Natural vs. Paid Conversion Rates About Equal

In one of my earlier posts I wrote that companies shouldn’t ignore natural search.  In a study conducted by WebSideStory of data from January through August of B2C e-commerce sites, the statistics bear this out.  Natural search had a median conversion rate of 3.13% versus a paid conversion rate of 3.40%.

Interestingly, Rand Schulman, CMO of WebSideStory, attributes this to how searchers perceive listings.  Searchers view natural results like a newspaper editorial and paid search as a front-age advertisement: the advertiser does not control the editorial so the content has to be compelling to warrant a place in the paper.  But paid ads have their place because they contain calls to action, offers, and other elements that move the searcher towards a purchase.