Many webmasters focus on exchanging links (via cross-linking, Webrings, etc) with as many websites as they can. Does this really improve their sites' rankings on search engines?
Why Incoming Links Are Important
Google was the first search engine to come up with the idea of ranking websites. Google assumes that people link to good sites, not bad ones; therefore, a site with lots of incoming links should be ranked highly. This new idea worked so well that soon all of the major search engines began to factor link popularity into their ranking algorithms.
Quality vs. Quantity
In reality, link popularity isn't based simply on the numbers of incoming links a particular site has; who is linking to whom is also important. Incoming links from websites related to the linked site are given more credit in terms of "link popularity." For example, if your site is about computers, a link from a site about software would give you more "credit" in terms of link popularity than a link from a gardening site. (Please note that link popularity and Google's PageRank are different things. Link popularity takes into account a quality factor, whereas PageRank counts only quantity. Google itself does count factor quality into their site ranking system, though, through other means.)
No Quick Fixes
When the idea of link popularity first became public, some people found quick fixes, such as free for all websites and reciprocal links, to increase the number of their incoming links. As you can imagine, one cannot guarantee any quality incoming links from free for all websites. Even reciprocal links are not guaranteed to be deemed "high quality." You might carefully select which sites you exchange links with, but if your link partner has posted your information alongside tens or hundreds of other links, yours would hardly be considered high quality. The bottom line is, forget about these quick fixes. Instead, make your site "link worthy." Once you've done this, other webmasters will link to you without you having to ask them. This is the way to get high quality incoming links, which will in turn improve your search rankings.
Showing posts with label Search Engine Marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Search Engine Marketing. Show all posts
Friday, April 20, 2007
Bid Smart on PPC Keywords
Several years ago a dime would give you a top position for a PPC keyword, but those good old days are gone. You shouldn't really be surprised that you cannot afford even the 10th ranking on some words or phrases. After all, price have gone up everywhere and PPC Search Engines (SEs) are catching on. The question is, how do you get better results with a limited budget?
Find Affordable Words
If you cannot afford a high placement for some words or phrases, look for words or phrases you can afford. Most of the PPC SEs give you a list of words and phrases and how many times those words and phrases were searched. You will find that the less-searched words are cheaper. For example, at the time of this writing the top ranker in Overture (one of the PPC SEs) bids $3.30 on the phrase, "auto insurance." But the highest bids on the phrase, "auto insurance brokers" and "auto insurance agents" are both $0.51. Paying $3.30 for a visitor is quite astonishing, but $0.51 is obviously more affordable. Of course, if you can afford it, you will get more visitors from the top ranking on the most-searched word than if you are the top on less-searched words. But, this is also true: you will get more traffic from even the 3rd placement on less-searched words than 100th on the most-searched words.
Be Specific
On PPC SEs, you have to pay every visitor from them. Make sure you bid on very specified phrases to get right visitors. Using the above exsample, let's say you are an auto insurance broker. Bidding on the word, "insurance" isn't a good idea. You don't want to pay for a visitor who comes to your site looking for a dental plan, do you? This can be avoided by bidding on a phrase like "auto insurance."
Need More Money to Bid?
Now that you know how much money you can spend, you go to one of the PPC search engines. Then, you find out that even the entire 37 cents won't give you good placement. That's entirely possible.
Also, if you sell insurance only in a particular province or state, localize your phrase to include that information; for instance, "auto insurance in New York." Again, you don't want to pay for a visitor who lives in Florida.
Just a Penny but a Penny
The minimum bid is still just 1 cent on most PPC SEs, so don't over-look the difference that a penny can make. For instance, if you`ve determined that your conversion rate is 1%, that means you need 100 visitors to make a sale. A slight difference in bid price will make a big difference in your profit. If you bid one cent less, you will pocket an extra $1.00 per sale. When you sell 100 products, you will make $100 more. (Think what kind of hosting service you can get with $100.) Conversely, if you bid 1 cent more than you can afford, you will lose $100. And remember, these figures add up faster as you sell more.
Also, you need to remember that the more selective your keyword or phrases is, the fewer visitors it will take to make those sales. That will rase your conversion rate and increase your profit per click so that, if bidding become intense for your keywords/phrases, you can afford to rise your bid a little to keep your position.
You still need to do some homework like finding good phrases for your business, but you now have all the information you need to bid on PPC keywords for profit. Keep calm, and don't bid more than you can afford. Happy bidding.
Find Affordable Words
If you cannot afford a high placement for some words or phrases, look for words or phrases you can afford. Most of the PPC SEs give you a list of words and phrases and how many times those words and phrases were searched. You will find that the less-searched words are cheaper. For example, at the time of this writing the top ranker in Overture (one of the PPC SEs) bids $3.30 on the phrase, "auto insurance." But the highest bids on the phrase, "auto insurance brokers" and "auto insurance agents" are both $0.51. Paying $3.30 for a visitor is quite astonishing, but $0.51 is obviously more affordable. Of course, if you can afford it, you will get more visitors from the top ranking on the most-searched word than if you are the top on less-searched words. But, this is also true: you will get more traffic from even the 3rd placement on less-searched words than 100th on the most-searched words.
Be Specific
On PPC SEs, you have to pay every visitor from them. Make sure you bid on very specified phrases to get right visitors. Using the above exsample, let's say you are an auto insurance broker. Bidding on the word, "insurance" isn't a good idea. You don't want to pay for a visitor who comes to your site looking for a dental plan, do you? This can be avoided by bidding on a phrase like "auto insurance."
Need More Money to Bid?
Now that you know how much money you can spend, you go to one of the PPC search engines. Then, you find out that even the entire 37 cents won't give you good placement. That's entirely possible.
Also, if you sell insurance only in a particular province or state, localize your phrase to include that information; for instance, "auto insurance in New York." Again, you don't want to pay for a visitor who lives in Florida.
Just a Penny but a Penny
The minimum bid is still just 1 cent on most PPC SEs, so don't over-look the difference that a penny can make. For instance, if you`ve determined that your conversion rate is 1%, that means you need 100 visitors to make a sale. A slight difference in bid price will make a big difference in your profit. If you bid one cent less, you will pocket an extra $1.00 per sale. When you sell 100 products, you will make $100 more. (Think what kind of hosting service you can get with $100.) Conversely, if you bid 1 cent more than you can afford, you will lose $100. And remember, these figures add up faster as you sell more.
Also, you need to remember that the more selective your keyword or phrases is, the fewer visitors it will take to make those sales. That will rase your conversion rate and increase your profit per click so that, if bidding become intense for your keywords/phrases, you can afford to rise your bid a little to keep your position.
You still need to do some homework like finding good phrases for your business, but you now have all the information you need to bid on PPC keywords for profit. Keep calm, and don't bid more than you can afford. Happy bidding.
How High You Can Bid on PPC Keywords
If you want to have a good position on search engines, you need to know many things, such as meta tags, keyword density, link popularity, and so on. The learning curve and time involved to secure and maintain a good position can give you quite a headache. Compared to them, Pay Per Click (PPC) search engine submission is very straightforward. You just outbid others for keywords or phrases.
How High Should I Bid?
Before bidding on a PPC, you need to know the limits of your bidding budget. You don't want to find out you lost money at the end of the month because you bid too high, do you? Fortunately, you don't have to be a mathematician or a CPA to find out how much you can afford to pay for a visitor. Let's do an example together.
During the month of July, you had 10,238 unique visitors and sold 100 products at $49.95 each.
During the same month, you made
$49.95 each x 100 sales = $4995.00 (gross profit)
Your total expenses for July (hosting fee, cost of the products, banking fees, etc.) is, let's say, $1205.00. You keep
$4995.00 - $1205.00 = $3790.00 (net profit)
For each sale, you keep
$3790.00 / 100 sales = $37.90 (net profit each sale)
Your conversion rate (visitors to sales ratio) is
100 sales / 10238 visitors
= 0.0098 (0.0098 x 100% = 0.98%)
You have actually made
$37.90 net profit for each sale x 0.0098 conversion rate
= $0.37 per visitor to your web site.
This means if you bid 37 cents on a PPC, you break even. You don't pocket even one red penny. You have worked for nothing.
Note
Here is an important point when you do the math. "Unique visitors" is NOT the same as "hits" or "visits". "Unique visitors" is the number of different people (different IP addresses) who visit your site. "Hits" is the total number of requests to view files on your site. "Visits" is the total amount of incoming traffic. For example, if I visited your site at 10, 1, and 5 o'clock on the same day and viewed 8 different pages including 10 images in total, the stats will show 1 "unique visitor" (myself), 18 "hits" (8 pages and 10 images), and 3 "visits" (at 10, 1, and 5 o'clock). There may be a slight difference between stats software, but be sure to count "unique visitors" when figuring your per visitor profit and determining how much you can afford to bid.
Need More Money to Bid?
Now that you know how much money you can spend, you go to one of the PPC search engines. Then, you find out that even the entire 37 cents won't give you good placement. That's entirely possible.
When PPC search engines were new to the Internet, 10 cents gave you a top placement. Today, you can easily find bids of more than $1.00. Do you have to outbid them, even though you know you will lose money? Absolutely not. The purpose of any business is to make a profit, not to be ranked at the top of search engine listings. Don't get involved in heated auctions. unless you can afford them.
How High Should I Bid?
Before bidding on a PPC, you need to know the limits of your bidding budget. You don't want to find out you lost money at the end of the month because you bid too high, do you? Fortunately, you don't have to be a mathematician or a CPA to find out how much you can afford to pay for a visitor. Let's do an example together.
During the month of July, you had 10,238 unique visitors and sold 100 products at $49.95 each.
During the same month, you made
$49.95 each x 100 sales = $4995.00 (gross profit)
Your total expenses for July (hosting fee, cost of the products, banking fees, etc.) is, let's say, $1205.00. You keep
$4995.00 - $1205.00 = $3790.00 (net profit)
For each sale, you keep
$3790.00 / 100 sales = $37.90 (net profit each sale)
Your conversion rate (visitors to sales ratio) is
100 sales / 10238 visitors
= 0.0098 (0.0098 x 100% = 0.98%)
You have actually made
$37.90 net profit for each sale x 0.0098 conversion rate
= $0.37 per visitor to your web site.
This means if you bid 37 cents on a PPC, you break even. You don't pocket even one red penny. You have worked for nothing.
Note
Here is an important point when you do the math. "Unique visitors" is NOT the same as "hits" or "visits". "Unique visitors" is the number of different people (different IP addresses) who visit your site. "Hits" is the total number of requests to view files on your site. "Visits" is the total amount of incoming traffic. For example, if I visited your site at 10, 1, and 5 o'clock on the same day and viewed 8 different pages including 10 images in total, the stats will show 1 "unique visitor" (myself), 18 "hits" (8 pages and 10 images), and 3 "visits" (at 10, 1, and 5 o'clock). There may be a slight difference between stats software, but be sure to count "unique visitors" when figuring your per visitor profit and determining how much you can afford to bid.
Need More Money to Bid?
Now that you know how much money you can spend, you go to one of the PPC search engines. Then, you find out that even the entire 37 cents won't give you good placement. That's entirely possible.
When PPC search engines were new to the Internet, 10 cents gave you a top placement. Today, you can easily find bids of more than $1.00. Do you have to outbid them, even though you know you will lose money? Absolutely not. The purpose of any business is to make a profit, not to be ranked at the top of search engine listings. Don't get involved in heated auctions. unless you can afford them.
Search Engine Optimization
Someone says search engines can send you a lot of ready-to-buy people; therefore, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is important. Often, "someone" is an SEO professional promoting his or her service. But, it is true.
Rules Are Changing
First, you should understand that SEO isn't one-time work; it is an on going project. Search engines regularly change the algorism (the rules of ranking) to improve relevancy. Whenever they apply new rules, your ranking will also be changed. For example, my page was ranked 4th at Google. That rank lasted for a month or so, but, one day, my rank went down to 20-something. You'll never know where you will be ranked tomorrow. To keep staying near the top, you have to re-optimize your site or hire a professional whenever a new algorism is applied.
Be Current
Search engines update the algorism. That means you also need to updated the SEO techniques you use. Using outdated techniques won't do any good on your rankings (i.e., keyword rich alt tag only jeopardize your listing, today). You can learn the latest SEO techniques at following Web sites. That's how I was ranked at 4th (even if it was only for a few months). Maybe, you will get good ranking, too.
www.1stsearchranking.com
www.highrankings.com
searchenginewatch.com
Choosing Keywords
Choosing keywords is one of the very important steps of SEO. You will receive heavy traffic from search engines only if your site is optimized for popular keywords (searched a lot of times). Because everyone tries optimizing for those well-searched keywords, it is often too hard to beat others and get high rankings. Then, someone invented KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) to chose keywords that are popular, yet not too competitive. (For detailed information about KEI, please go to www.1stsearchranking.com/keywords.htm .) KEI is helpful if you do SEO by yourself, but if you are hiring a professional forget about it. Ask the professional to optimize your site for well-searched keywords. You will get more traffic from more popular keywords. In that case, just your SEO professional (not you) has to work harder.
Rules Are Changing
First, you should understand that SEO isn't one-time work; it is an on going project. Search engines regularly change the algorism (the rules of ranking) to improve relevancy. Whenever they apply new rules, your ranking will also be changed. For example, my page was ranked 4th at Google. That rank lasted for a month or so, but, one day, my rank went down to 20-something. You'll never know where you will be ranked tomorrow. To keep staying near the top, you have to re-optimize your site or hire a professional whenever a new algorism is applied.
Be Current
Search engines update the algorism. That means you also need to updated the SEO techniques you use. Using outdated techniques won't do any good on your rankings (i.e., keyword rich alt tag only jeopardize your listing, today). You can learn the latest SEO techniques at following Web sites. That's how I was ranked at 4th (even if it was only for a few months). Maybe, you will get good ranking, too.
www.1stsearchranking.com
www.highrankings.com
searchenginewatch.com
Choosing Keywords
Choosing keywords is one of the very important steps of SEO. You will receive heavy traffic from search engines only if your site is optimized for popular keywords (searched a lot of times). Because everyone tries optimizing for those well-searched keywords, it is often too hard to beat others and get high rankings. Then, someone invented KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) to chose keywords that are popular, yet not too competitive. (For detailed information about KEI, please go to www.1stsearchranking.com/keywords.htm .) KEI is helpful if you do SEO by yourself, but if you are hiring a professional forget about it. Ask the professional to optimize your site for well-searched keywords. You will get more traffic from more popular keywords. In that case, just your SEO professional (not you) has to work harder.
Outsmart Competitors at PPC Search Engines
Bidding at PPC search engines isn't cheap anymore. But, don't give up. You can still find cheap keywords.
Baseline
Whatever the bid prices are, you cannot make money if you bid higher than you can afford. Before bidding, calculate your maximum bid price .
Product Specific Keywords
A few years back, you could find a lot of cheap keywords by looking for variations of keywords related to your website. Unfortunately, many of those variations have also become too expensive to bid on. To find affordable keywords, you need to look for keywords related to each "product" you sell. For example, if you sell sports equipment, don't just look for variations of "sports equipment." Look for keywords of your products, like "ice hockey stick" or "snowshoes." These product-specific keywords aren't searched often, but they are affordable. Most importantly, if you directly link those product-specific ads to specific product pages instead of your home page, you will get a better conversion rate.
Misspelled Keywords
You may also bid on commonly misspelled keywords. Surely, misspelled keywords are cheap, but there is a question mark on conversion rate. Some say conversion rates are good; other say not. Do your own test before running a full-scale ad campaign.
Find Real Competitors
You don't always have to outbid all other competitors. You only need to outbid others who have the same product lines as yours. For example, if you are selling DVD movies and are bidding on the keyword "DVD," you need only to outbid other DVD movie sellers; you don't have to outbid the bidders selling DVD players. Do a web search with the keyword you are bidding on, at the PPC search engine you are working with. The search result will show you who is selling what. You'll see who you have to outbid.
Baseline
Whatever the bid prices are, you cannot make money if you bid higher than you can afford. Before bidding, calculate your maximum bid price .
Product Specific Keywords
A few years back, you could find a lot of cheap keywords by looking for variations of keywords related to your website. Unfortunately, many of those variations have also become too expensive to bid on. To find affordable keywords, you need to look for keywords related to each "product" you sell. For example, if you sell sports equipment, don't just look for variations of "sports equipment." Look for keywords of your products, like "ice hockey stick" or "snowshoes." These product-specific keywords aren't searched often, but they are affordable. Most importantly, if you directly link those product-specific ads to specific product pages instead of your home page, you will get a better conversion rate.
Misspelled Keywords
You may also bid on commonly misspelled keywords. Surely, misspelled keywords are cheap, but there is a question mark on conversion rate. Some say conversion rates are good; other say not. Do your own test before running a full-scale ad campaign.
Find Real Competitors
You don't always have to outbid all other competitors. You only need to outbid others who have the same product lines as yours. For example, if you are selling DVD movies and are bidding on the keyword "DVD," you need only to outbid other DVD movie sellers; you don't have to outbid the bidders selling DVD players. Do a web search with the keyword you are bidding on, at the PPC search engine you are working with. The search result will show you who is selling what. You'll see who you have to outbid.
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