to the top of the natural rankings should be the main aim, with paid search just a useful tool for getting quick, early customers.

Paid search can be very effective if you know your conversion rate, and if you only need to sell a few high value products to make a profit. Consequently, it does suit some businesses better than others. It is ideal for those whose visitors are more likely to buy on their first visit, and don’t need convincing of the benefits.

The problem with relying solely on paid search is that it’s a bit like attracting shoppers with a megaphone, but not having a sales team to greet them when they arrive.

Few people are ready to buy the first time they visit your site. To persuade them to part with their money you need to build trust. The best way of doing this is through the ongoing provision of content of value, and developing the sales process over time. A natural search campaign can achieve this.

Getting to the top of the natural search results takes a much greater investment of time and energy than paid. With Google’s algorithms enough of a puzzle to support a whole industry, there’s no quick and easy way to get to the top and stay there.

Natural search optimisation is like building and running a shop. It takes a lot of effort, and requires regular investment long after you’ve first opened your doors. Ongoing renovations are needed to keep it relevant, and to build up the content needed to attract search spiders, garner backlinks and develop trust with visitors. That’s why copywriters should start thinking of themselves as a website’s resident builder, rather than just the initial decorator. Copywriters are now needed to hang around to keep the website’s content up-to-date, and to pull in the search engines.

Your words are your bricks, and with them you are responsible for constructing a website’s organic keywords, and pushing it to the top of the natural search results.

A natural search campaign is about building concrete foundations. Once your website’s relevance is robust enough to be on page one then your there for good, and able to do business with the steady stream of customers flowing through your doors.

People trust you because they know you have spent time laying the groundwork to be there. You are not a fly-by-night organisation who has just bought your way onto their screens.

Paid search is like setting up a market stall at somebody else’s shop

• Over half will switch to a competitor if they see negative comments about a company in the search results.
• 7 out of 10 will abandon a search altogether if they see negative results.
• 43% know the difference between natural and paid search.
• 9 out of 10 prefer natural to paid.
• Women prefer natural results because they are seen as more relevant.
• Men are cynical of the keyword manipulation tactics used in paid search, and don’t trust them.

The study reinforces the need for businesses to approach their online marketing as a long-term commitment.

Getting to the top of the natural rankings should be the main aim, with paid search just a useful tool for getting quick, early customers.

Paid search can be very effective if you know your conversion rate, and if you only need to sell a few high value products to make a profit. Consequently, it does suit some businesses better than others. It is ideal for those whose visitors are more likely to buy on their first visit, and don’t need convincing of the benefits.

The problem with relying solely on paid search is that it’s a bit like attracting shoppers with a megaphone, but not having a sales team to greet them when they arrive.

Few people are ready to buy the first time they visit your site. To persuade them to part with their money you need to build trust. The best way of doing this is through the ongoing provision of content of value, and developing the sales process over time. A natural search campaign can achieve this.

Getting to the top of the natural search results takes a much greater investment of time and energy than paid. With Google’s algorithms enough of a puzzle to support a whole industry, there’s no quick and easy way to get to the top and stay there.

Natural search optimisation is like building and running a shop. It takes a lot of effort, and requires regular investment long after you’ve first opened your doors. Ongoing renovations are needed to keep it relevant, and to build up the content needed to attract search spiders, garner backlinks and develop trust with visitors. That’s why copywriters should start thinking of themselves as a website’s resident builder, rather than just the initial decorator. Copywriters are now needed to hang around to keep the website’s content up-to-date, and to pull in the search engines.

Your words are your bricks, and with them you are responsible for constructing a website’s organic keywords, and pushing it to the top of the natural search results.

A natural search campaign is about building concrete foundations. Once your website’s relevance is robust enough to be on page one then your there for good, and able to do business with the steady stream of customers flowing through your doors.

People trust you because they know you have spent time laying the groundwork to be there. You are not a fly-by-night organisation who has just bought your way onto their screens.

Paid search is like setting up a market stall at somebody else’s shop

Paid search can be very effective if you know your conversion rate, and if you only need to sell a few high value products to make a profit. Consequently, it does suit some businesses better than others. It is ideal for those whose visitors are more likely to buy on their first visit, and don’t need convincing of the benefits.

The problem with relying solely on paid search is that it’s a bit like attracting shoppers with a megaphone, but not having a sales team to greet them when they arrive.

Few people are ready to buy the first time they visit your site. To persuade them to part with their money you need to build trust. The best way of doing this is through the ongoing provision of content of value, and developing the sales process over time. A natural search campaign can achieve this.

Getting to the top of the natural search results takes a much greater investment of time and energy than paid. With Google’s algorithms enough of a puzzle to support a whole industry, there’s no quick and easy way to get to the top and stay there.

Natural search optimisation is like building and running a shop. It takes a lot of effort, and requires regular investment long after you’ve first opened your doors. Ongoing renovations are needed to keep it relevant, and to build up the content needed to attract search spiders, garner backlinks and develop trust with visitors. That’s why copywriters should start thinking of themselves as a website’s resident builder, rather than just the initial decorator. Copywriters are now needed to hang around to keep the website’s content up-to-date, and to pull in the search engines.

Your words are your bricks, and with them you are responsible for constructing a website’s organic keywords, and pushing it to the top of the natural search results.

A natural search campaign is about building concrete foundations. Once your website’s relevance is robust enough to be on page one then your there for good, and able to do business with the steady stream of customers flowing through your doors.

People trust you because they know you have spent time laying the groundwork to be there. You are not a fly-by-night organisation who has just bought your way onto their screens.

Paid search is like setting up a market stall at somebody else’s shop

Getting to the top of the natural search results takes a much greater investment of time and energy than paid. With Google’s algorithms enough of a puzzle to support a whole industry, there’s no quick and easy way to get to the top and stay there.

Natural search optimisation is like building and running a shop. It takes a lot of effort, and requires regular investment long after you’ve first opened your doors. Ongoing renovations are needed to keep it relevant, and to build up the content needed to attract search spiders, garner backlinks and develop trust with visitors. That’s why copywriters should start thinking of themselves as a website’s resident builder, rather than just the initial decorator. Copywriters are now needed to hang around to keep the website’s content up-to-date, and to pull in the search engines.

Your words are your bricks, and with them you are responsible for constructing a website’s organic keywords, and pushing it to the top of the natural search results.

A natural search campaign is about building concrete foundations. Once your website’s relevance is robust enough to be on page one then your there for good, and able to do business with the steady stream of customers flowing through your doors.

People trust you because they know you have spent time laying the groundwork to be there. You are not a fly-by-night organisation who has just bought your way onto their screens.

Paid search is like setting up a market stall at somebody else’s shop

Your words are your bricks, and with them you are responsible for constructing a website’s organic keywords, and pushing it to the top of the natural search results.

A natural search campaign is about building concrete foundations. Once your website’s relevance is robust enough to be on page one then your there for good, and able to do business with the steady stream of customers flowing through your doors.

People trust you because they know you have spent time laying the groundwork to be there. You are not a fly-by-night organisation who has just bought your way onto their screens.

Paid search is like setting up a market stall at somebody else’s shop door. You’ve paid the market inspector for the pitch, and then you try and waylay as many of the shop’s customers as possible. Most will pass by because they don’t trust you. But as long as one out of ten stops to have a look at your wares then you can earn enough to cover the pitch’s fee and a bit more besides.

Paid search might be the quick and easy way of getting noticed. But with 90% preferring natural results you are probably missing out on a lot of business by not having a natural search campaign.

At present most businesses are still fighting over the best market stall pitches, rather than investing in long-term bricks and mortar.

A recent survey, taken from E-consultancy, highlighted the following:

• 6 out of 10 UK businesses plan to increase their search marketing budget in the next year.
• 44% said the rising click costs were affecting the ROI of paid search.
• The average proportion of a marketing budget allocated to online was 32%.
• 61% of an online marketing budget was spent on paid search, with only 33% on natural SEO.
• Most felt SEO had a more positive impact on branding than paid search.
• The scope of success in driving their search marketing strategy was limited by the lack of internal resources and expertise.

Based on this survey, it would appear we still have some way to go before business mindsets change from focusing on paid to natural SEO.

Once more businesses wise up to the long-term benefits of natural search then they will need copywriters to build and manage their campaigns for them. Not only to provide an ongoing flow of news and information, but also to drown out the noise of disgruntled customers.

The Tamar report highlighted the problem of negative comments in blogs and social sites clogging up search results, and scaring off potential customers. Over half of those surveyed would switch to a competitor if criticism cropped up in a company’s results.

Copywriters are needed to drown out this negativity, by building a website’s positive exposure with happy news stories and cheery case studies.

But I’m going to have to save this discussion for another day, as it’s time for my tea break.