This most recent MediaComment (internet marketing newsletter) is now online at:
Next, we thought we’d cover an introduction to search engine marketing and pay per click advertising.
Natural and sponsored listings
The natural (also known as ‘organic’) listings are those which appear within the main area of the search engine results pages (SERPs) and sponsored listings tend to be placed across the top and within the right-hand column.
Some 70 per cent of clicks-throughs are generated by way of the natural search engine listings.
Good positioning within them is primarily gained through:
- Optimised content (textual content enhanced through search engine optimisation to emphasise its relevance to targeted search phrases).
- On-topic page titles.
- Search engine accessibility (how easy it is for a search engine to “read” your pages).
- Inbound links (from relevant, third-party sites).
Search Engine Marketing
The term search engine marketing generally refers to Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising.
As well as often appearing under a ‘Sponsored Links’ header, they also appear in the web search results that are presented by pay per click providers’ partner sites and within shopping-style business directories.
Leading pay per click providers include Google (AdWords), Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture) and Miva (formerly Espotting).
How search engine marketing (aka PPC) works is:
- You choose relevant keywords and phrases which you wish to match to your ppc ads (so the appropriate ads appear when your words or phrases are entered as a search phrase).
- You create your own ads (titles and descriptions).
- You place bids against your keywords and phrases (how much you’re prepared to pay per click).
- The higher your bid, the higher your ppc ad will appear in the results.
- Each time someone clicks, you incur your bid cost.
In the next Search Engine Marketing post, we’ll cover key phrase selection …
