The primary advantage of the paid services is speed. Paying gets you listed faster. A second advantage (and is important if you are already listed), is that using paid services forces links to you - important links - and in that way improves your listing.
We generally encourage people to try the free services for awhile to get the feel of what they can do before jumping into the paid services. If you have a new site and aren't listed, paid services can get you listed in 3-5 days. Otherwise expect to wait a month to even find out if the engines picked you up.
How They Work
There are two types of paid listings we will mention in this issue: pay-per-click and bid-for-placement.
In the bid-for-placement type of service, you bid for your position in the listing for a keyword phrase. In general, you want to get a keyword phrase that is as specific as possible. You can often save by bidding for a little less that first place on the returned list. The primary engine for this service is Overture, now owned by Yahoo.
In pay-per-click service, you pay each time someone clicks on your listing in the search engine and links to your site. Your dollars have nothing to do with your position in the search engine. You are identified in the listing as a sponsored site; that is, if a person that searches on your keyword they will see your site marked as "sponsored" and at the top or right margin of the first page of the listing.
The FTC takes a dim view of search engines listings returning sites without indicating whether the positioning is paid or not. There are no legal rules yet, but the FTC is warning the search engines there could be rules if they don't clearly indicate their paid listings. What this means is that if your search result positioning has been purchased, they should indicate this. Whether the engines are being honest on this now is an issue for debate.
Major Services
Probably the most famous of the paid services are the two pay-per-clicks: Google's Adwords and Yahoo's Site Match. Yahoo is changing their Site Match to be more competitive with Google's Adwords - their Panama Project. Sponsored ads are identified as such on the right side of the page or at the top. They do not affect your ranking directly, but are considered as trusted ads because some human has checked it. You control the budget on your advertising. Watch it daily on starting.
For Yahoo's Site Match, you can insert an add from http://www.positiontech.com. This will cost you a $49 setup charge plus a $50 deposit. Each clickthrough will cost you $.15 - $.30, depending upon the category. The ad will show in about 3 days. Since a human looks at it, it becomes a trusted advertisement and will be picked up by othe search engines.
Google's Adwords is only a $5 setup fee and a maximum cost-per-click that you set. You are bidding for a position by setting this. The more traffic you get, the lower your cost-per-click. The ad shows up immediately.
See Carl's book on Web Site Promotion and Search Engine Positioning for more..
Let us Help You with Your Web Site Design or Analyze Your Current Web Site...
Let
us Help You Get a Great Position in the Search Engines...
Do Your Own Search Engine Positioning and Save!....
All
Rights Reserved
Copyright 2007, Oregon Professional
Microsystems
In the Portland, Oregon Metro area
(503) 697-4773
