Search Engine Optimization – More On PFP Search Engines

I finished up yesterday by introducing PFP search engines into the search engine optimization equation. In this article I really want to concentrate on a few of the most popular forms of Pay-for-Performance search engines, namely:-
- Google Adwords
- Yahoo Search Marketing
- Yahoo Paid Inclusion
- Exact Seek
These are the main types you will need to be aware of in order to maximise the results of your search engine optimization strategies.
Google Adwords

Adwords is the biggest pay per click advertising platform around and boasts a whopping 150,000 advertiser and rising daily. It produces ads on it’s search directory, google.com and on it’s partners search results Ask, AOL etc. It is also linked to adsense approved sites, which allow webmasters to show ads on their sites for a share of the ad revenue.
Google has an interesting way of positioning it’s ads, by that I simply mean the highest bidder does not get the prime positions necessarily. The formula for deciding whether an ad shows up at number 1 or number 2 is based on bid price, click through rate and relevance also known as quality score. This allows advertisers with smaller budgets to compete with large companies in terms of ad positioning.
An adwords add is limited in terms of the amount characters you can use 25 for the head, two 35 character description lines and a visible url.
Adwords allows 4 keyword matching options, lets say the keyword in search engine optimization and see the below examples:-
- Broad Match ( a searcher could enter “seo help” and the ad would show”)
- Phrase Match (“search engine optimization services” could be entered and the ad would show)
- Exact Match (would only show for “search engine optimization”)
- Negative Match ( a negative match option would prevent ads for that keyword)
This is a very broad interpretation of the matching options and it is highly valuable to study it further if you plan to use adwords. An exact match keyword tends to be more profitable than a phrase or broad match, but the different options should be used differently depending on your business goals.
Adwords has now also developed what is known as API, which is an application which allows you to automate bid and ad management tasks.
To find out more about adwords visit http://adwords.google.com
Yahoo

Yahoo’s PPC platform is also known as Yahoo Search Marketing Solutions and was prior to that known as overture. It is Googles main competitor and the rank of their ads is simply done on a highest bid basis.
Like Google Yahoo do a sponsored search and a content search and if you get a top 3 position with yahoo your ads also show on MSN, Altavista, CNN and other portals.
Other PPC Models

- LookSmart
- Findwhat
- ePilot
- Mamma
- Bidvertiser
- Kanoodle

The main ones are Yahoo and Google and in my opinion for business purposes adwords is the most profitable.
Yahoo Search Submit

This system adds your site to the Yahoo index and allows your site to be re crawled every 48 hours as appose to the standard 2 weeks. You will have to pay $50 initial fee and then for every click you receive, which starts around $0.20 a click.
Yahoo Directory Submit
This is where you will have to pay $299 to be added to Yahoo’s Directory. After which you will have to pay an annual $299 to keep your site in place. A good investment if you have the free cash but not necessary for success.
See http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com for more details.
Exact Seek

You purchase a featured listing in relation to chosen keywords. There is no ranking system in place so if there are 7 ads targeting 1 keyword they will be shown randomly. You also do not pay per click, just 1 up front fee.