According to a new study by WebSideStory, paid search has only slight edge in coversion rates over organic search. The study involved analyzing more than 57 million search engine visits on 20 major business-to-consumer e-commerce sites during the first eight months of this year.

Keywords bought on a pay-per-click basis at search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN had a median order conversion rate of 3.40 percent. For organic search results, defined as non-paid or natural search engine listings, the median order conversion rate was 3.13 percent during the same period.

“For both paid and organic search, you have highly qualified traffic that converts far above the overall conversion rate of about 2 percent for most e-commerce sites,” said Ali Behnam, Senior Digital Marketing Consultant for WebSideStory. “In the case of paid search, marketers have better control over the environment, including the message, the landing page and the ability to eliminate low-converting keywords.”

For organic listings, users often appreciate the value of being there as informative, without interferences or business reason, although that is only partially true. Nevertheless, they are more independent than paid search listings.

This study shows that conversion rates from search engine traffic were 50 percent or higher than overall site conversion rates. They remain a very important acquisition source for online marketers.

[WebSideStory]