Search and Be Found … If You Pay a Little $$

Well, for part two of my post on “Search and Ye Shall (Hopefully) Be Found,” I thought we’d delve into the world of paid advertising on the Web. Sometimes, despite all the optimization you do to your Web site to ensure you’re coming up high in the search engines, you still just won’t show up when a person searches for certain key words. Some key words are very popular and apply to many companies, and it’s difficult to work your way up the ranks, at least to page 1 or 2, in the search engines.

Real estate would be a good example. There are a plethora of realtors and homes for sale in every city in the United States, and trying to get your site to show up tops above others (let’s say you own a small realty company in the city you live in) is going to be tough. BUT, there is one way around this problem. Pay for it!

That’s where Pay Per Click comes in. These are the listings on Google, for example, that come up on the side and highlighted on the top. This is essentially a way for you to bid on popular key words to try to show up even if you’re not ranking that high “naturally” (nonpaid). You only pay the bid price when someone clicks on your ad (you get to write a short description related to the key words that were searched to try to get people to click on your ad).

There are many factors that go into this, like the amount you’re willing to pay, how popular your ad is, etc. So I highly recommend, again, letting a good Internet marketing firm help you with your campaign, like our good friends at the SIMS Agency. They can help you set a realistic monthly budget that will get you some good ad placement among key words that fit what your clients are searching for.

If you want to be where people are looking, I highly encourage you to set up a pay per click campaign to be sure you are showing up.