SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible

When you’re looking at different PPC programs, look for those that have strict guidelines about

how sites appear in listings, how partners and affiliates calculate visits, and how fraud is handled.

These are important issues, because in each case, you could be stuck paying for clicks that didn’t

actually happen. Be sure to monitor any service that you decide to use to ensure that your PPC

advertisements are both working properly and that they seem to be targeted well.

It often takes a lot of testing, monitoring, and redirection to find the PPC program that works well

for you. Don’t be discouraged or surprised if you find that you must try several different programs

or many different keywords before you find the right combination. But through a system of trial

and error and diligent effort, you’ll find that PPC programs can help build your site traffic and goal

conversions faster than you could without the program.

How Pay-per-Click Works

Pay-per-click marketing is an advertising method that allows you to buy search engine placement

by bidding on keywords or phrases. There are two different types of PPC marketing.

In the first, you pay a fee for an actual SERP ranking, and in some cases, you also pay a per-click fee

meaning that the more you pay, the higher in the returned results your page will rank.

The second type is more along true advertising lines. This type of PPC marketing involves bidding

on keywords or phrases that appear in, or are associated with, text advertisements. Google is prob-

ably the most notable provider of this service. Google’s AdWords service is an excellent example of

how PPC advertisements work, as is shown in Figure 5-1.

FIGURE 5-1

PPC advertisements are those advertisements that you see at the top and on the sides of search pages.

Pay-per-Click advertisements

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