SERP Dominance: An On-line Strategy to Maximize Consumer Direct Traffic

Numerous studies have found that when a site has SERP dominance, (visible in both paid and organic search results) both results receive more clicks than if either appeared alone. Adding Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising to your internet marketing plan will gain your company page dominance on the search engine result page (SERP) and drive more consumer direct traffic. Statistics show that having PPC advertising along with ranking high organically, increases a company's click through rate by 77%.

One reason as to why page dominance creates higher click through rates, conversion rates, and revenue is: for many consumers, seeing a brand in several key locations on a search results page, builds the consumer's confidence in your brand. When a consumer sees an ad on a SERP but doesn't see the company listed anywhere in the organic search, they are less likely to trust where the ad link will take them. Seeing the PPC ad and a well placed organic search listing, reinforces that your company or product is reputable.

Another component to the SERP domination strategy is bidding on your own business name. If you don't, your competitors will. Which can result in them taking your leads by using your own brand/name.

Kathleen Peters, .Com Marketing's Senior Account Executive notes,  "competitors often bid on others' branded names, but you will always score higher by search engines for your own name and thus, can push competitor results further down the page. This is the least expensive word you will bid on and gives you the best position, at the lowest price, when your business category is searched for".

Ideally, when you enter your company name into Google, your brand should dominate the top five or so organic listings and be present in the ad sidebar.

To recap, Pay Per Click Advertising combined with other Search Engine Optimization tactics such as; optimized press releases, social media outlets, blogs, microsites, etc. will help build SERP dominance of your brand and drive more consumer direct traffic to your site.