Recently a prospective client asked me for some help getting his site up onto search engines. Even when people searched for his name and his website specifically, they couldn’t find him. Last time I checked, this site was number one in Google for Purple Ivy, though I’d not expect anyone looking for web consulting to search for that, at least if they know what they are looking for and type into the search bar instead of the URL bar they will find me!
Even so, there are some basic steps you should take to make yourself even remotely findable.
Search engines are all about pay per click these days. It’s part of the revolution that happened with Google’s add-money advent of adwords. But since Google launched its pay per click model, other search companies have followed suit.
The idea of course is simple – allow advertisers to pay only for visitors that click through their ads. I (me as a service and goods provider) decide how much I will pay for a click, and then Google determines the placement of my ad to maximize their profit – clickthrough percentage times clickthrough revenue.
For me the advertiser it seems I’m getting a good deal, but no…. that’s not the case. It just offloads the job of me calculating the clickthrough rate myself and saves me from having to figure out what I’m willing to pay per impression on the front end. But I still have to figure out how much of my revenue per visitor I’m willing to set aside.
There are problems with pay-per-click, and no actual advantages, for me the advertiser. But still there are few effective alternatives for businesses who primarily sell via the ‘net.
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