As an organic SEO specialist I don’t work with PPC unless it is to supplement targeted traffic while waiting for natural SEO to kick in. However, even such limited exposure teaches something valuable about organic search: Google is not the only game in town.

We all know this of course but 99 percent of us still strive against heavy odds to dominate Google rankings. And, of course, we are not trying to beat Google. We are trying to beat the millions of people trying to beat us.

So what did I learn from PPC? That 80 percent of my ad budget gets swallowed up by Google while yielding only 20 percent of the sales. But here’s the real kicker… I spend the other 20 percent on MSN Live Search and it accounts for eighty percent of sales. It is kind of crazy when you think about it. It should be just the opposite. Read more…