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SEO from Mike Banks Valentine
Pay-Per-Clicks . . . One way to boost traffic
to your Web site
(Part 1)
By Robin Nobles
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 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. (In Part 2 of this article,
we'll continue by discussing the advantages to working
with pay engines. For the complete article, write
to Robin Nobles at robin@searchengineworkshops.com)
Robin Nobles, Director of Training, Academy of Web
Specialists, (http://www.academywebspecialists.com)
has trained several thousand people in her online
search engine marketing courses (http://www.onlinewebtraining.com)
and is the content provider for (GRSeo) Search Engine
Optimizer software (http://www.se-optimizer.com).
She also teaches 3-day hands on search engine marketing
workshops in locations across the globe with Search
Engine Workshops (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com).
Copyright 2002 Robin Nobles. All rights reserved.
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Search
Engine Marketing: Special
Reports from Page Zero Unleash Amazing Profits
with Google AdWords Select! You advertise your
product, service, or cause online. You've decided
to pay for targeted traffic on a "pay per click"
basis. And now you're considering Google
AdWords Select. Great decision. But if you
don't use the techniques taught in this
special report, you could cost yourself a
fortune. Use it right, and you'll clean up.
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