Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Services

Recently, many of the search engines added a pay-per-click (PPC) business model. How does this work? Well, somewhat simplified, it works like this:

1. You bid for a specific keyword on the search engine.
2. You get listed, first, second, or wherever based on how high your bid is relative to the other bidders for that keyword
3. Each time someone clicks on your listing to go to your web site, you get charged the amount of your bid

The bid amount required for a certain position depends on how competitive a specific keyword is. A keyword "web hosting" could be very expensive, while "Boston web hosting" would be much less expensive.

One of the hazards of PPC is "fraudulent clicks." An unethical competitor can click repeatedly on your ad to try to waste your ad dollars. There are ways of detecting this, but it is one more added complexity.

Obviously PPC isn't for everyone. Here's our feeling about it:

If the keywords that describe your business are very common (like web hosting), you are probably best off avoiding PPC completely unless the high costs of the keyword bids don't scare you. If your desired keywords are less common (and we can check them out for you), then it may be worth bidding on them.

Also note that different search engines charge differently for the same keywords. This leads to some interesting decisions: Do I:

• Go for a low-cost bid on a less popular search engine and see if I get enough high-quality visits?
• Go for a higher-cost bid on a more popular search engine and hope the higher volume makes up for the higher cost?
• Put my money into trying to boost the rating of my unpaid listing (see our page on traditional search engine services)?

We can help you make these decisions. Contact us.