Marketing across search engines like Google is a necessity for today's business environment. Here is how it works: Sponsored ads are ranked and sold according to the amount of demand for the keyword that you are looking to purchase. All of the other positions on the page, including the maps, can be attained by following Google's guidelines, creating new content, and updating your website on a weekly basis.

Google's goal is to provide you with results that are clear and easy to read. The diagram below points out four features that are important to understanding the search results page as well as the typical portion of clicks that each area recieves:

Google Statistics Bar
The Google Statistics Bar is located at the top of search engine results. This informational area describes your particular search, including the number of results on the current page, an estimate of the total results, and the time your search took to display. This bar also includes dictionary results, which are the blue underlined links to the right.

Prime Positioned PPC/Sponsored Ads
Google's Prime Positioned Sponsored Ads are located at the top-most left portion of the SERPs. These paid advertisements are the product of Google's pay-per-click service, Adwords. The ads here must be fairly relevant to your search criteria (much like normal sponsored ads) as well as attain a superior level of performance, measured by CTR (click-through-rate - the number of users that click the ad), to be featured in this section. An estimated 15-20% of users will click advertisements in this section.

PPC/Sponsored Ads
Normal PPC (pay-per-click) ads within Google are located to the right of the search engine results page (SERP). These ads are the product of Google's pay-per-click service, Adwords. The ads here must be fairly relevant to your search criteria and are ordered based on CTR (click-through-rate - the number of users that click the ad) as well as the price paid by the advertiser.

Local Listings
Google's Local Listings will typically appear on the first page of search results when search terms include a geographic location (such as Car Dealer in Virginia Beach). Similar to organic listings, Local Listings are essentially free listings because they involve no click through fees. The criteria for rankings is based on a number of considerations: search engine optimization, proper geographic information listed on your website, and getting positive "reviews" through third party websites.

Organic Search Results
Google's organic, or natural, listings are achieved by key factors such as internal (on-page) optimization efforts including making your web site search engine friendly and providing quality content as well as external optimization efforts such as link building. It is estimated that 70% of users prefer to click on these results versus the sponsored listings on the right.