As detailed in eMarketer's new Search Marketing report, lazy marketers spend far more for paid placement than Web site optimization. That's partially due to paid advertising being far more costly than optimization efforts.
But it's also due to perception: Paid search results are more readily seen than the results from boosting organic listings, therefore it's easier for search marketers to find the budget for paid advertising than optimization.
According to a recent report from the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, paid placement made up 83.0 percent of 2005's spending. Meanwhile, spending for organic search engine optimization (SEO), a potentially more effective form of search marketing, received only 11.2 percent of search engine marketing budgets last year.