YOU'VE GOT TO PAY TO PLAY

Written by Jennifer Johnson


You design a killer site, submit to allrepparttar major search engines and directories, and you wait...and wait...and wait...

Submitting to search engines/directories is a smart idea, but it seems like an eternity before you seerepparttar 128348 results of your efforts. Meanwhile, you're anxious to get traffic and make sales, right?

I have justrepparttar 128349 site promotion technique for you: pay-per-click (PPC) search engines.

PPC programs work like this: you bid on keywords related to your site's content/products/services. The higher you bid,repparttar 128350 higher your link appears inrepparttar 128351 search results. One ofrepparttar 128352 great things about PPC is that you don't pay unless someone actually clicks your link - in other words, you pay only for results. PPC campaigns can be surprisingly affordable, even for sites on a limited budget.

Another benefit of utilizing PPC is that you begin generating traffic almost immediately. There is no 6-8 week waiting period for your site to appear inrepparttar 128353 index - it's usually more like 2-3 days.

Before you rush off to open an account, though, there are a few basic things to do beforehand to maximize your campaign's effectiveness.

First, calculate how much you can afford to pay for each visitor to your web site. If you have a product that sells for $100.00, 1 out of every 100 visitors buysrepparttar 128354 product, and you pay $1.00 for each visitor, you'll break even onrepparttar 128355 campaign ($1.00 x 100 visitors = $100.00 spent/$100.00 sale). If you pay more than $1.00/visitor, you'll lose money and if you pay less than $1.00/visitor, you'll make a profit.

Know what you can afford to spend per visitor (per click) before making your bids. Armed with this knowledge, you'll be better equipped to execute a profitable campaign.

Second, create a list of keywords related to your site/product/service. Develop a list of at least a few hundred keywords; preferably 1000 or more. I realize that's a lot, but as a general rule, a list of 10-20 keywords won't net you much traffic.

If you're having trouble brainstorming keywords, many ofrepparttar 128356 PPC engines have tools to help you. GoTo's Search Suggestion Tool generates a list of search terms related to keywords you enter and ranks them in order from most to least popular. Tryrepparttar 128357 GoTo Keyword Wizard at JimTools.com (http://www.jimtools.com) too.

A third step to take before launching a campaign is to produce effective ad copy forrepparttar 128358 "title" and "description" of your listings. Make no mistake - your description and title ARE ad copy - or they should be if you hope to maximize traffic.

How to Improve Search Engine Rankings

Written by Herman Drost


You finally got your web site listed inrepparttar major search engines, however it is buried amongst millions of others and you still have not seen an increase in traffic to your web site. Why not? You need to improve your search engine rankings.

Here arerepparttar 128347 steps to increase your search engine rankings:

1. Check your listings If you are going to see an increase in traffic to your web site, you need to be listed inrepparttar 128348 top 20-30 sites. Go to http://www.marketleap.com to see if you are listed inrepparttar 128349 top 30 sites onrepparttar 128350 major search engines. If you are not listed in them, you should at least submit your site torepparttar 128351 major search engines (read “How to get listed inrepparttar 128352 major search engines”. http://www.isitebuild.com/majorsearchengines). If you are already inrepparttar 128353 top 10, then keep monitoring your site's rankings to maintain your position. If you are not inrepparttar 128354 top 30, continue withrepparttar 128355 next step.

2. Selectrepparttar 128356 right keywords and phrases Go to www.wordtracker.com orrepparttar 128357 overture suggestion tool (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion) to findrepparttar 128358 most popular words and phrases that suitrepparttar 128359 theme of your web site.

Weave these words and phrases into your meta tags (title, description and keyword tags), web copy (particularlyrepparttar 128360 first 200 words of your web page) and links (i.e. if your site is called camping.com and you have a page for camping tools, namerepparttar 128361 link www.camping.com/campingtools.htm, instead of www.camping.com/generic.htm).

Optimize each web page with different keywords. Visitors can then enter your site from different pages, depending on what keyword they entered inrepparttar 128362 search engines.

3. Exchange reciprocal links Search for other sites that compliment your own site and ask for a link back to your site. Ideallyrepparttar 128363 site should haverepparttar 128364 same keyword phrase as yours and already have a high search engine ranking. These are quality links.

Having many sites linked to yours, will increaserepparttar 128365 popularity of your site inrepparttar 128366 search engines, resulting in a higher ranking.

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