Specific information about pay-per-click engines
Pay-per-click search engines
How they work Pay-per-click engines allow you to bid on keywords that relate to your site. If you're the highest bidder, your site will be ranked highest for that keyword.
Top pay-per-click engines
The only pure pay-per-click engine that has achieved Top 10 status is Overture.com. Google is among the most popular search engines and also has a pay-per-click program called "Google AdWords" Other pay-per-click engines are less popular but are trying to gain more recognition. The following table lists the top pay-per-click search engines.
Pay-per-click engine |
Help page |
7Search.com |
http://www.payperranking.com/ |
Ah-ha.com |
http://www.ah-ha.com/logolink/default.asp |
Findwhat.com |
https://secure.findwhat.com/static/ab_promote.html |
Overture.com |
http://Overture.com/d/about/advertisers/adfaq.jhtml |
HitsGalore |
http://www.hitsgalore.com/bidrank.shtml |
Kanoodle |
https://safe.kanoodle.com/client_services/ |
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listings/about.cool |
OneSearch |
http://www.onesearch.com/bid/signup.htm |
Rocketlinks |
http://www.rocketlinks.com/about.cgi?link= |
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SearchGalore |
http://www.searchgalore.com/add.htm |
SimpleSearch |
http://www.simplesearch.com/advertise/simpleclick.shtml |
Sprinks |
http://sprinks.about.com/ |
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To bid or not to bid?
If you're thinking about using a pay-per-click search engine to promote your site, there are a few factors to consider.
- Your marketing budget
Do you have enough money to make pay-per-click engines a part of your advertising campaign, or should you stick with free search engines?
- Your industry
Consider the uniqueness of your product. Do you sell something that lots of other sites also sell, or is your product hard to find? You may already have an advantage.
- Your competition
What tactics does your competition use? If your top competitor is a big advertiser on Overture.com, you may want to consider bidding for a top position there as well.
How do you sign up for pay-per-click advertising?
Signing up for pay-per-click search engines is easy. Choose an engine based on how much money you want to spend and how much traffic you want. Overture.com or Google's AdWords Select are probably the best options. Choose smaller engines if you want less of a traffic boost.
To register with a pay-per-click engine, simply visit its sign-up page. The above table lists the sign-up pages for many pay-per-click engines.
You'll need to provide the following information when signing up:
- Contact information (Name, address, phone number, e-mail, company name)
- Site URL
- Keywords you want to bid on
- Amount of money you're bidding for every keyword
- Site description
- Credit card information
Your request will probably be reviewed in up to five business days. If approved, your bids will appear immediately.
Choose the right keywords
The most important factor in pay-per-click positioning is choosing the right keywords to bid on. First, irrelevant keywords will be rejected, so choose only those keywords that relate to your site's content. Second, relevant keywords mean targeted traffic . Since you're paying every time a searcher clicks on your site, it's crucial to make sure that every click is worth the money.
The cost of a top position for a given keyword is also a factor. Ask each engine to provide you with the rate of click-through for the top 10 positions on every keyword you're considering. Try to find inexpensive keywords that relate to your site. If you can't afford the number-one position for a given keyword, being fifth can still pay off.
Analyze results
If you don't have your own traffic monitoring service or software, pay-per-click engines will provide you with reports that show how many people clicked on your site's link and what they searched for. The pay-per-clicks swear on the integrity of these reports, so pay careful attention to them. Analyze the following elements:
- Projected vs. actual click-through
Did your advertising perform as well as you expected? Did you get too much or too little traffic? Consider this when deciding on future keyword purchases.
- Your revenue
The purpose of advertising is to attract more visitors and sell more products or services. If your traffic increased but your revenue didn't, evaluate your keywords. Can you think of better keywords that will attract users who are looking for your products or services?
- Web stats
If you have a software package or a service that tracks your usage statistics, note which pages your pay-per-click visitors use most (usually in the "path summary" report). See if you can find any patterns. This will help you understand those users' interests and choose future keywords.
Analyzing your pay-per-click marketing efforts will help you decide how this form of advertising can benefit your business.
An Overview
Using pay-per-click search engines
- Consider your industry, budget and competition
- Choose relevant keywords
- Analyze both traffic and sales to measure effectiveness
 
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