Website Business Solution

What Is Pay-Per-Click? When To Use It - And When Not To

The only way to really guarantee top placement is to use pay-per-click advertising. (This is an advertising mechanism in which you pay for every click of a potential customer.) Most search engines offer this on a bidding basis, and if it generates more money than you spend on it, it can be sound business advise. In most cases, you would DO THIS LAST - after you optimize your web site and implement other promotional techniques. If you do an effective job with your website optimization and promotion, you may already come up top naturally and not have to use pay-per-click for several keywords. (This is expecially true for MSN or Yahoo.) Or if you choose to make a big (temporary) advertising campaign while you are optimizing (and have the money for this), then you may consider this.

Some keywords will cost more than others, depending on competition. Some will generate more paying customers than others. Do the math as you go along. Figure out the return on investment. This is seldom a one shot deal and often takes a few months of tweaking to get the optimum pay-per-click bid amount for the different keywords.

YOU WILL FIND SEO COMPANIES THAT GUARANTEE YOU TOP PLACEMENT FOR YOUR FAVORITE KEYWORDS. THIS IS HOW THEY DO IT. They use pay-per-click as part of the package and point to the pay-per-click listing, showing you your top placement. The natural links are normally much cheaper in the long run, since once you achieved a top ranking without pay-per-click you will have a steady stream of customers without having this kind of per-click fee.

Google is, of course, an exception. For the first year you will not likely rank for most of your desired keywords despite any valiant efforts on your part. During this period, I would encourage using Google's pay-per-click (AdWords). Although Google is the slowest to recognize your natural ranking - it will give the greatest return in the long run. While you do this - use the information they give you while you manage your pay-per-click keywords. See what is used most often - and what gives you the most sales (conversions). They have tools to help you with that.

ANY SEO FIRM that promises or guarantees top placement for competitive keywords is either selling you pay-per-click or is being boastful. Be wary with your money. You don't need an SEO expert to sign up for pay-per-click. You may use one to help you find the right keywords or perhaps to handle optimization techniques. If they are selling you a package, pay-per-click is often a justifiable part of it. However, don't let such a promise be a decision factor in selecting an SEO expert.

Why Use Pay Per Click Advertising?

1: Pay Per Click Advertising is by far the most direct marketing system ever invented. You actually get to place your ad directly in front of a prospect that has searched on a term related to your product or business. Your prospect is proactively looking for what you have to offer. You cannot get a more targeted form of advertising.

2: Market to the planet or just your small hometown. With the introduction of local targeting last year Google have opened up a whole new opportunity for small businesses. If you offer a service such as a garage or hairdressers etc. before now there was little point in using Pay Per Click advertising. You can't offer this service over the web. But now with local search you can pinpoint a district for which you would like your ad to appear. Your ad will then appear only to your most likely prospects. At the other extreme if you offer a product that is not reliant on physical location you can now get highly targeted visitor from across the planet or country.

3: Market research has never been easier. You now have the opportunity with Pay Per Click advertising to measure a markets value quickly and cheaply simply by targeting a few ads at this market. With a few targeted Pay Per Click advertising campaigns you can now measure potential ROI across a whole market within a few days for pennies rather than the months and big bucks it used to demand.

4: Recent Pay Per Click innovations have seen Advertisers given more control in where their Adwords Ad will appear. You now have the option to advertise on specific sites. Even more recently site owners now also have the option to place a banner on their site advertising the opportunity to visitors to advertise there.

5: Get traffic to a new site fast. If you have a new site you will struggle for a long time to get anywhere near a good listing in the search engines. Pay Per Click advertising will allow you to take your business straight to market the day your website goes live. Saving you months in potential lost earnings.

6: Opportunity favours the quick and the prepared. Pay Per Click and online advertising spending in general is set rocket over the next few years as more and more businesses become disillusioned with the results of their traditional advertising avenues. By learning to utilize Pay Per Click advertising properly now you can position yourself to take advantage of future developments fast.

7: Variety. Although Adwords is the leading Pay Per Click advertising system it's by far the only one. Yahoo have their own system known as Yahoo Search Marketing, formally Overture. MSN are about to bring their new system online, MSN adCenter. Then there's Findwhat, LookSmart, Miva etc. Are your chosen keywords to costly on Adwords? Try one of the other Pay Per Click advertising networks.

Pay Per Click Advertsing The Future

As more businesses come online SEO competition is hotting up. Google already implements a 'Sandbox' which will see new sites get very little traffic for 8 to 12 months after going live. The sandbox is a 'holding pen' for new sites. Google introduced the sandbox as a means to monitor and control new site listings. This was introduced as a defence against the rash of Spam sites that where appearing across the Net.

This being the case don't expect a good ranking or any traffic from Google for a long time after your new site goes live.

Pay Per Click advertising is the quickest route to site traffic