I was at a Wedding the other weekend, and strangely enough got talking to an SEO in the evening (is everyone an SEO these days??).
We got into an interesting debate about the fact that Google PPC ads have an affect on the organic listings of a web site. I have always been of the understanding and impression that the two are completely unrelated and I stand by that. For Google to take payment for sponsored listings and then allow these sites to take preference over non paid sites in organic listings is morally incorrect. As we know, 60% of searchers never click on PPC results, and alot of people I talk to never even look at them. The reason? They don’t trust them like they do the organics. Anyone can pay for a listing for any keyword – the site doesnt have to be relevant for it to be listed, where as the organic results are trusted to serve up content relevant to the search criteria.
If it was ever confirmed that PPC had an effect on Organic listings I would be beside myself with dissapointment, and maybe just a little but of anger towards the Search Engine giant!
