With research suggesting that around 90% of all e-commerce purchases coming as a result of a search engine enquiry, the potential selling power that having a significant presence on the main search engines can confer is slowly beginning to dawn on those responsible for marketing and selling everything from Alphabet soup to Zebra floor mats.

Search Engine Marketers have in recent times set up their tents in one of two different camps.

One would have clients believe that the only value to be gained from search engine marketing is the long term value that organic search engine listings can achieve.

The camp on the opposite side of the river would have their clients sold on the belief that Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) from companies such as Google, Overture and Miva offered the swiftest returns on investment and the quickest routes into the lands of honey and gold.

The reality of the situation is that a truly successful Search Engine Marketing campaign lies somewhere in-between.

The advent of the fabled Google Sandbox now means that for the majority of new and redesigned websites an artificial time delay of at least six months is now being imposed on their sites making onto the pages returned for a relevant keyword search.

This is a consequence of Googles attempts to rid its index of sites designed to manipulate the listings rather than to provide real and valuable content.

The consequence of this action is that whilst new sites can still (at the time of writing) quickly gain organic listings on MSN and Yahoo through the optimisation of their websites, those seeking to place their products or services in front of the massive Goggle audience need to invest time and money in establishing a brand presence on Google through the usage of PPC advertising.

Recent research has shown that PPC click adverts are only perceived to have been paid for by fewer than 40% of those using search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Additionally having PPC adverts that mention a brand name on page listings relating to a particular subject or product actually increases brand awareness in subsequent recall tests by over 25%, whether the advert was clicked upon or not.

No-one can argue that over time organic listings represent the greatest potential for Return On Investment (ROI).

However the fact that organic listings are increasingly becoming harder to achieve, particularly for new websites, means that integrated Search Engine Marketing solutions that take account of organic and PPC listings represent the true and only means of establishing a strong and profitable position on the main search engines.