Tips on Marketing Your Own Site
Tips on Search Engine Positioning (Part III)
Back in July, we introduced you to the top Search Engines. Most of these are free sites and include you in their listings free of charge. This month, we introduce
you to another type of search engine, the so-called Pay-Per-Click Search Engines.
Pay-per-click search engines allow website owners like you to bid on keywords that relate to your site. You submit your site's descriptions and titles,
along with a list of keywords and you must specify how much you are willing to pay for each keyword.
After your submission is processed by the pay-per-click search engine, your listing will show up in the search
engine in a position which correlates with how much you paid vs. how much your competitors have paid for the specific search terms.
For example, if you choose to pay $0.25 for the keyword "casino", while others pay only $0.20, then your site would rank higher. If, on the other
hand, you pay only $0.10, then your site may rank low.
GoTo.com is a good option if your budget is large enough, but there are many smaller pay per click search engines available for smaller budgets. Some of the
more prominent pay-per-click search engines include 7Search.com, Findwhat.com, HitsGalore, Kanoodle, OneSearch, RocketLinks and Sprinks.
Consider the following if you're thinking about using a pay-per-click search engine to promote your site.
Your Budget
Do you have enough money to use pay-per-click engines, or should you stick with free search engines? Your Industry
Consider the uniqueness of your product. Do you sell something that many
other sites also sell, or is your product hard to find? If your product is easily obtainable from other sites, then there will be intense competition
for keywords, hence higher costs of placement. Your Competition
What marketing strategies does your competition use? If your top competitor
is a big advertiser on GoTo.com, you may want to consider bidding for a top position there as well.
Here are a few tips for conducting a successful campaign on Pay-Per-Click Search Engines:
Choose the right keywords to bid on
The most vital factor in pay-per-click positioning is choosing the right keywords to bid on. Irrelevant keywords will be rejected, so choose only those keywords
that relate to your site's content. Second, relevant keywords mean targeted traffic. Since you're paying every time a searcher clicks on your site,
it's crucial that every click is worth your money.
The cost of a top position for a given keyword is also a factor. Ask each engine to provide you with the clickthrough rate for the top 10 positions on
every keyword you're considering. Try to find inexpensive keywords that relate to your site.
Analyze the results
Pay-Per-Click Engines will provide you with reports that show how many people clicked on your links. The pay-per-clicks swear on the integrity of these reports,
so pay careful attention to them. Analyze the following elements:
Projected vs. actual clickthroughs
Did your placement perform as well as you expected? Did you catch the traffic you were expecting? Consider this when deciding on future keyword purchases. Revenue generated from the placement
Did your revenue increase from the placement? If your traffic increased but your revenue didn't, evaluate your keywords. Revise your keywords so
that they will attract paying users. Web statistics
If you have a software package or a service that tracks your usage
statistics, note which pages your pay-per-click visitors use most (usually in the "path summary" report). See if you can find any patterns. This will help
you understand those users' interests and choose future keywords.
Analyzing your pay-per-click marketing efforts will help you decide how this form of advertising can benefit your business.
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