One of the ways to boost traffic to
your Web site is by purchasing keywords from one of the pay-per-click
search engines or directories.
But with literally hundreds of
choices, how do you pick the pay-per-click engine with the best
visibility that has the potential of giving you a higher return on
your investment?
And, just as important, what are some
strategies for working with the pay-per-click engines, and how do they
operate?
How do Pay-Per-Click Engines
Operate?
With pay-per-click engines, you bid
on keywords that describe your business, your products, or your target
audience. Then, you’re charged your bid price every time someone
clicks on your ad, which is displayed when a searcher types in the
keyword you’ve chosen into the search box at an engine. Whoever is
willing to pay the most for the keyword or keyword phrase will be at
the top of the rankings.
There are many benefits to working
with pay engines, which we’ll cover in this article.
Important Pay-Per-Click Engines
and Directories
Overture:
http://www.overture.com
Overture is certainly the
pay-per-click engine that most people recognize. It’s also one of
the most expensive and competitive.
However, the visibility of Overture
is impressive, to say the least. It provides the top two or three
results to “big boy” search engines and directories like Yahoo!,
Lycos, HotBot, and MSN Search. In fact, Overture claims to reach 80%
of all Internet users.
Overture listings are generally found
at the top of the regular search results in an area called
“Sponsored” results or sites.
Overture’s pay-per-clicks operate
under one premise: whoever has the deepest pockets and is willing to
pay the most gets on top.
The minimum bid is $.10, and
there’s a minimum charge of $20 per month. A $50 initial deposit is
non-refundable and will be applied to click throughs or to the minimum
monthly spend. When your account is depleted, they’ll contact you to
see if you want to add additional funds to your budget.
Google AdWords
http://www.google.com/ads/
Google AdWords have fast become
extremely important in the pay-per-click arena, with results being
shown at search engines like Google, AOL Search, Ask Jeeves, and Teoma.
Google AdWords operates differently
than Overture in a number of ways. Your click-through rate and cost
per click together determine where your ads are shown, so better ads
rise to the top. That means no one can lock you out of the top
position.
Google AdWords are shown on the
right-hand side of regular search results in a pink shaded area called
“Sponsored Links.”
Because your click through rate has
an influence on the placement of your AdWords ad, your ad’s title
and description must be captivating and designed to pull in traffic.
With Google AdWords, there’s a $5
activation fee, and the minimum bid amount is $.05. You decide on the
maximum cost per click that you’re willing to pay and set your daily
budget. You don’t have to spend a certain amount per month, and you
only pay for clicks you actually receive.
FindWhat
http://www.findwhat.com
Another popular pay-per-click engine
that is generally much less expensive than Overture is FindWhat.
With FindWhat, whoever bids the most
gets on top. The minimum bid is $.05, and they require a $25 minimum
amount to open an account.
FindWhat provides results to 200
different partners, including many of the big meta engines like
Dogpile.
Lycos InSite AdBuyer
http://insite.lycos.com/searchservices/adbuyer/overview.asp
A fairly new pay-per-click program
that’s displayed on both Lycos and HotBot is Lycos InSite AdBuyer.
Again, it operates similarly to the
way that Overture and FindWhat operate, with the top results being
those who bid the most for their target keywords.
The minimum bid is $.05 with a $50
minimum to open an account.
LookSmart
http://www.looksmart.com
LookSmart is a pay-per-click
directory where you pay a flat $.l5 per click through. It claims to
reach 77% of the Internet users through the partners that display
LookSmart results.
Some of those partners include MSN
Search, About.com, Netscape, and AltaVista.
With LookSmart, you don’t bid for
listings. Everyone pays a flat $.15 per click through, and your
ranking is determined by how relevant your site is to the search term,
according to LookSmart’s ranking criteria. To get started with a
LookSmart listing, the initial investment is $29.
Other Pay-Per-Click Engines
http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com/
This comprehensive site lists over
500 different pay-per-click search engines and offers individual
reviews on many of them.
Advantages to Working with the
Pay Engines
The pay engines offer many advantages
to Web site owners, including:
1. If you have a brand new site with
little or no visibility and no link popularity, the pay engines are
certainly a way to get started fast while you wait for your standard
search engine marketing efforts to kick in and take effect.
2. Pay-per-click engines are ideal
for holiday promotions, special sales, or to jump start slow engine
traffic.
3. With the pay engines, you have
instant visibility in whichever search engines display those results.
4. You choose your rankings,
depending on how deep your pocket book is.
5. If some of your keywords aren't
performing, you can choose other ones.
6. You only pay for clicks to your
site, so you can target your traffic by the keywords you choose.
7. With regular optimization efforts,
it's sometimes difficult to achieve top rankings if you're in a highly
competitive field. With the pay engines, you pay for your rankings,
and VOILA! You're there!
8. Purchasing keywords is certainly
easier and less time consuming than optimizing your pages.
9. With regular engines, when
algorithms (or ranking criteria) change, you can find yourself booted
out of your top spot. With the pay engines, as long as you're willing
to hand out the cash, you'll be on top.
10.You can target your audience based
on the keywords you choose. Most Web sites have multiple target
audiences, so pay-per-click keywords are a way to reach each of those
target audiences.
11.Pay-per-click is generally less
expensive than traditional advertising media.
12.With pay-per-click engines, you
don't have to worry about design strategies that could mean death to a
Web site otherwise. Is your entire site one huge Flash movie? No
problem, if you go through the pay engines.
Tips for Boosting Your Chances
for Success with the Pay Engines
When working with the pay engines, it
takes practice to achieve a level of success. So, start out slowly,
and keep a tight rein on your budget. As you become better at crafting
titles and descriptions and choosing highly targeted keywords,
you’ll gradually be able to increase your budget, if you choose.
Here are some additional tips:
1. It's not always best to be #1.
Many compulsive "clickers" automatically click on the #1
result when they have no real interest in buying your products or
services.
2. Be sure to include your keyword
phrase in the title and description you create at the pay engines.
Take special care in creating a description for your site, since
within the top three slots, the best description gets the most
traffic, as a general rule.
3.Your keywords must be relevant to
the content of your pages. Overture is particularly careful about
this.
4. Choose very targeted keywords so
that you don't pay for needless click throughs. Don’t ever choose a
general keyword, because your costs will skyrocket but the traffic
won’t convert to sales.
5. Spend time researching your
keyword choices at Overture's Search Term Suggestion Tool
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
or my favorite, WordTracker:
http://www.wordtracker.com/moreinfo.html
6. Generally, you'll have more
success if you purchase 10- 20 keywords as opposed to just a few.
7. Choose a broad range of keywords
and bid prices and test the waters. Watch your keywords carefully.
Non-productive keywords should be eliminated and new, more productive
keywords should be purchased instead.
8. For Overture, consider purchasing
a "Premium Listing," which means that you hold the 1st, 2nd,
or 3rd ranking for your keyword phrase. Why? Because engines like
AltaVista and Lycos show the first listings only.
9. Set up a separate
"tracking" page to send your pay engine traffic. In order to
show whether or not the cost is worth it, you need to be able to track
your click throughs and sales. Don't send pay engine traffic to your
home page.
10.Write your title and description
using “objective” language rather than “subjective.” In other
words, don’t say that your product or service is the best or #1
(subjective). Rather, list some of the benefits of your service that
make it unique (objective).
In Conclusion
You’ll find many benefits to
purchasing keywords through pay-per-click engines, but you need to
learn some basic guidelines before you get started. By doing so,
you’ll hopefully find more successful when working with the pay
engines.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Robin Nobles, along with partner John
Alexander, teaches 2-, 3-, and 5-day search engine marketing workshops
through Search
Engine Workshops.com. These workshops are divided according to
experience level, and they come packaged with a 6-month mentoring
program and a Start-Up Resource Package that's valued at over $3,000.
Robin also heads up the World
Resource Center for Search Engine Marketers (formerly the
Academy of Web Specialists) where she has taught several thousand
students in her online
search engine marketing courses during the past several years. She
is also the content provider for GRSeo
(Search Engine Optimizer) software. Her latest books, Web Site
Analysis and Reporting and Streetwise Maximize Web Site Traffic,
can be ordered through Amazon.
Copyright 2003 Robin Nobles. All
rights reserved.
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