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Here is an analogy I particularly like....
Suppose your friendly Yellow Pages salesperson said to you,
“I’m willing to put any ad you want on as many pages as you
want, and the only time you have to pay me is when someone goes
to your website”.
Would you be interested in a deal like that? Well, that is
what Pay-Per-Click advertising is like. You only pay when
someone clicks on your ad and is delivered to your web site. And
remember what the Yellow Pages salesperson said about “on as
many pages as you like”? Well, today if you advertise in the
Yellow Pages, you are probably under one or maybe two categories
or headings. With Search Engine Marketing, you can be under as
many “categories” as you feel are appropriate for your business.
These are called “keywords” or “keyword phrases”.
Perhaps a question & answer forum will help...
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“But I already pay
someone do Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to make sure I
am highly ranked for my keywords.” If they are
doing SEO, then here are some things to consider: |
- If your serve a national market, then using SEO in
conjunction with PPC is a viable strategy. However, if you are a
small business serving a local market then SEO alone is limited
in what it will do for you. For example, you can't geographically target the
audience unless you include the name of the city in the keyword.
If you perform SEO on the keyword "real estate agent", you are
"optimizing" for the entire country and competing against
everyone else who optimizes for that keyword.
- Your SEO campaign is probably limited to a relatively small
number of keywords that are applicable to your business. PPC
offers an unlimited number of keywords.
- What is displayed in the search results is likely a chopped
up collection of words from a page on your site. It isn't a
compelling marketing message with a call to action that SELLS!
- It typically takes 3-6 months for the search engines to
identify any changes to your site and then “re-index” your site
for the new keywords. Changing or adding keywords with PPC takes
a matter of minutes.
- If your employee or contractor is using techniques the
search engines forbid, your site could get permanently banned!
For many businesses, their brand, company name or web site URL,
is very valuable to them and loosing the ability to be found
using a search engine would have a traumatic effect on their
on-line presence.
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“Why can’t my IT person do this?”
OK, let’s assume that he/she:
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- Has some knowledge of search engine marketing
- Has some experience with Pay-Per-Click SEM
- Has extensive experience with the major search engine paid
search programs and is up-to-date
- Has the software tools necessary to perform the keyword
research and on-going maintenance
- Has done the research to know what keywords will perform
well in your industry, in your industry segment and in your
local area
- Has the time to devote to this effort on a priority basis
- Then assuming they have other duties and their time has
value, you will probably be paying them more than I would
charge. And if they are not at least as effective as I am, you
won't be getting a good return on your investment!
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“Where will my ad appear and what will it look like?” While I work with several different “search providers”, by
far the most effective is Google AdWords. If you go to
www.Google.com and search for a product or service, you will be
able to see in a pink shaded area on the top and down the
right-hand side of the screen, a list of "Ads". This is where
your ad would appear. Try it, and see what it looks like. Google
is the most popular search engine and your ad could appear for
as many keywords as you would like. |
Still think you might want to try it yourself? Jump to the page
Secrets of Pay-Per-Click!
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