![]() |
Search Engine Optimization | |
| Domain Names | E Books | Email Marketing | Ezine Marketing | |||
| Internet Marketing | Marketing | PPC Advertising | SEO | |||
| Traffic Building | Web Design | Web Development | Web Hosting | |||
|
| ||||
SEO Expert Guide - Paid Site Promotion (Marketing) (part 7/10)
In parts 1 - 6 you learnt how to develop your proposition, identify your key words and optimize and promote (for free) your site and pages. You were also introduced to our mythical Doug (who sells antique doors, door handles, knockers, door bells or pulls and fitting services) in Windsor in the UK. Now we turn our attention to paid site promotion, which will be relevant to those of you trying to enter an already crowded marketplace, where your key words are saturated! (a) Pay-per-click (PPC) AdvertisingRun a search on Yahoo or Google for a popular consumer product like "MP3 players". In the results, you'll see a set labeled as 'Sponsored Links' or 'Sponsor Results'. Some results will appear in colored text boxes along the site of the page, whilst others may appear in the same format as the main search results. All these results are paid advertisements from the sites listed within the ads. The ranking order is a product of the bid amount (CPC) and the popularity of the ad (CTR%) and are purchased through pay-per-click (PPC) advertising suppliers. The largest two are Google's Adwords (displayed on Google, AOL, Ask Jeeves) and Yahoo's Sponsored Links - run by acquired company Overture (appearing on Yahoo!, MSN, AltaVista, and others). MSN are planning to release their own PPC scheme soon. If you have tried and failed with free promotion tactics, the chances are that you are operating in a highly competitive area (where a PPC campaign may well be justified). After all, if you can make more money from a converted click-through than it cost you to buy the click-through, why wouldn't you look at PPC? Look at your A-list of keywords. Refer back to your research on Overture. How many searches are conducted per month on your keywords? How much are you - and your competitors - willing to pay for those keywords? For your first campaign, use a large number of relevant search phrases, so that you can test and learn what works best. Build unique ads for each search phrase, as this will help to optimize your click-through rate or CTR% (defined as clicks - or unique visitors - divided by page impressions on the ad pages - expressed as a percentage). This in turn means more targeted traffic, in some cases paying less per click (due to the methods by which advertising is priced). Make sure you use a suitable (and perhaps even a dedicated) landing page for each campaign. Simply sending people to your homepage (from where they have to navigate your site) will not help your conversion rates (defined as sales divided by unique visitors, expressed as a percentage)! Help them to buy, as they are likely to be in a hurry! The PPC providers give you useful interfaces with which to track the effectiveness of your campaign and overall return on your investment. Pay close attention to which keywords are delivering for you and make notes for future campaign planning. Whilst there is no hard and fast rule, a CTR% of 1.8% - 3.5% is in an acceptable range (and anything over that represents a very good performance). On Google, if your ad achieves less than 0.5% CTR, your ad may well be de-listed. The lower your CTR%, the more you will have to pay in cost-per-click (CPC) to get into the top 3-4 results in your chosen keywords (vital if you want to appear on partner sites like AOL). (b) Paid Directory SubmissionI mentioned earlier that Yahoo! Express Submission is the best way to get a listing on Yahoo! Directory. With a node-level PR of 10, Yahoo! Directory carries much weight with Google and the $299 fee (whikst steep and not absolutely guaranteeing a listing) is probably worth the cost. Do not submit to Yahoo! until you have really tested which site description works best on the free search engines. (c) Express Search Engine SubmissionIn the past, it was only worth doing a paid submission with Ask Jeeves, as this engine continued to enjoy a small but loyal following but did not grow it's index as aggressively as the big boys. This meant paid submission was the only way to guarantee a good placement. However, Ask Jeeves withdrew this service in 2004 (in favour of a strategy that mirrors the larger players). As such, I would not recommend paid listings with any search engines now. Next we turn to tools you can use to monitor your ongoing optimization effectiveness... Navigate the guidePrevious : SEO Expert Guide - Free Site Promotion (PR) (part 6/10)Next: SEO Expert Guide - Black Hat SEO - Activities to avoid (part 8/10) About the author:David Viney (david@viney.com) is the author of the Intranet Portal Guide; 31 pages of advice, tools and downloads covering the period before, during and after an Intranet Portal implementation. Read the guide at http://www.viney.com/DFV/intranet_portal_guide or the Intranet Watch Blog at http://www.viney.com/intranet_watch.
MORE RESOURCES:
Search-Engine-Optimization - Google News |
RELATED ARTICLES
Effective Keyword Optimization and Analysis Techniques Keyword optimization involves vital keyword selection and placement strategy depends on successfully identifying your industry related important keywords and then where you can place those keyword for maximum effectiveness.Effective use of keywords optimization and Phrases on your websiteKey to successful web optimization begins with effective use of keywords selection and placement. Do It Yourself SEO Internet surfers use search engines more than any other tool to find things online. Search engines rank their results using a complex formula that considers web page content, link popularity and other details. Google Ranking WITHOUT Ever Submitting To Google! A while back, I read an article that explained how to get a good google rating without ever submitting your site to their submission forms. Like you, I was kind of shocked by this statement so I decided to give it a try. Search Engine Optimization: Creative Ways To Acquire Natural Back Links Search engines use algorithms calculate the order in which the search results are displayed. Although no one outside the search engine companies know the actual algorithms, search engine optimization (SEO) experts agree that back links are heavily weighed. A Link From An Ugly Duckling Website With A PR=1 Could Give You 10 to 80 Times More PageRank Whether you want to start a business and sell on the Internet or you're an old pro and want more Internet sales, here's the easy way to do it.To get the most sales on the Internet you need to have a high PageRank on Google. Search Engine Optimization Explained Search Engine Listing And OptimizationIn the world of website marketing, search engines are an essential key to success. They are the most important way to bring traffic to your website. How to Avoid Being Dropped by the Search Engines For websites, one of the most important things in their existence is their ranking with the search engines. The reason why this is so important is because when websites are ranked high by the search engines, they get flooded with free, targeted web traffic from visitors who are looking for information or products. More Hits are Good for My Website - A Myth You Should Avoid I hear this all the time. "I can get you listed on 100,000 websites for $29. How My Page Rank Went From 0 to 5 In One Update - How Yours Can Too Increase Your Google Page Rank!Page Rank. We all know what is. Why Search Engine Marketing Has A Passion for Web Site Usability Watching a recent football game, I imagined two very different teams: one called â??The Hordersâ?? and the other, â??The Huntersâ??. In the game, it takes planning and skill to carry a football a few yards. SEOing A Flash Intro IntroductionWhy does a FLASH intro need SEO? Flash, the great SE killer, is basically nonspiderable, although there are reports of the opposite. In this way, the intro creates a solid, non-permeable barrier between the website and the external world. Anchor Text Optimization Anchor Text (also called phrase linking) can significantly improve your web pages relevance in the search engines. Optimized or keyword rich anchor text can help your web site gain positioning in the search engines as well as help drive better targeted search traffic. Search Engine Optimization With Sitemaps I just wanted to share a little Search Engine Optimization experiment I ran to confirm the theory that Google likes content rich sitemap pages rather than just a bunch of links pointing to different pages on your site. I also wanted to look at a way of funnelling Google page rank to all the internal pages on my site as quickly as possible I have heard from a few search engine optimization companies that sitemaps are good ways of helping search engine spiders find all the pages on your site but have you every thought that using good quality sitemaps can also help your internal pages attain a very high Google page rank very quickly I was reading a Search Engine Optimization article about how Google likes pages with good quality relevant content and how they wanted to serve this quality content to their surfers. Marketing to Search Engines AND Humans When you were just a young and precocious student of marketing, someone explained to you how to market to humans. "Know your target audience!" said the experts. The Easiest Way to Your Google Sitemap Google Sitemaps is a new tool for website owners and publishers, released by Google themselves. It allows you to submit a sitemap (a document that contains links to every page of your site) from your own homepage in . Professional SEO: Hand Off to Bob or Outsource the Job We are often asked if professional SEO (search engine optimization) can be done effectively utilizing in-house talent. Despite our obvious self-interests on the subject, our answer is always a qualified "yes"- you can achieve professional SEO results using existing talent. One Way Linking Campaigns II There is a way to generate links with the content that you have not as yet created. For this contact the established authorities (writers, publishers ) in your domain area & let them know that you are available as a resource for researching & writing on any topic from the chosen domain. Why Articles Are Not The Route To High Search Engine Rankings If you have any interest in getting high search engine rankings for your website (and who doesn't) you've probably been sold the idea that writing and publishing your own articles will do it for you. Here's why that's not entirely true. Increase Your Page Rank Through SEO Search Engine Optimization (SEO) must be considered a process and over time you can build your ranking and traffic.Remember, "Rome wasn't built in a day. 3.5 Tips To Help You Avoid Becoming The Next Search Engine Outlaw Tip 1 - Hide And SeekDo not use hidden text on your website. This means having words and phrases in your pages somewhere that can't be seen to the naked eye. |
| Domain Names | E Books | Email Marketing | Ezine Marketing | |
| Internet Marketing | Marketing | PPC Advertising | SEO | |
| Traffic Building | Web Design | Web Development | Web Hosting |
|
Home | Site Map | 1000 Free
Places for Ads! | Free
Classified Ads | Free-For-All
Ads | Reciprocal
Links | Search
Engines | |
| Copyright © 2006-2007. The Highland Marketing Group. All Rights Reserved. |
|