The big news of the week in internet marketing, in case you missed it, is that the Google Adwords Keyword Suggestion Tool is now showing actual search volume data. Specifically, the tool is showing the number of times keyphrases were searched the previous month and also the average search volume.

Many keyword research services, like Keyword Discovery and Wordtracker, collect search volume data from many search engines, but you must pay for these services.

So what does this mean for internet marketers and search engine advertisers? The Google Adwords Keyword Suggestion Tool was a great tool even before it provided actual search keyphrase data, but now why pay fees for a subscription service when you can get real numbers from Google?

In the last six months, I’ve had a fundamental shift in thinking about how to perform brand-related search engine optimization (SEO). It used to be all about how I could get a client site to the top of the results. Now, it’s more about how many listings my clients get.

With the boom of social media sites comes a new SEO strategy. Now, I focus on getting clients as many listings as possible on the first page, gaining the client credibility and keeping their company name top-of-mind.

Palmer Web Marketing recently published a blog post on How to Own All 10 Google Results (referring to the 10 listings on the first page of a Google search). This post details ten sites (most of which are “social media-related”) that you can focus on to get extra search listings.

It’s a good (and quick) read for companies who have heard about social media optimization (SMO) but don’t yet understand how it can be beneficial.

The June 24 New York Post article called “Search & Destroy: Audit Could Siphon Ad $$ from Google,” reports on a soon-to-be-published audit by UK-based firm Internet Search Metrics. The audit claims that spending money on Google Adwords, Google’s text-based advertising system, could be the worst-spent marketing dollars on the Internet. Instead, the Post article hints that search engine optimization activities would be a better investment.

In the context of small business, there are a couple of points that I wholeheartedly disagree with.

First, the article states that “most executives, with little regard to how well their companies fare in the more important natural search results – the top sites that come up after an Internet search – overspend on paid search because it is the one area of the search market they understand.”

In my experience, most executives don’t have a clue about paid search or natural search. That’s why they hire consultants to run these campaigns for them. This, too, can be problematic. While there are certainly some firms out there that do great work, I’ve known some Google Certified Consultants who couldn’t run an effective campaign if they tried, and I’ve encountered some SEO gurus who charge their clients thousands per month while their clients’ sites actually drop in the search results.

The article (and the study) says that money is better spent on SEO. For small businesses, I disagree. Good SEO costs thousands of dollars per month, while good results can be obtained from a pay per click campaign for hundreds per month. Many small businesses can’t justify spending thousands every month on an SEO campaign, which is never guaranteed to work. Pay per click marketing, on the other hand, only costs companies marketing dollars when a customer is delivered to their web site.

I’m not saying that SEO is “snake oil” and that it never works, but for many small businesses, it’s just too expensive.

While the argument between paid search and SEO may not be solved any time soon, I’m focusing on what I feel is potentially a much more powerful promotional tool.

I’m currently experimenting with PR and strategic communications as a more effective way of promoting companies. My approach is traditional PR with a twist — utilizing traditional media releases with blogs, email marketing, print marketing and more. This PR 2.0 approach — this combination of online and offline media exposure — can naturally improve online search engine rankings while driving web site traffic and improving mindshare across mediums. Good PR efforts for small business can be much cheaper than search engine optimization campaigns as well, all while reaching more potential customers. This approach also eliminates “tunnel vision,” projecting a consistent message across media.

Internet Retailer reports that retailers are spending more on pay-per-click marketing and natural search engine optimization. 57.4% of marketers claim that search engine marketing performs better than other forms of marketing, including affiliate marketing, e-mail marketing and direct mail. Among the respondents to the Internet Retailer study, natural search engine optimization seems to yield higher conversion rates than paid search.

The pendulum seems to be shifting toward natural search engine optimization. I’ve found that both tactics can be successful, but both require ongoing expenses. A mix of both tactics seems to be the right approach for many companies. Optimizing for natural results is the prudent approach for core keywords, while paid search can supplement these results for keywords and phrases that are related to the core keywords. Regardless of the approach, customers clearly do not ignore paid search ads (“sponsored listings”), and as we learned in 2006, ranking in the top three natural results is critical as these links are most often clicked.

As a follow-up to my last post, “When Google rankings affect your small business’ bottom line,” I wanted to provide some real data for my claim that a web site can get a significant increase in traffic by paying for search engine advertising even though they have a #1 search engine ranking for their niche search term.

My client is currently #1 in Google for their niche phrase, which is a moderately-competitive two-word search phrase. The client’s web site has always been in the top 5 results for this phrase, and just recently re-gained the #1 ranking.

The client also pays for a Google Adwords ad for the exact two-word phrase that they are currently ranked #1 for.

In the last week, the client has gotten 59 visits from the #1 Google ranking, and the client has gotten 54 visits from the paid Google ad. You can see that the client nearly doubled their web site traffic from this niche search term by paying for advertising. What’s more is that the paid ad had a 6.78% conversion rate, proving that people not only clicked — they bought.

There’s an interesting thread on SEO Roundtable today regarding the way Google’s rankings can affect small businesses. The fact of the matter is that when Google shuffles its rankings or when competitors start to get aggressive, small business can suffer when they are shuffled down in the search engine rankings.

It’s a timely post as I have a new client that was shuffled off of the first page in the Google rankings for their particular niche search terms, and their revenue has dropped significantly. I wish there was a rosier picture to paint, but this business has a slow road to recovery ahead of it.

Luckily for other businesses that still have good rankings, I see two ways to prevent business decline, and I employ these with many of my clients that hire me to perform search engine consulting services.

1. When times are good (and rankings are high), try harder to keep your ranking.

Work with your search engine consultant to continue SEO efforts when your site is ranked well. If your site is ranked on the first page or even in the #1 spot, you should be continuing to build links to your site, optimize your site and build your business. If your site is #1 for your niche search term, the target is on your back, and other companies are determined to take that spot from you. Using proven, ethical techniques to improve your rankings, even when your site is at the top of the list, is necessary.

2. Buy search engine pay-per-click ads or improve your existing campaign.

If you’re relying solely on search engine optimization to attract customers, you’re putting all of your eggs in one basket. A paid search campaign can increase traffic to your site dramatically, even if your site is ranked #1 for your niche search term (I have data to prove it).

A #1 or first page ranking can also cause business owners to lose focus on their pay-per-click marketing efforts. I advocate the Rimm-Kaufman Group’s recommendation to evaluate your search engine marketing campaign at least once per year. If you have a smaller campaign with a monthly spend under $10,000, you should even evaluate your program every quarter.

With both paid and natural search engine programs running at an optimal level, you’ll lower your risk of a big drop-off in business.