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Business Decisions to Shape Your Search Engine Strategies
...... prominent listing or ranking in the search results. The rankings are often based on the search engine's unique algorithm, which takes into consideration both URLs that paid for inclusion as well as URLs that are picked up by their spiders (for free!). PFIs will only guarantee that you are included in their database, but will not provide assurance that you will be in the top 10 of the listing. The ranking criteria will still depend on how your pages are optimized and their popularity.
A number of complaints have also been raised against the PFI programs. Some site owners report that pages already indexed for free suddenly disappear in the listing as soon as they paid for its inclusion. For example, a site owner with 500 pages in the search engine decides to pay for inclusion of 1 of its pages, only to see the 499 dropped from the index. Some webmasters opine that the thinking behind this action is to compel the site owner ' who has already shown their willingness to pay for inclusion ' to pay for the rest of the pages.
The alternative, of course, is to resist paying for inclusion and wait for your URLs to be picked up by the search engines for free (yes, they still do that!). It may take a few months for their spider or human editors to stumble on your site, but doing so can save you a lot of money. In the meantime, you can develop more pages, improve your content, requests for links from similar websites, and develop a customer base.
3. Are you willing to attract more search engine traffic by paying per-click'
Overture pioneered the pay-for-placement (PFM) model, where you bid a price on keywords you wish to be included. Payment is on a pay-per-click basis, and placement is often based on the amount of bid you placed in comparison with the offer of other bidders.
Your placement in Overture, FindWhat, Kanoodle, and others will depend on how high you bid on your keywords. The top placements are the highest bidders for the keyword. Google AdWords, on the other hand, combines the amount of bid placed on the keyword with your clickthrough rate.
It is important to note that PFM model is basically pay-per-click advertising (with emphasis on advertising). According to a study made, the top 2 organic listings usually receive more than 50 percent of the clicks on a search results page, whereas the average click through for a paid search placement is about 2 percent.
Listings are often shown under the label 'Sponsored Listings' and are not integrated with what is called the 'natural' search engine results. Once your budget runs out and you no longer bid for your term, your listing disappears.
When you run pay-per-click campaigns in the search engines, it is extremely important to manage your costs, as listings can be very expensive to maintain. The key is to choose the right keywords for your budget. Some keywords targeting the same customer may cost you $0.05 per click, while a different one can cost you $0.65 per click. A thousand click-throughs will cost you $50 if the keyword costs only $0.50, while the cost can go up to $650 for the $0.65 per click.
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4. Do you have a diversification plan'
The old adage 'don't put your eggs all in one basket' holds true even in search engine marketing: if search engines drop your site, do you have any back up plans to get people to visit your site'
If you concentrate solely on search engine marketing and it fails, you will lose not only traffic but also sales and revenues. It is important that you have alternative marketing plans in place. In fact, it is best to have a well-laid marketing plan, one that uses other online and offline marketing strategies in addition to search engines. Carve out a plan to market your site off the Web, whether through a press release in your community journal, or attending networking activities.
With almost 80 percent of Internet users using search engines to find information on the Web, there are only two possible outcomes when someone performs a search: either they will find you or they will find your competitors. Search engine marketing 'getting your Web site visible in the search engines ' should be a key element of your business strategies.
About the Author Nach Maravilla is the Publisher/CEO of PowerHomeBiz.com, one of the leading online resources for starting a small or home business. For information on starting a business, visit PowerHomeBiz.com at http://www.powerhomebiz.com
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