As you begin to research ways to market your
website, there are two terms you’ll be hearing a lot about. Those are SEM
(Search Engine Marketing) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization)..
SEM is simply paid advertising on search engines, and SEO is a method of
properly designing your website in a way that can be “seen” by the search
engines. This month I’ll talk exclusively about SEM:
Search Engine Marketing
Placing paid advertisements on the internet in the form of search results
is known as Search Engine Marketing, or PPC (Pay Per Click). For a fee,
your ad will appear in front of users, and you won’t pay anything for the
ad until the user actually clicks on the ad and goes to your website. Most
users have become immune to clicking on the popup and banner ads, but the
PPC (Pay Per Click) market continues to grow with no end in site.
The reason for this is that the PPC ads appear listed at the top of the
search results on all of the major search engines. Many end users do not
even notice the small words “sponsored link” that indicate a paid
placement in the search results.
Google AdWords
Google places the ads on the top two rows in a shaded area, and also down
along the right side inside small boxes. These are obviously ads, but
still can be highly effective for driving traffic to your website. Their
program is called Google AdWords and you can read more about it at http://adwords.google.com.
The Google AdWords results are also displayed (as of this writing) on
Lycos, HotBot, AOL, AskJeeves, Teoma, Netscape and Iwon.. The ads are also
distributed on thousands of small affiliate websites that get a small
piece of the revenue they generate for Google
Overture
Overture is another PPC service. They have their own website at http://www.overture.com
and they also distribute their results to a wide variety of websites. As
of this writing, Overture results are currently displayed by Yahoo, MSN,
AltaVista, and AllTheWeb among others. Unlike Google, most Overture ads
are virtually indistinguishable from the true or “generic” results.
There are about a dozen other minor players in the PPC search engine
business, but between Google and Overture, you’re covering nearly 90% of
the market. In my experience the others are a waste of time and not worth
the extra effort to manage, but I’m sure the landscape will change.
The way Google and Overtures PPC services work is very similar. By
“bidding” on the keywords and phrases you want, your ad appears in the
results. As long as you’re willing to pay more than the next guy, then
your ad will appear above his. If you get outbid, then his ad moves above
yours. It’s really that simple.
That doesn’t mean you can have your auto body shop come up number one for
the search term “yellow banana”, but as long as your business is relevant
to the search term, then it’s fairly easy to be number one. Both Overture
and Google enforce certain relevancy standards that demand a certain “CTR”
or (Click Through Rate) to keep the paid search results relevant to the
searched for phrase, otherwise people would stop using their search
engines.
Time is running out
Over the past two years the use of PPC advertising on the internet has
risen dramatically. For example, two years ago, you could have the number
one ad for the phrase “San Diego DUI Attorney” for under 25 cents per
click. Today, that same phrase will cost the advertiser over $40 per
click.
Obviously, as more people catch on to the PPC advertising methods, prices
will go up and it will no longer be cost effective for certain businesses.
Until then however, there’s a huge window of opportunity to get your
business in the top of the search results for very little money, and if I
were you, I’d get in before the window slams shut.
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Scott Hendison hereby grants
reprint
rights for all of his own articles on this website providing that the following
italicized lines (with the live link) are
included as a byline:
Scott Hendison is a
computer
&
internet consultant based in Portland
Oregon. He specializes in search engine placement, internet marketing, and Retail Point of Sale (POS) systems
with e-commerce, for customers in
five countries. for more information, visit his website is
http://www.pdxtc.com.
Need more info?-
Scott
is the
owner/operator of Portland Technology Consultants, providing
computer
and internet consulting services to
local Portland Oregon businesses, and over the internet in five
countries. He is a member of the
Independent Computer Consultants Association and
is on the Board of
Directors for the
Oregon Computer
Consultants Association.
He is also on the Board of the
Gateway Area Business
Association and an active
member of the
East Portland
Chamber of Commerce.
His website is filled with
nearly 100
computer & technology related, articles like this one, and he has a
daily blog here.
If you'd like to know more, please visit the main page at
http://www.pdxtc.com,
or call him at 503.946.6881.
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