Difference between PPC & Organic listings

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SPONSORED AND ORGANIC SEARCH  LISTINGS

Many lawyers are confused by the difference between the pay per click sponsored listings and the free organic listings at Google, Yahoo and other top search engines.

The free or "organic" search listings at Google are listed on the left side of the page and the sponsored PPC listings are located on the right side of the page under "sponsored links" and sometimes at the very top of the page, right above the organic listings.

Organic listings take time and effort to achieve and are usually a result of a legal web site that has a lot of good content, is listed in the Yahoo and Open directories and has a lot of links pointing to it from other sites.

The pay per click or sponsored listings are a result of web sites that bid a certain amount per click on a keyword. The higher the bid, the higher the ranking. Even though at Google its a little bit of a different bidding process then at Overture. At Overture, its simply a matter of whoever bids higher, gets the higher listing, where at Google, its a combination of different criteria including amount bid.

Obviously you want to be listed in the organic listings because its like the gift that keeps on giving and you don't have to pay every time someone clicks on your site.  Yet it takes time to get the free listings and sometimes you have no choice but to pay extra to visitors to your legal web site. Some lawyers do both, get great organic listings but then also pay for the sponsored links to cover all bases.