Search Engines 101: Paid Vs. Natural Search

Search Engines 101 Paid Vs. Natural Search is written to briefly explain the difference between pay-per-click and natural (organic) search. Both types of results can benefit an online marketing campaign if done correctly.

Paid search

PPC is when your ad shows up at the very top of a Google search or down the right hand side of the results page. These are called "sponsored ads". You pay for those positions. When every you click on one of those ads the owner of the ad pays the search engine. This is also called "pay-per-click". The amount you pay is determined by several factors including what you are willing to pay every time someone clicks on your ad.

Natural Search

Natural Search is when you type in a "keyword" and a link and a description shows up on left hand side of the search result page. The only way to get on the first page is to have very relevant content on your web site and links to your site from other relevant sites. This is a long process for people in it for the long haul. There are a lot of companies that claim to be able to get you on the first page of Google. That may be true if the "search term" is very specific and no one else would ever search for it but you or they are using a "black hat" method that could get you site banned from the search engine.

Search Engines

Search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN are really just data bases. When you do a Google Search you are not searching the "world wide web" you are searching Google's data base. There are two ways to get in to these databases. One is to submit your site to the different search engines. In about 6 to 9 weeks the search engine will index your site. They have software that comes to your site and index every page and adds it to the database. They come into your main web URL and follow the links to all the pages of your site. They capture key elements from the code on your page to the content. These are then stored in the data base. When someone puts a keyword in the search box the "algorithms" determine the best page or links to the best pages for your search.

The other way to get added to the search engines data base is to have the search engine software find you through a link to your site from another web site back to yours. The software, called "spiders" will periodically comeback and re crawl your site to see if you have updated it.

One important thing to know is that each page on your site is indexed individually and each page stands on its own. The ranking are based upon the combination of correct meta tags, relevant content to the keyword they are trying to get rankings for and link popularity. Mostly one way links back to their site from relevant sites.

As long as the search engine can index the site, clearly read the meta tags and content, the better. The big issues come when a site is built in flash with very little content (search engines cannot read or index "flash" sites. Also, if the bulk of the relevant content is in PDF format this is bad because the search engines cannot read PDF. If the search engines cannot index the relevant text there will be no rankings.

You all ready know this but "sites" are not ranked, individual pages are ranked for specific terms found in the content of that page as well as link popularity, (relevant links pointing back to that specific page) for the term that you are trying to get ranked on.
This is why each page has to be giving very specific attention.

Bottom line: Paid search means you pay for your position. The benefit is, if you have the $$, you will get instant traffic. Stop paying and the traffic goes away. Natural search is free traffic but it is built over time. The advantage is, if done right, it can provide traffic for a long time.

Search traffic (paid or natural) is the BEST traffic to have because you are being found by folks who are specifically looking for what you have. It does not get any better than that.

Terry Stanfield is a SEM consultant with over 15 years of sales and marketing experience. His company, Clickadvantage, manages PPC and SEO efforts for his lead generation and ecommerce clients. For more information on Search Engines 101

Paid Search: one-way ticket to the poor farm or great profits? Part 1

Paid Search is a fantastic way to drive web traffic to your site from the major search engines. It can also suck your marketing budget dry in just a couple of days if not done properly. The bottom line is someone is going to profit by implementing paid search. The question is, is it going to be you or the search engines? The goal of the search engines (and their strategies) is more clicks. The more people click on your ads the more money the search engines make. Their strategy is to get as many clicks as possible with in your budget and they are willing to do that all day long. This is great for them bad for you.

The real goal should be more conversion with less clicks and lower cost. Let's take a few minutes to look at some strategies that should make a difference in your campaigns. We will get more specific and articles to come.

General strategies

1. Turn off Content Network

In Google when you first set up a campaign there is a default setting that turns the "content match" setting to "on". For now, turn that setting off. What this does is present your ads on websites that are using AdSense. If you go to a website and see "Ads by Google", those ads are coming from Google paid search accounts. Those ads show up on these websites based on the content of the website. At first glance this may look like a good idea and it usually is, for Google. There are two things that you need to consider before turning on the content match. The first is that the website that is hosting your ad gets paid every time someone clicks on your ad. Most of the click fraud that happens is when an owner of a site or so want affiliated with the site clicks on these ads. The second thing is that individuals who click on these ads are not actively seeking what you are offering. These folks are tire kickers. Even though your ad may be presented (number of impressions) to a lot of people, the click through rate and conversion rate is very low. The magic of search engine marketing is that you come in contact with individuals who are actively searching for what you have to offer. Only pay for clicks that come from people in that category.

2. Search Terms.

The more general the term the less qualified to lead (generally speaking). Personally, I am not a big fan of hundreds of key words for paid search. This is a great strategy the search engines and paid search management companies that are paid a percentage of your spend. What I try to figure out is what terms would work in order to get my ideal customer to my site. Remember, you want people to come to your site who are actively searching for what you are offering. For example if you sell "long term care insurance" what type of people do you want clicking on your ads? Of course, you want individuals looking for long term care insurance, not "long term care" or "insurance". You can use these terms if you create a list of "negative" key words. We will talk about that at another time.

3. Keyword "types"

There are three types of keywords "Broad", "Phrase" and "Exact". Do not use "broad match" except for phrases with four or more words. For example, long term care insurance quote. The rule of thumb that I use is: for single word phrases, I use exact match and for search phrases that are two to three words, I used "phrase matching". I am also experimenting with using "exact" matching for these terms as well. Remember the more specific the search term is to what you are offering and who your ideal client is, the more qualified to lead will be. Better a small number of qualified leads than a large number of leads that waste your time and ultimately cost a lot more money.

In Part 2 we will discuss Ad Copy, Landing Pages and Tracking.

Terry Stanfield is a SEM consultant with over 15 years of sales and marketing experience. His company, Clickadvantage, manages PPC and SEO efforts for his lead generation and ecommerce clients. For more information: Paid Search: one-way ticket to the poor farm or great profits

Paid Search: one-way ticket to the poor farm or great profits? Part 2 By Terry Stanfield

As I mentioned in the first article, Paid Search: one-way ticket to the poor farm or great profits? Part 1, Pay-per-click is a fantastic way to drive web traffic to your site from the major search engines. It can also deplete your marketing budget just a couple of days if not done properly. In this article we will talk about the importance of Ad Copy, Landing Pages and Tracking.

4. Ad Copy

Just a couple thoughts on writing ads. When you write your ads put the following in your "headline" box: {keyword: "your main keyword}. This will put your keyword phrase into the headline. This is very important for a lot of reasons that we will get into at another time. Your ad should be specific enough to attract only your ideal client (someone who is looking for exactly what you have to offer). Your ad contained at least one of your "unique selling propositions". This can be very challenging because of the space limitations. Rule of thumb, find out what your competitors are doing and do something different. For example, if everyone is offering free shipping, use one of your other unique selling propositions.

5. Landing Pages

You need to put a lot of thought to your landing pages. Your landing page has to do one thing that is answer the questions are up that the searcher had in mind when he typed in his key words. The searcher type in his search terms because he has a problem, needs a solution and is in some kind of "pain". You have about two seconds to convince him that you understand what he is going through and what he needs. It does not matter if you are selling hammers, insurance or investment products. The last thing a searcher wants to see is that you can jump higher, run faster and do it better than the competition. He just doesn't care. Besides, 99% of the websites that he visited probably stated that they do that. You must show him that you have the answers to his needs. Do not just send him to your home page unless your home page can accomplish the above. Once you connect with your searcher you must have a call to action. It can be a "buy now", "for more information contact us", "contact us for a free evaluation" or "consultation". You must be very specific and clear about your next steps. Have your phone number or contact us button on every page.

6. Tracking

Finally, track everything. Paid search is not an exact science. It takes time to set up and optimized your campaigns to get the results that you are looking for. You must monitor your campaigns at the least weekly in order to catch market changes. Unless you have a time of venture capital money laying around, paid search is not something you turn on and forget about. Google, Yahoo and MSN have free tracking tools that work great.

Pay-per-click is a great marketing tool, if used correctly. It can also, as stated earlier, suck your marketing budget dry in a heartbeat. It is a lot cheaper to find someone who knows what they are doing and does this day in and day out to help you than it is to lose thousands of dollars trying to figure it out yourself.

Terry Stanfield is a SEM consultant with over 15 years of sales and marketing experience. His company, Clickadvantage, manages PPC and SEO efforts for his lead generation and ecommerce clients. For more information: Paid Search: one-way ticket to the poor farm or great profits