Your Paid Search is Never Enough
Here is why free search engine traffic achieved through search engine optimization is so much better than paid search called search engine marketing. The obvious reason (besides the expense) is that when you stop paying for the sponsored links, the traffic stops visiting your site. A residual payoff is to rank high in the middle section of search engines with the free results because you can stay positioned there for a long time, meaning optimize once and traffic keeps on coming.
The second reason is that free search gets 250% more traffic than paid search, according to Online Marketing Research. That means a number 1 paid rank is equivalent to a 9 or 10th place free rank. This eye tracking study shows where users look (the red portion) and click (the red Xs).
Google Eye Tracking Study
