Where's the Ad? Half of Us Can't Tell

As I mention in class, the ads that Google and others run in their search engine results are often not obviously different from the natural (or "organic") search results themselves. Apparently, the FTC agrees and this week told search engine companies that they need to do a better job of identifying advertisements. I guess that barely visible light yellow background for Google's pay per click ads isn't doing the trick; a study by SEOBook found that almost half of searchers didn't recognize the difference. Full story at the New York Times.

Pay-per-click alternatives

The New York Times has an interesting piece on pay-per-click alternatives. Advertisers - especially small business - are beginning to search for alternatives to Google's AdWords program as the cost per click creeps up beyond many companies' threshold for a healthy ROI.

As I've pointed out in the SEO classes, many advertisers are also building content to improve organic ranking, and it works well for those who put the time into it. Check out the article here.

The Top 20 Most Expensive Keywords in Google AdWords Advertising | WordStream

Some interesting info for those of you considering advertising online. Wordstream has compiled a list of the most expensive keywords in Google's AdWords pay-per-click advertising system. "Insurance" takes the cake with a 24% share and a top CPC (cost per click) of almost $55! Check out the infographic here. It might give you a few good ideas on keyword campaigns to avoid!

An article I penned for Identity Marketing magazine, republished on the eBlox blog, about giving up on organic search optimization. For those of you that are considering organic SEO (optimizing content and inbound links to rank higher in organic searches) vs. diving into pay-per-click advertising, this might provide some insight as to why I feel the latter is often a better use of your time, especially if you are engaged in e-commerce and want to actually sell your products online.

You should still optimize your site for organic search – as I've said in class, keywords are everything – and try to get those higher-ranking, relevant inbound links. But the article specifically addresses the situations where organic SEO is a losing battle because of the intense competition. In this situation, the targeted, controlled method of advertising offered by pay-per-click may be your best bet. Read the article here and let me know what you think.

New York Times on Google AdWords for Small Business

If you've taken my classes, these tips on advertising with Google's AdWords from the New York Times will probably sound pretty familiar to you:

• Begin by casting a narrow net, advertising in your local market and then expanding to additional markets like Google’s AdSense network.

• Try to choose keyword terms that your competition has overlooked to keep per-word costs low.

• Remember that good campaigns require constant adjustment.

That's good advice, and while there's not a lot here that you haven't seen in class or in the handouts, the article does offer some specific examples of AdWords use by small businesses. Highly recommended if you're ready to take the dive into pay-per-click advertising.

Check it out here.

Inbound Links

A new series of pieces are going up at the eBlox blog over the next two weeks regarding inbound links. I explain in layman's terms what they are, how to measure them, and how to obtain at least a few of them to assist you in your own search engine optimization efforts. Check it out.

More AdWords tweaks from Google

It looks like Google is changing the way they measure ad quality again. TechCrunch reports that Google will be factoring in ad position when measuring quality score, effectively removing whatever boost is provided by higher ad positions.

Google will also be making it easier for ads to appear above the search results – because a certain level of quality is required for an ad to appear on the top, the higher quality rankings from the first change result in more ads that meet the quality guidelines to appear above the search results. Result? More money for Google, of course, because more ads appear on top, which should result in more clicks.

Full story here. Google's complete explanation of ad ranking can be found here. Here is Google's AdWords blog post on the change.

Keyword Tool

For those of you who don't want to spring for tools like Wordtracker, Google offers similar functionality with its Keyword Tool. Google's Keyword Tool provides keyword assistance by allowing you to enter seed keywords or phrases and then showing you potential traffic of your keywords and suggesting related ones.

The tool is built primarily to assist pay-per-click customers in developing keyword lists but, if you are having trouble generating basic keywords for your product or service, it can be an excellent way to generate alternatives and evaluate their potential search traffic. Check it out here.

The most expensive clicks

CyberWyre maintains a list of the highest-paying keyword combinations; as mentioned in class, the most expensive clicks tend to be from plaintiff's attorneys and are generally asbestos-related.