What Is Pay Per Click?
Let's define the differences between Pay Per Click and Search Engine Optimisation.
Pay Per Click
Pay Per Click, also known as PPC, Paid Search or Sponsored Search, means you setup an advertisement with Google's Adwords system (or Yahoo / MSN), you define keywords so that when a user searches on the search engine, your ad appears. When someone clicks on your ad they go to an exact URL on your site which you define. You pay the search engine a fee each time the ad is clicked. Sounds simple? It is if you do it right, and it is currently one of the most effective methods of marketing that exists today. However, there are a number of pitfalls you need to be wary about to avoid wasting money.
Search Engine Optimisation
Search Engine Optimisation is also known as SEO, Organic Search or Natural Search. For example, Google will access your website periodically, read the content of the pages, and put links to it in it's index which are available to click on when people perform a search. The techniques in search engine "optimisation" have changed in recent years. In the past, there was a great deal of manipulation possible using simple techniques such as placing many instances of a keyword onto a page or creating hidden "ghost" pages that increased the volume of pages in the index. Today, things are different. Google has wised up! Their spam technology ensures websites which attempt to manipulate the index are seriously penalised. The most effective way to improve search results is to make your website as relevant to the keywords as possible without maniplation and have as many relevant websites as possible linking back to you. Read more on our Search Engine Optimisation.
Search Engines
There are hundreds of search engines on the Internet but only a handful are worth looking at. These are Google, Yahoo and MSN search. The remainder sites, such as Ask and Altavista, only capture a tiny percentage of the remainder. Google is by a large percentage the most used search engine.
If you are not advertising to consumers, it's worth also considering more business focussed websites such as Business.com and other industry specific search engines.
Remember the shopping comparison search engines like Kelkoo or Shopping.com for retail websites.
Do I need PPC if my SEO is already good?
Yes. PPC gives you control over what appears based on what keywords are used. You are able to test PPC advertisements, whilst with SEO, you cannot and the process is much longer. 15-20% of clicks on a search engine are through the PPC ads (this applies to Google, Yahoo and MSN). If you don't capture these potential customers, someone else - probably your competition - will. But for PPC to work, you must have a strong web analytics platform. A good recommendation would be Google Analytics, because as well as being one of the most powerful analytics platforms out there, it's completely free.
Being high up the rankings in both SEO and PPC can improve brand perception. Due diligence is required when starting a PPC campaign to ensure you are spending money in the right places - you must spend money on terms that convert to real sales or opportunities. You can easily use your Analytcs platform to see these results and take appropriate action.
It's most important to use PPC if you are selling to other business (B2B - Business to Business). In this scenario, your customer is often in a hurry to get the transaction done, and may well understand the concepts surrounding sponsored links. A greater percentage of PPC clicks are through B2B.
How do I start getting my website on the search engines?
A good way to start any optimisation of your website is to start with a PPC campaign. You are able to test what search terms are searched on most, which ones work and lead to conversion - and which ones don't. It's usually recommended that you start with a PPC campaign before starting an SEO optimisation campaign. The only exception to this is if your website is already highly established with a large percentage of content already indexed on the major search engines with plenty of inbound links. In this case, careful optimisation work with special attention to the removal of barriers (things that stop Google indexing effectively like Flash navigation or Flash only websites) is recommended.
Free tools
You are able to use Google's Adwords tools to help you select the best words and most searched words on PPC. Google want your business and provide you with all the information you need - including Analytics - completetly free of charge. You can then use these lessons and tools to advertise on other search engines that offer PPC like Yahoo and MSN.
Use Google's Analytics tool to track your users' journey through your website. If you have particular goals, such as the download of a white-paper or a form submission, Google allows you to insert a simple piece of Javascript code into your website that will then track the user throughout their journey through your website. You don't have to have any personal information about the user (such as their email address) to be able to track them. For each of these goals, put a dollar or sterling value against them. For example, if you know that once you have a customer's email address you have achieved the ability to closely market your products or services to them, you have achieved a goal which is to some extent a conversion - something which has potentially made you money. Google's Analytics tools help you track this information. When you are designing your online shop or website, you must know the "lifecycle of the customer". By using Analytics tools and your own experience you should optimise your website to allow the simplest route for your customer. For example, a simple way for users to add products on an online shop to their basket is obviously very important, but other more subtle things - like the ease to get access to interesting information or to submit your contact form - must be easy and obvious to do for your users.
Longtail Campaigns Vs Shorttail
Today's Internet users are smarter. Everyday people are typing more words into their search queries than perhaps might have happened before. Shorttail search terms are typically a single word, while Longtail will be multiple words or a sentence. Patterns are emerging today that suggest that the more words a user types into a search engine, the further along the buying cycle they are. For example, if a user types "golf", what are they looking for? Perhaps they're just casually gathering information about golf equipment for sale or perhaps a golf resort to visit. If they type "Discount Callaway Golf Clubs" they probably have their credit card on the table. When creating PPC campaigns, you need to consider using Longtail keywords and targeting your Adword ad text accordingly. A good SEO or PPC campaign will be looking at both, although the general advice is that there are so many possible variants of Longtail keywords, things can get complex and you will end up with too many variants of key phrase to deal with. An interesting statistic from Google is that 10-15 keywords will produce 80% of your traffic, so it's best to concentrate your efforts on the Short Tail. At the end of they day, you need to start by thinking about what people will search for and go from there. Google's Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) will extrapolate your keyword choices and provide you with further ideas.
Broad Match Keywords
Beware of Broad Match! It's a simple concept that can be useful, but also makes Google a lot of money. An example of a broad match keyword would be "golf" (because you sell golf equipment). Your ad will appear when someone types in "golf", but your ad might also show if someone types in "resorts", because golf is associated with resorts as well as golf equipment. If you rely on broad match keywords, that's fine, but you must analyse your traffic (using logs files or Google Analytics) and weed out the words you don't want. Then use the "negative keywords" feature of adwords to exlcude the keywords that are going to waste money for you.
Fat Head keywords
These are words that produce lots of traffic. But are they profitable? Perhaps your keyword is "golf", but the cost-per-click is prohibitively high. Only using the Google Keyword tools and experimenting with PPC will allow you to work this out.
Positioning in PPC campaigns and Organic Results
Positions 2 and 3 are often regarded as better than position 1 in e-commerce scenarios. Let's take the example of a user who is price-comparing a product, e.g. a pair of Nike trainers. They check on the first site (position 1), then move onto the next site (position 2). They might even check position 3. It's much more likely they'll use the last site they visited to make their purchase rather than going "back" to the first site in the engine. Also remember that 90% of organic search volume is in the top 5 results, so if you're not there, you're missing out - so the challenge is high: get within the top 5 but not in position 1! Interestingly, with PPC campaigns, position 3 or 4 is often the best position to be in. The reason being Google tends to position 2-3 sponsored links above the organic results. If a user is clicking through sponsored links, starting at the top right, the first ad they click on will be in position 3 or 4.
Some more stats for you: 97% of clicks are on page 1 in Yahoo, whilst 93% of clicks on page 1 are in Google. This is because users tend to trust Google more to bring back good results and may click through to page 2. So when using Yahoo, a good choice is to rely more on PPC rather than overdoing the SEO.
PPC Ad Groups
Remember you're able to control text of your ads, a much easier task than with the SEO natural listings. By targeting your ad to the keywords typed you will improve the click through rate (CTR).
PPC Landing Pages
There is a big opportunity for improvement with landing pages. These are the pages you direct your user to after they have clicked your PPC ad. If you direct your users to your home page, you're missing out on the opportunity to sell to them based on the keyword they originally typed. For example, with an online shop, if your keyword is one of the brand names of your product, you want to take your user directly to the product in question on your website. This will improve the conversion rate.
Google today are looking at the quality of your landing pages to judge where your ads will be positioned. It's important therefore to ensure landing pages are written well, have relevance to the keywords and incorporate all the best practices like text navigation and good title tags - thus implementing SEO techniques to your landing pages. It's also generally good practice to exclude your landing pages from the Google Search (which you can achieve with what's called a robots.txt file).