Think about the last time you searched the web for a product. In fact, Google “backpack” right now. It’s OK, I’ll wait. When your search results came up, where did you instinctively want to click first? Did you go straight to the paid advertising at the very top or right side or did you see what came up first organically?

Studies show that, overall, organic results are clicked more often than paid ads listed on the top or the side of the Google search engine. And while Google has steadily been increasing the amount of ads shown for a search’s results and the amount of clicks ads are receiving is increasing, if your site is not optimized, your page rank within Google AdWords will not beat out a competitor with a properly optimized site. This is because Google considers different factors when determining the ad placement.

While many people think that their Google ad placement is based solely on how much they are willing to pay per click, money alone doesn’t get an ad ranked highest. Google has another determining factor called a Quality Score that determines where your ad gets placed.

Google determines your quality score based on:

• Keywords selected in your AdWords campaign
• The relevance of those keywords on your website
• The quality of your landing page

So, while it may seem like a quick way to get to the top of search engines to just pay your way there, it’s important to know that money alone can’t buy the ROI you were expecting. The better SEO your website has, the higher it will rank in PPC ad positioning. Don’t waste money using a PPC campaign for senior citizen advertising on a website that has not been properly optimized first.

Have you ever tried a pay-per-click campaign for your business? Did you take time to optimize your site first? Tell us about it in the comments. We’d love to hear your results. Contact us today if you need help optimizing your home care website with SEO best practices.