Here is your NoSpin Debunker for June 23, 2003

Help People Find Your Web Site

Search Engine Optimization: The Basics--Part VI

During the summer months, I'm going to send a Debunker every 3 weeks -versus every 2 weeks. Part VI is the final in my series about Search Engine Optimization. Take my 5-second poll about Pay-Per-Click.

The Big Pay-Per-Click Players: Overture and Google

As mentioned in my previous Debunker (see Part V), the big hitters in pay-per-click are Overture and Google. This Debunker will provide some helpful hints in using both Pay-Per-Click services.

Need More Prospects? Try Pay-Per-Click

Perhaps, you're skeptical about checking out what Overture and Google AdWords Pay-Per-Click can do for your business? Pay-Per-Click is not for every company, but if you have a strong website and need more quality traffic and sales prospects, it's a game that you should definitely learn-and is probably the hottest growth area in marketing today. In case you missed the Wall Street Journal's E-Commerce section, June 16, 2003, the lead article was: "Playing the Search Engine Game." The article definitely parallels several of the points in my SEO articles the past couple months.

Last fall, one of my clients only got a couple contacts a month via their website. Then I revamped their site in total and optimized it using the recommendations I've made in previous Debunkers. See Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, and Part V. We started to get an average of about one contact per day via their site. With some additional work, that average has now reached 5-10 new contacts per day. These are all potential prospects for a product that starts around $50K. The huge bulk of those leads (names, address, phone, email address) are generated via Pay-Per-Click with Google AdWords and Overture.

This particular client, a small company, spends around $1100 per month and thinks that a bargain for those leads. And it is-especially relative to other marketing options. Many serious pay-per-click marketers spend a lot more than that a month, but you may only need to spend a couple hundred bucks monthly-or even less--to generate ongoing, high quality leads. I've found Pay-Per-Click to be an outstanding marketing investment.

Try Both Google Adwords and Overture

You can start with either Google AdWords or Overture, but I'd advise starting with both. Upfront costs are low for each, and you can stop either at any point. Sometimes it's hard to predict which one will perform best for you. Overall, I usually see better results (at comparable keyword prices) with Google AdWords than Overture simply because Google's (and affiliates) search volume is so much higher than the group of Overture affiliates. Overture's click-through rates often exceed Google AdWords' for a keyword in the top spot, but overall volume (per keyword search) is usually a fraction of Google's. Though, that depends on your keywords, your audiences, and how competitive the bidding is. I always advise to do both to get the best coverage of the top search engines. Then you can fill in the gaps with other Pay-Per-Click options like Kanoodle, or ah.ha.com or others to catch the secondary engine searches (and pay a lot less per keyword).

Hints for Both

  • Read the Instructions for booth Google AdWords and Overture before you get going.
  • Write your initial descriptions and ads BEFORE you actually sign up.
  • Start out with at least 5-10 (of the same) keywords on each, if not more--versus one or two--and see how it goes for a couple weeks.
  • Remember you're not going for solely volume of traffic-you're going for targeting the best sales prospects out there.
  • A lot of folks ignore very targeted keywords (that are not that expensive). These keywords don't generate the volume of "big" keywords but and can be very valuable in generating even better visitor leads over time.
  • Include your key words in the titles of your descriptions. This is getting tougher because most serious player know this is the thing to do, but it's proven that you'll get more click-throughs by including the actual keywords in your titles.
  • Look at several Google AdWords descriptions for your keywords, and do the same for Overture. Make yours different without being too cute or "salesy."Cut all hype, over-capitalizing, repetition of the same words in your title and descriptions.
  • Your keywords and descriptions are not in stone. After a couple weeks, try experimenting to increase the volume and quality of your click-throughs.
  • Regularly check out the real time stats for searches per keyword, click-through rates, and prices. It's excellent information right at your fingertips. When you're looking at the summary statistics, make sure you're paying attention to which default timeframe you're using: e.g. month-to-date, all time, etc.
  • Bid at least into one of the Top 3 spots if at all possible-and preferably #1. Then you're sure to get picked up by the big affiliate search engines (especially with Overture). You can bid lower but your click-throughs will dramatically decrease each place you are from #1. If you can't afford the top spots it's still worthwhile to bid stay in the Top Ten.
  • Pay attention to your bids-not necessarily every day but certainly a couple times a week to start and then at least weekly-if not more often. Some companies change bids their bids quite often. Pay-Per-Click is an ongoing Marketing activity. I've seen keyword prices double from e.g. $2.00 per click-through to $4.00+ in just a couple months--when there are several top bidders who all want the Top 3 spots. Or you may be lucky enough to be in a niche industry without a lot of bidders and be able to $0.10 a click-through and never have to change your bids.
  • Beware of entering into expensive, escalating bidding wars-unless you're pretty sure that those click-throughs are bringing you quality contacts.

Overture Hints

Overture is a search engine itself but it is mainly a pay-per-click service affiliated with other top engines: Yahoo, MSN, Lycos, InfoSpace, and AltaVista which it now owns. That is, the bulk of your pay-per-clicks will not come directly through Overture but rather its big search engine affiliates.

  • Look at the bids first for the keywords you are interested in using Overture's View Bids Tool. Overture has the best free SEO tools around--in particular View Bids and Term Suggestion Tools
  • Overture shows what the anticipated volume is and your monthly cost, but remember these are only estimates (using click-through assumptions). Your actual cost can be a lot different than the estimate.
  • When you sign up, use Self Serve and avoid the $199 charge.
  • Overture's keyword set-up is a lot more straightforward than Google's. You enter a title for your listing (40 characters max) and brief description (no more than 190 characters) per keyword, as well as your bid.
  • The best thing about Overture is that it clearly shows your position that depends solely on your bid amount (and not your click-through rate) versus Google (see below). You know exactly what your spot is, who you are bidding against, what they are bidding, real-time.
  • With Self-Serve, it can up to 5 days for your keyword listings to be accepted after your initial sign-up. Overture uses a human and automated editing process to "accept" your listings. Once you have an account set up, though, adding new key words usually happens that same day or within day or tow. It's not, though, real-time like Google.
  • Not all affiliates, and in particular MSN, pick up your listings at the same time. MSN seems particularly slow and sometimes can take several more days than Yahoo, etc. So be patient. And remember to check to see if you're in the Top 3 on the sponsored listing on the Overture affiliate search engines.
  • Overture has a lot more flexibility than Google in setting up an account with a flat amount, monthly budget, or renewing account (to re-charge your credit card a specified amount). It's only $50 to get started with a $20/month minimum. For most new registrants, I'd advise setting up a flat amount of $100 and see how it goes over the couple weeks, and then adjust as necessary. You can change your payment option at any point.
  • Overture has a nice auto-bidding feature that will keep you at least a penny above the next bidders (up to an additional bid that you designate). Still, you need to regularly pay attention to your metrics.

Google AdWords Hints

Google AdWords is so powerful because Google is the dominant search engine right now. Google Adwords listings also appear on its affiliates Ask Jeeves, Earthlink and AOL, but the huge majority of traffic-and click-throughs-comes from Google itself.
Overall, Google AdWords, I think, is a lot tougher to get the hang of, but the results are worth it. And unlike with Overture, your keyword bids go "live" real-time. Google Adwords is unique because most ads appear to the right of the page versus the top. Google will give you the privilege of purchasing one of two top-of-page positions, but it will cost you a minimum of $5000 per month. A lot of money? Yes, but thousands of large company marketers know that this is a minor investment for the return.

  • Google AdWords works on the basis of ad "campaigns." You set up one or more very short "ads" (like the Overture descriptions but much shorter). An "ad" can only have 40 characters in the title and 70 characters in the descriptions (plus your display url). That's not many words, and you have to make each one of them count. Very brief, concrete, no hype.
  • Don't just jam a bunch of keywords into one Google AdWords "campaign." You're much better off setting up multiple campaigns and being more targeted per campaign and specific keyword(s).
  • Experiment with 2 or 3 ads per "campaign" (that Google will automatically rotate) and see which one gets the best click-through rate for at least a couple weeks. Then delete the other ads and go with the one that is working best.
  • Google uses an automated editor function for accepting "ads," and that editor hates excessive capital letters. Just capitalize the first words of the title, and preferably no others-or you risk yours getting rejected.
  • With Google you budget per "campaign" per day (e.g. $10 maximum per campaign "x" per day). You can't budget on your total e.g. per month as with Overture. Yes, you are setting top limits (daily), but it takes at least a month to really figure out what you'll be spending going forward (with those keywords and positions).
  • With Google, you enter a "recommended" maximum bid per campaign (which is not exactly what you are charged) to get the top Google AdWords spot. But here's the confusing part. Unlike with Overture, your Google AdWords ad placement will depend not only on what your "maximum" bid is but also your click-through rate. Per Google: "Ad placement is based on a combination of maximum cost-per-click (CPC -- how much you are willing to pay per click) and click-through rate (CTR). This means that if you earn a higher CTR, you are rewarded with a lower actual CPC. Our system monitors your competition and performance and automatically charges you the least amount possible."
  • But here's the good news. If your campaign is able to get a reasonably high click-through rate (typically at least 5% versus the average of 2%-3%), and no one is bidding for the top sponsored positions in the colored horizontal boxes, you'll sometimes get placed there by default (instead of on the right hand side of the page)-without having to spend a minimum of $5000 month for one of their top listings. And as a result, your click-through rates will increase. There's no magic formula how to do this, but I've been able to place several of my clients' keywords in the top-of-page Google slot paying less than $2.00 per click-through.
  • If it seems that your Google "ads" have disappeared or don't seemed to consistently place where you thought they would, here are the typical reasons why:

  • Your click-through rate (usually over several weeks) is deemed too low (relative to other bidders); you'll need to drop this keyword or try another ad approach
  • You've gone over your daily budget. Your "ad" will disappear one day if you reach your daily limit-and then reappear tomorrow. If this happens a lot, and you are getting good results-you need to increase your daily budget.
  • our ad was not accepted; Google does not send you an email if an ad has been rejected. You have to pay attention to the left hand column and make sure that your "ad" is live. If rejected, don't fight city hall. Change the ad.
  • The competition has done some serious bidding while you were asleep. It happens. You can either "play"-and keep outbidding them--or not. Your decision.

  • Google AdWords does have a great feature that allows you to "pause" any campaign without throwing away your campaign or information attached to it. You might want to tone down your investment for a month or two and then revive it down the road. Unlike with Overture which makes you toss away your work and data, Google lets you simply put your listing on hold until you decide to use it again.

Those Are the Basics of SEO

This is the final installment of my 6-part SEO series Help People Find Your Web Site--Search Engine Optimization: The Basics. There is a lot more to SEO that what I've discussed, but now you've got some of the basics. Since the world of SEO marketing keeps changing rapidly, I'll continue to update you in the future. Remember that if you want SEO marketing to work, you must have a good website and a compelling reason(s) on your site for people to take some action such as providing you contact information online, calling you, and/or enabling them to purchase online.

If SEO marketing sounds too overwhelming and/or time consuming--or isn't something you want to handle on your own-also remember that SEO marketing is one of many marketing services that I provide to my customers. If you need some help, please give me a call at 615.383.7157 or email me.