Online Marketing: The Rules Change Again at the Search Engines

I have been telling people for some time about the “the secret of the search engines,” which is, if you pay-per-click for a search, you don’t appear in the “organic,” or free results under the same search. This is because those who create the programming for search engines began to realize that people wouldn’t want to pay if they landed on the first page of the same search organically. Three months ago, we let the “cat out of the bag” and wrote about it. Now, I am happy to announce that at least one of major search engines has discontinued that practice. You can now be in the sponsored results and the free, first-page results with the same site on Google. It’s important to understand that these two spaces—the sponsored results and the free results—are two completely different markets. Here are some points to consider when thinking about the sponsored results area: - As a rule, do you click sponsored links or the free results more often? - If you don’t click sponsored links or pop-up banners, who does? - Are they customers, salespeople, “Internet surfers” or potential prospects about to buy? - How can I control who searches my site by the search words I choose to be found under? Here are some more little known facts about search engines: Overture, Google, and others will stress the value of very large, very broad, four-word searches (for instance: city, state, real estate) because they are searched for more than others. This is a good strategy for pay-per-click models, because broad searches don’t bring up very many relevant results on the first page organic results. For example, the Florida filter assures that with Google, so that the surfer must either refine the search by adding words, or resort to the sponsored links that are not their first choice. But consider that many of us, even when we start with a broad search that doesn’t yield what we want, will add words, until we find what we are looking for. While a very specific search, for instance: “luxury homes, San Ramon, California,” will get less hits, those searching under those words are more likely pre-qualified buyers, not salespeople or “spammers.” People have a tendency to simplify these issues to streamline the selling process, but a full understanding is necessary for actual success online. If you resist the idea of paying for that advice, you may consider the profits you may be missing with your current system.