Search Engines Search Engine Marketing
| Search Engine Marketing |
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Also known as Google Adwords, but includes several similar schemes. This doesn’t need to be as expensive as you would think, but prices are rising quickly in competitive areas and in the long term will not be a panacea. Google provides a fairly easy to use system for advertisers called Adwords. You can create an account for free and charges are applied to your credit card monthly in arrears or when you reach a preset limit. You specify the maximum amount you would like to spend each month and the system will not charge you more than this. You can create one or more 3-line adverts which are shown when specified keywords are searched for. There are many options and controls which target and thus limit when it is shown, as well as broad matching so that it shows for similar types of search terms. It is critical to select the right keywords for your business, so that the right sort of searches will invoke your advert and thus connect with your website. There is also skill to avoid over promoting your advert, so that it doesn't show for irrelevant search terms. In this case, few people are likely to click on your advert (because its irrelevant) and Google will automatically stop displaying it. Your advert must be clicked on at least once every 200 times it is shown (0.5%) for it to continue to be promoted. Click through rates of 1-2% are quite normal, but for very specific search terms in unique areas, then 30% or higher can be achieved. An example would be a glazing company in Bath. Most people would probably search for windows rather than glazing, so you’d want to focus on windows and bath, but exclude those looking for computer software. Search terms for “windows bath” should not be shown for “windows xp Bath”, “windows 2000 bath”, or “bird bath with windows”. Its not as difficult as it sounds to setup a Google adwords campaign, and you can achieve results with a budget as low as 10’s of pounds per month, although many businesses can spend 1000’s (or more). Unlike print advertising, you can see reports of exactly how many people have clicked through to your website and what they have done (eg how long they have looked at it, which pages they viewed). |