INTRODUCTION TO PAY PER CLICK SEARCH ENGINES

One of the quickest ways to get traffic to a website (especially when it is new) is to enlist the help of Google, Yahoo or Nine MSN. It takes a while for websites to get listed in the major search engines and often much longer for them to get a high listing for the keywords that you want.

The shortcut to getting your website listed on the first page of the search listing is via Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC).

Most of the major search engines have paid listings on both the top and sides of their search pages. Here's an example of the listings on the Google homepage that are PPC

This may sound a bit daunting to the uninitiated but it really is simple. All you do is sign up with one (or a few) of the major search engines and bid for traffic to your website.

You offer to pay for each person to come to your website.

There are many great things about PPC; here are some of them.

1. You can put your toe in the water without blowing the budget. (Start with $20 if you want)
2. There’s no commitment. You can turn it on or off whenever you want at the click of a button.
3. You don’t pay for your ad to be displayed (unlike a newspaper, magazine or other forms of advertising)
4. Your ad only gets shown if someone types in a search for a keyword that you designate.
5. You only pay if that person clicks on your ad.
6. Its trackable – You can see
1. How many times your ad was shown
2. How many times your ad was clicked on (click through rate)
3. What search term your visitor typed into the search engine.
4. How many people made enquiries
5. How much each enquiry cost you
6. And Many other things

The good thing about all this is you are attracting targeted visitors to your website. Unlike all other forms of traditional advertising you are paying for people who have said they have interest in your product (they typed in the keyword that relates to your business didn’t they?) not just putting the ad up and hoping someone that is interested will see it.

Want to get an idea of how much you need to pay to get started? Well depending on how much your competition is willing to pay you could be paying as low as 10 cents per visitor to your website. If one in 10 make an order or enquiry then $1.00 per lead is a great price.

Want an idea how much other people are willing to pay for traffic?

http://uv.bidtool.overture.com/d/search/tools/bidtool/

Type in your keyword and see what others are paying. You don’t need to start with this bid but it gives you and idea of the market.

The main player in the pay per click search engine market is Google. You can read more about their service by clicking here

https://adwords.google.com/select/steps.html

Another player in the PPC market in Australia is Overture

Overture supplies the paid listings to Yahoo and Nine MSN. Although there is not as much traffic from these, Overture it is still good targeted traffic.

You can find more info about Overture at the following link http://www.content.overture.com/d/AUm/ac/ba/dtcfaq.jhtml

So how do you get started with this?

All you have to do is identify what you think your potential customers will type into the

Search engines to find your product. To do this, use the keyword assistant that we have spoken about before.

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Choose some keywords and then go to www.adwords.google.com.au

and signup for a try.

Don’t forget that it takes a few people coming to your site to get a sale or an enquiry so start off slow and see how you go.

If you need some help just give me a call and I will help to get you started. If you want to give it a try and want us to manage the whole thing for you we can.

Regards

Paul Egan

VIew a SMG SEO Case Study here