There is a significant difference between the "Organic" and "Sponsored" listings in the major search engines. Primarily, the Organic listings are free and the Sponsored listings are paid for (also called Pay-Per-Click or PPC). The Sponsored listings show up in the top and/or right sides of your search engine results page (SERP), and are often set apart with a different colored shading. The Organic listings follow and are usually shown 10 per page.
In addition to the standard Organic listings, Google (as well as Yahoo and Bing) also displays the Local listings for businesses in your area. The specific order in which a website appears in the Organic and Local listing sections are in direct relation to the relevance of the site's content, among other factors, to the keywords used in the search.
In the long run, it is most cost-effective to have your website obtain and sustain top Organic positioning. Search engine optimization will give your website an edge in visibility over your competitors. Although Pay Per Click advertising is extremely valuable in the short-term when initially launching your website for immediate traffic, without effective search engine optimization you will have to commit indefinitely to investment in Pay Per Click campaigns Additionally, it has been shown that people pay more attention to the organic search engine listings when conducting an online search.
