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What You Need to Know About Pay-Per-Click Search Engines
by Arakkal M. Sebastian ©Copyright 2003

Pay per click search engines work on a very straightforward 
system:

1. You select the keywords you want your site listed under.
2. Write a suitable title and description for your site.
3. Decide how high in the listings you want to appear.
4. Make a bid that will secure that position in the results.

That's all there is to it! After your site has been added, every 
time someone searches for the keywords you chose, your site will 
appear in the position you bid for that term. The only exception 
would occur if someone else made a higher bid and knocked 
you down the listings.

When a surfer decides to click on your listing to visit your 
site, the amount you bid on that keyword is deducted from your 
account. If they don't click on it, it doesn't cost you a thing. 
This way you only get people that are interested in what you 
are offering coming to your site.

The keys to success with a pay per click search engine are to 
bid for the right keywords at the right price, and then write 
a title and description for your site that will target your 
audience and entice them to click on the link and visit your 
site.

There are basically two primary means of achieving a prominent 
placement on major search engines: 

1) pay for it, or 
2) use various search engine optimization techniques to "go to 
the head of your class." In other words, paid placement vs. 
non-paid placement.

Types of Paid Placements

Bid Placements:
Pay-per-click search engines like Overture) use the bid 
placement system as a main source of revenue. The advertiser 
specifies the amount of money they're willing to spend on each 
keyword. How high their company is listed on the search results 
depends 100% upon how far away from the top bid they are. When 
a user clicks on the advertiser's link, their Overture account 
is debited for the amount of the bid.

Since bidding can be done online instantaneously and as often as 
you want, there really is no limit to how high the top rankings 
may cost -- it's a buyer's market. In order to retain top 
positions, frequent monitoring is required.

There are several benefits to this approach. The main benefit 
is that advertisers control their placement, and thus, their 
visibility. Second, the whole process is immeasurably faster 
than trying to get a site indexed on a traditional search engine 
like Yahoo!.

On the downside, bid placement can be incredibly costly and time 
consuming. For example, some companies can pay $4-5 or more per 
click for top bids on their keywords. Bid placement monitoring 
can be done manually or by software, but in either case, this is 
a hidden expense. Finally, many people don't consider that some 
searchers avoid paid-for placement sites altogether because 
results are not based upon relevancy, but upon bidding, and 
therefore, might have less bearing on the mission of the search 
in the first place.

Paid-For Sponsor Listings
Paid-for sponsor listings are different than bid placements in 
that they are more like purchased advertisements. Examples are 
Yahoo!'s "Sponsored Sites" and Google's "Adwords" and "Premium 
Sponsored Listings." These are text-based advertisements that 
look like search engine listings and which are given guaranteed 
prominence with respect to search engine query results. 
Positioning is usually at the top or right-hand side of the page.

Though Yahoo! and Google differ in some ways, the overall pros 
and cons for them are similar. 

PROS: Both offer high visibility, targeted listings, and quick 
turn around time once the order is placed. Pricing is also more 
stable than with bid placements. 

CONS: Yahoo! only allows paid-for listings of sites already 
indexed in their directory, and it still serves targeted keyword 
banner ads on the same page. Google, doesn't have banners to 
distract from their paid-for sponsor listings, but it does 
severely limit the content of the ad, and only offers rates by 
the CPM. Moreover, if more than 3 advertisers want to purchase 
each type of ad space, Google will only display the top 3 based 
upon the amount they paid and their click-thru rate.

Non-Paid Placement

If you choose not to pay for placements on search engines, your 
alternative is to OPTIMIZE your site so the engines index it and 
rank it highly anyway. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is more 
like an art form instead of rocket science. This is a topic we 
are going to save for later in my advanced course.

I guess you could look at it that at least advertisers have 
options. Decisions as to which method to pursue should be 
determined by the particular goals, budget, and time constraints 
required. 

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About Author: Arakkal. M. Sebastian is a re-seller of e-commerce
solutions packages, internet service providing in US and Canada, 
domain name registration services, and other services to start 
successfull online businesses with excellent customer support!
Also you can start your own home-based online business from his 
site. Please visit: http://www.arakkalnet.com
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