SEO consultants report natural search better than pay-per-click

Companies are cutting back on paid search and preferring natural search results to drive traffic to business websites, according to SEO consultants.

At the same time, a survey of senior marketing leaders shows businesses recognise that search engine optimisation is the best way to generate online sales.

Consultants at Hitwise, the search engine intelligence research firm, revealed traffic from paid listings has dropped more than 2.5% in recent times.

About a year ago, pay-per-click (PPC) search traffic accounted for 9.8% of all web traffic - but this has now fallen to 7.25%.

The survey of marketing executives considered SEO better at converting clicks into sales than pay-per-click and email marketing. Some 40 per cent in the Forbes.com research plan to grow SEO spend in the near future.

More than 80% of the executives cited sales and conversion data as the most effective measure of online marketing effectiveness.

Registrations and click-throughs were considered useful by more than 50 per cent. Search engine rankings for keyphrases were also considered effective for 39% of the executives.

The reports confirm the expertise and research compiled by SEO consultants at Fuse Optimisation, a search firm with offices in Chichester, London and Manchester. Fuse is a specialist in natural SEO, achieving business-winning positions in the search engines for its portfolio of clients.