When trying to optimize a website for higher Search Engine Rankings or working with a Pay Per Click campaign there are several invaluable tools every business needs. The Google Search Based Keyword Tool is an online application developed by Google providing worldwide or regional reporting on specific search terms, week-to-week numeric values of search volumes, Pay Per Click (PPC) competition and budgeting which integrates with existing Google AdWords PPC accounts and much more…and it’s free!
The official Google explanation of the service ‘What is the Search-based keyword tool’ is:
The Search-based Keyword Tool generates keyword and landing page ideas highly relevant and specific to your website. In doing so, the tool helps you identify additional advertising opportunities that aren’t currently being used in your AdWords ad campaigns. The tool goes one step further by tailoring the keywords and other data (such as the amount of competition for the keyword, the suggested bid, and more) based on your language or country/territory settings.
Based on your URLs, the Search-based Keyword Tool displays a list of relevant user queries that have occurred on Google.com (and on other Google search properties, such as google.co.uk) with some frequency over the past year; these suggestions can be found under the Keywords tab, in the New keywords related to (site) section. In the Keywords related to your search section, you can see a broad list of keyword ideas that are also relevant, but aren’t necessarily based on your site.
The keywords are also organized by category. Click any category to expand and view its subcategories. If applicable, you’ll also see the keywords organized by brand names.
Important note: We can’t guarantee that these keyword suggestions will improve your campaign performance. Additionally, we reserve the right to disapprove any keywords you add to your campaigns. You’re responsible for the keywords you select and for ensuring that your use of the keywords doesn’t violate any applicable laws or our Terms of Service.
Try it out or ask your Internet Marketing Provider if they are using this invaluable tool
http://www.google.com/sktool
Robert ‘Dot Com’ Jackson
Internet & Technology Expert
www.InternetBuilderConsulting.com – Building Better Websites and Online Solutions since 1995
Office 816-842-7774
Search Engine Marketing through use of Pay Per Click (PPC) ads is an effective method of placing any website in front of prospective clients without having to optimize or market the website. Companies with new websites, extremely old websites or websites which offer multiple services in multiple locations are best serviced through use of pay per click marketing. Search Engine pay per click marketing (Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft bCentral) is typically setup with a daily and/or monthly budget for the marketing campaign.
In traditional advertising marketers charge for a specific location in a magazine or newspaper in hopes that someone saw the advertisment based on a distribution number created by the company selling the advertising. This left much to be desired since the company selling the advertising was the same company providing the customers with the ‘distribution numbers’ estimating how many people might see the magazine or newspaper and hopefully view the advertisment inside of it. There was no true way to judge how many people saw the advertisment or what the return on investment was for the ad campaign. Online advertising, specifically pay per click (PPC) changed things with the pay for performance method of costs.
With PPC advertising a company only pays when the advertisment they show on the search engine is clicked on and a prospective customer is taken to the website to view the customer. When a customer simply views the ad on a search engine, without clicking, then there is no cost to anyone. Advertisers may setup a daily and monthly budget to spend for ads in addition to individual bids (yes bidding similar to ebay) for each search term or keyword phrase. A company or individual may bid for a particular phrase or set of keywords to have their advertisment show up when a search was done for those words on a search engine. The benefit is that advertisers pay for exactly what they receive while the detraction of bidding on keywords is that competitors can instantly outbid each other driving the costs up dramatically.
This means that ten companies may bid for the keyword phrase ‘Kansas City Website Companies’ all spending $1 per click to show up in the first ten advertising locations on a search engine. When ten more companies decided to bid on the same set of keywords they outbid the first companies for $1.50 per click or 50% higher cost per click. When the first set of companies see they have been outbid and their ads are no longer showing then they bid $2 a click or 100% more for the same traffic. Bidding sometimes becomes extremely competative when people or companies target a specific keyword phrase with no limit on how high the bidding goes for each click.
The benefit of Pay Per Click is that companies never pay for the branding/marketing aspects of having online users view the ad unless the online user actually clicks on the ad (thus pay per click). Online marketers sometimes neglect taking the time to search for the best ‘bang for the buck’ when setting up PPC accounts for clients. Builder Consulting spends several hours consulting with the customer to determine the top keywords and phrases then sets a specific budget for each term based upon the overall monthly goals and cost per click likelyhood of a return on investment. Keep in mind that any account setup with a daily and monthly budget will not show all ads all of the time.
The rate at which ads are shown is based upon budgets, likelyhood of the ad delivering a click (more effective ads are shown more often), the number of advertisers paying for each search term and the remaining balance of a budget for each advertiser. Any individual or company can setup pay per click advertising in a matter of minutes, setting it up properly to requires experiance and an understanding of the overall concepts, goals and technical aspects of the systems to provide a true return on investment.
Robert ‘Dot Com’ Jackson
BuilderConsulting.com
913-814-8844 Offices
In the past few months it seems that anyone and everyone has become experts at Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). One such website designer shares that they are the SEO Experts because anyone looking for homebuilder websites will find their website design company listed #1. A strange idea since the people searching for homebuilder websites are more likely looking for someone to build a home than a website company. This example illustrates an extremely valid yet often overlooked point that not all traffic is good traffic online.
Website companies offer Search Engine Marketing (SEM) services such as Pay Per Click (PPC) using Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and other paid advertising with the same lack of understanding costing customers thousands of dollars in worthless marketing. Search online for Atlanta New Homes and a builder from Oklahoma (does not build in Atlanta) was listed in the top 3 paid listings for a cost of nearly $4 a click because their SEM company did not setup the marketing properly. When the monthly reports come in the Search Engine Marketing company shares with the customer that they spent the budget and gained whatever number of visitors to the website. What was missed by the SEM company and the customer is the fact that the budget was spent bringing unqualified traffic to the website. The website company managing the Search Engine Marketing may never realize the mistake and the customer is likely satisfied at the increase in traffic to the website.
The inherent problem with companies claiming they ‘do SEO‘ is that Search Engine Optimization is not something you can just ‘do’. To properly Optimize websites for Search Engines there are literally dozens of key aspects that must be properly completed, many outside of the website development process. Just because everyone is familiar with the term and every website design company claims ‘they do SEO’ does not mean they even understand what the terms mean much less how to provide the results. If you are considering hiring someone for SEO or SEM ask the prospective companies what their target audience is and go search for them online, ask for and check referrals, verify the provider has multiple websites using the very same SEO and SEM services they offer and understand that not everyone is able to provide what they claim.
Robert ‘Dot Com’ Jackson
http://www.BuilderConsulting.com
913-814-8844 Corporate Offices
The expansion of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) companies who charge an ongoing fee to manage Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing designed to bring traffic to a website has led to more confusion for customers. Recently a prospective customer in Florida was told by a Search Engine Marketing salesperson from another company that their 5 year old website should not be upgraded because they would be able to get more traffic to the website through a 6 month contract for pay per click advertising. The current website is not listed on any of the search engines with a HUGE FLASH SPASH page, out of date information, difficult navigation and little opportunity for buyers to make a buying decision online.
The salesperson went further in telling the customer that they were ‘putting the cart before the horse’ by fixing the website before obtaing more traffic to the website. The salesperson is either uninformed or dishonest in his proposal and claims to the customer since driving more traffic without an effective website will not generate any more sales nor provide the website with any chance of being listed on a search engine without having to pay for the listing. Since the Search Engine Marketing company is paid by managing the ongoing paid advertising it makes sense for them to advise the customer not to invest on an effective website that would begin showing up online without having to pay for clicks. Pay Per Click (PPC) is an effective short term solution for new websites to bring traffic, visits and inform the search engines of the website content.
PPC works similar to an online auction (think ebay) where each company or marketing firm out bids the competitors for the top spots. This means that the cost will ALWAYS increase while the results will continue to decrease. The focus of marketing companies sell paid listings and search engine marketing is to ensure the customer always has to pay them to obtain traffic on the website rather than having an effective website that reaches customers through Search Engine Optimization. What most website and online marketing companies are missing is that they will not lose money by helping the customers reach more buyers on a search engine without PPC. If the website is developed properly with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) it will reduce the monthly costs for customers delivering a more effective long term reach. The initial loss of advertising income will be offset by the long term relationship and business from the customer who will need another website or related services in the future.
The other EXTREMELY BAD affect of search engine marketing and PPC management companies is the lack of understanding or accountability to the customer. The marketing companies usually have little to no understanding of the customers business or target audience. A builder in Kansas has been paying the website company that built the current website for search engine marketing each month. The builder only builds homes in Kansas City Metro (KS/MO) yet the website company setup paid marketing nationwide so that anyone looking for new homes or a builder for any city in the country will see the paid listing for the Kansas City builder. Specifically the builder who ONLY builds in Kansas and Missouri is paying for advertising in Georgia, Oklahoma, California and all 50 states because the search engine marketing was setup wrong by the website company!
The website company also has a link on the HOME PAGE of the customer’s website to the website traffic reports for all of his competitors to see. When reviewing the reports they only show the number of visits and overall traffic to the website not where the traffic is coming from. This means the customer will never know that they are being charged to market homes in California or Georgia because the report does not include this information and the marketing company either does not know or does not care. To see this specific example visit www.AtlantaNewHomesandBuilders.com then view the GOOGLE ads rotating at the bottom of the page often showing a builder in Oklahoma and a builder in Kansas City along with the local Atlanta ads.
When marketing online consider the long term goals, what opportunity is being presented to buyers when they reach the website and what common sense tells you.
Robert ‘Dot Com’ Jackson
http://www.BuilderConsulting.com
Building Better Websites Since 1995
913-814-8844
In 1999 Yahoo went public and quickly became the top Search Engine used by millions of Internet Buyers worldwide. Microsoft Network (MSN) and America Online (AOL) were the top competitors with little heard about Google. Move forward to 2008 and Google has become an adjective “Do You Google?” or “Google it” commanding 60% of the online searches. Naturally businesses and Internet Marketing companies spend the majority of online budgets on Google AdWords pay per click advertising. Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft bCentral are often overlooked or ignored missing millions of potential buyers.
The largest is not always the best and marketing dollars should be invested where the best Return on Investment will be accomplished. Advertisments for ‘Kansas City New Homes’ on Google AdWords can cost up to $3.85 per click reaching 60% of the online users. The same advertisment on Yahoo averages $1.31 per click with 18% of online users. with a mere 14% of online users Microsoft bCentral advertising will cost $1.12 per click. A monthly budget of $500 would give:
- 129 clicks (potential buyers) from Google
- 381 clicks (potential buyers) from Yahoo
- 446 clicks (potential buyers) from Microsoft bCentral
Others considerations for online marketing are demographics and usage – consider that Yahoo became the top Search Engine 8 years ago and remains the top destination for finance and business users. Google has the largest porportion of teenage users making it perfect for marketers wanting to sell IPOD’s, concert tickets or Teen Magazine. Researching the demographics to ensure your marketing dollars are reaching the proper audience is more important than the total number of users on a specific search engine. Pay Per Click alone is not an effective long term marketing solution. Pay Per Click is effective for targeted traffic with a set budget yet will constantly cost more for less results or traffic as others bid against you for the top spots.
Developing a professional website incorporating the key aspects of design, Search Engine Optimization, navigation, usability, content, purpose and one-click call to action opportunities is the best overall solution. Investing more in expert website services will reduce the costs required for constant paid listings when your website shows up naturally online. Websites listed through pay per click that are poorly designed or ineffective are PAYING to exclude themselves from buyers!
Robert ‘Dot Com’ Jackson
http://www.BuilderConsulting.com
