Harnessing PPC search engines
Copyright © 2001 Jennifer Johnson
You design a killer site, submit to all the major search engines and directories, and you wait...and wait...and wait...
Submitting to search engines/directories is a smart idea, but it seems like an eternity before you see the results of your efforts. Meanwhile, you're anxious to get traffic and make sales, right?
I have just the site promotion technique for you: pay-per-click (PPC) search engines.
PPC programs work like this: you bid on keywords related to your site's content/products/services. The higher you bid, the higher your link appears in the search results. One of the great things about PPC is that you don't pay unless someone actually clicks your link - in other words, you pay only for results. PPC campaigns can be surprisingly affordable, even for sites on a limited budget.
Another benefit of utilizing PPC is that you begin generating traffic almost immediately. There is no 6-8 week waiting period for your site to appear in the index - it's usually more like 2-3 days.
List of good PPC search engines
Let's start with the best, which is GoTo.com. There is a $0.05 bid minimum and a $20.00 minimum monthly spend, but the volume of traffic generated can be significantly greater than traffic from other PPC engines. GoTo Premium Listings (top 1, 2, and 3 spots) appear as search results on America Online, Lycos, Netscape, AltaVista and other large sites.
Here are some other pay-per-click engines you might want to consider:
Sprinks
GoClick
FindWhat.com
Kanoodle.com
Brainfox.com
Bay9
Once your campaign begins, it's important to monitor its progress. Since your rankings are based on bidding, you don't want to be outbid and lose traffic. The other side of the coin is you don't want to pay more than you should for your ranking.
For example, let's say you have the #3 spot for a keyword and you're paying $0.10. The #4 spot is going for $0.09, while the #5 spot costs a mere $0.05. If, for whatever reason, #4 drops out of the listings, you're still occupying the #3 spot BUT you're overpaying by $0.04/click (you could maintain your #3 rank with a $0.06 bid). Not a huge amount, but with hundreds of listings, it's easy to see how it can add up over time.
Now that you have the basics covered, what should you do to ensure an effective campaign?
