A new survey suggests that paid for search results only produce a nine per cent advantage in conversion rates over organic searchresults.

The study by WebSideStory, for the first eight months of the year, found that keywords bought on a pay-per-clickbasis recived a median conversion rate of 3.40 per cent, while organic search results yielded a conversion rate of rate of 3.13 per cent.

"There is a strong synergy between paid and organic search. The bottom line is that marketers need to optimize both to achieve maximum results," said Heather Lloyd-Martin, an author and the President and CEO of SuccessWorks and chair of the Direct Marketing Association's Search Engine Marketing Council.

Ali Behnam, senior internet marketing consultant for WebSideStory added that with conversion rates 50 per cent or higher than overall site conversion rates, "both paid and organic search remain a very important acquisition source for online marketers."