Sponsored Links and Bid Per Click
Both Google and Yahoo offer advertising programmes where users create an account on their system and ‘bid’ for advert click throughs against specific keywords.
When you open an account you can create an ‘advert’ which will automatically display on the first search results page when searches are made for the keywords you have specified. These are the sponsored links appearing on the right hand side on the search results pages.
Where you appear in the list of sponsored links is directly related to the bid you have posted for that keyword.
To some people the bidding system is a bit of a worry, but once you have opened an account and looked at the how it all works, it all becomes clearer.
For some highly sought after keywords the bids can get way too high, but for many the bid can be in pence rather than pounds! The trick really is very careful selection of keywords and being very clear that your bid will cost you up to that amount each time someone clicks through to your website from the sponsored advert.
Although we are web designers ourselves and involved all the time in optimising websites so they can be found easily on search engines in the natural way by searches, we do manage several sponsored advert accounts on behalf of clients and can testify to it’s effectiveness - it’s a very powerful tool when used in the right way.
If you are interested in opening an Overture or Google Adwords account, or want to find out more about optimising your website why not give us a call.
