Paid versus non-Paid Search Results

Does it matter? Of course it does, but a new Pew Study seems to show that just one in six Web searchers can understand the difference between paid search results and results that are ordered on the basis of relevancy or link popularity.

What does this mean?

For one thing it means that you can buy traffic, but that might not last and the numbers are a bit confusing.

Twenty percent of Internet Surfers fully understand the difference between paid ads and link popularity results. Another 20 percent are fuzzy on the distinction. The rest appear clueless.

Ironically, the far majority of Internet surfers expect the distinction to be clear - a surprising fact since the distinction appears unclear for most. Most analysts blame this on the newness of the Internet for so many users.

Overtime, as users become more sophisticated, marketers should expect those users to become more interested in relevancy, rather than ads. Nonetheless, the Pay-Per-Click model is a useful Internet marketing tool, especially in the short term

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