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Webpage designing tips and more
By
Staff
It all started back in 1998-99
with the somewhat controversial launch of
GoTo.com, the first bid-for-position or paid
positioning search engine. Professional
marketing discussion groups and newsletters
accepted the birth of GoTo.com with all the
apprehension and heated debate you would expect
from such a venture. Most hoped it would be
ignored or universally rejected and die. That
was then. Now there are upward of 100 or so Pay
per click (PPC) provider hopefuls.
PPC search engines work exactly
like a regular search engine that you would use
to find something on the Internet. The only
difference is that with PPC search engines, you
have to pay to be listed in it. You actually pay
on a CPC (cost per click) basis.
PPC’s build web site traffic
through the use of search engines. They are in
essence a web site promotion tool used to
generate traffic (visitors) to your site. Their
popularity is growing rapidly because it is
becoming increasingly difficult to achieve good
listing positions on the various free search
engines available.
To be effective, PPC search
engines must efficiently connect consumers and
producers of information, goods, and services.
It must be mutually beneficial to both web
surfers and advertisers. It should offer web
surfers fast, relevant, unique search results
with minimal advertising clutter on result
pages. For advertisers it should offer an
efficient, user-friendly bid management
interface with a reasonable number of targeted
web site visitors.
In addition to helping to
generate traffic to your site, PPC’s provide you
with a way to predict the cost of generating
traffic to you site. For small pay per click fee
charged for each visitor to you site, you know
the cost and value of each visitor.
Who are they?
There is a variety
of PPC search engines out there. We will examine
just a few here. The first and most popular PPC
is overture.com (formally goto.com) really are
the ones who started the PPC concept. They are
probably the most powerful and a wise choice to
spend your money on. Their portal has reached a
top 20 status and more importantly their search
results can be found at AOL, MSN, HotBot, Lycos
and other important sites. The bad news is that
the listings placed with them are the most
costly.
Other PPC
providers include (refer to back of booklet for
listing with links for these sites):
·
Overture.com
(formally goto.com) has high traffic with top
search results that appear on major search
engines. UK version is also available. This is
the best and most popular of them all, often
referred to as “ the King” of PPC search engines
because of its well organized system. Also
provides a search term suggestion list to help
you choose the best keywords to describe your
offerings.
·
7Search
is a PPC provider that is reported to be the top
traffic generator of all PPC search engines. It
also offers advertisers immediate email
notification when they are outbid for the top
ranking on a keyword; a keyword generator tool
and a 1:1 banner exchange program.
·
NetsearchProvider
is a low cost traffic generator. They bring
shoppers to your site for as little as 3-cents a
hit.
·
Bay9
boasts a high amount of traffic compared to most
PPC providers and offers substantially lower
prices. It is a highly relevant search engine
with a referral program that pays 20%.
·
FindWhat.com
is a PPC provider that has moderate traffic;
good bid management and top search results that
appear on selected search engines. In March
2000, they introduced new technology designed to
read most simple plain English queries. Search
terms can be bought cheaper here than at
Overture. More than 10 million searches a day
are being made on FindWhat.
·
Kanoodle
offers great ease of use and is quickly becoming
a traffic generator. US or UK search results
available. Has a reciprocal relationship with
UK’s eSpotting.com and has partnerships with
NetZero, DogPile, CNET, Metacrawler, and
Turbofind.
·
Sprinks
is important PPC through portal because of its
strong relationship with About.com. Fast,
relevant search results.
·
HootingOwl
is a PPC provider where you can
lock in a top listing position for your site and
it is a search engine that is rapidly growing.
Offers free email and open directory search
results.
·
CurioScape
is a PPC that lists the largest,
exclusive, antiques, art, collectibles and
specialties online.
·
GoClick
is a vastly improving pay per
click search engine. It has received record
increases in traffic and continues to upgrade
the account area. It has some of the best tools
available to help you manage your keywords and
to help find more relevant terms.
·
EPilot
results are displayed on partner’s sites such as
NetZero, DogPile, and Infospace.
As explained in
“what they are”, PPC search engines work just
like ordinary search engines with the exception
that you (the advertiser) have to pay to be
listed (advertise) in a pay per click search
engine. PPC search engines enable web site
advertisers to enter a bid for listing position
on relevant “key words” and/or “key phrases”,
also known as “search terms.” For each URL, or
in some instances search terms, a title and
description or promotional message must be
specified. Usually a title must be about 40 to
50 characters long, but a promotional message
may be between 150 to 200 characters long.
Sometimes a logo may also be specified.
Search engines are
the most frequent way in which consumers find
new web sites on the Internet and are the top
information resource Americans use when seeking
answers. We spend an average of 1.5 hours per
week searching the Internet for information and
on average, we experience “search rage” if we
don’t find what we want in the first 12 minutes
online.
A visitor will
use a PPC such as goto.com and enter in a
keyword or key phrase into the search box to
search for a product or service. For example,
say this person is looking for a particular gift
item, he or she would simply type in the keyword
“gifts” and receive a listing of sites that sell
gift items. Or if they wanted something more
specific, let’s say, only pewter gifts, then
they would type in “pewter gifts” and receive a
listing of only the sites that offer pewter gift
items. The search can be as broad or as narrow
as the user wants it to be by simply typing in
less or more descriptive keywords or key
phrases.
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