SPONSORED LISTINGS

To ensure that potential customers see your website listing when searching of specific terms, consider sponsored listings. If you can afford it, a sponsored listing will give your website top billing without the worry about whether your web pages are optimized for search engine spiders. Yahoo!, Google, and other search engines offer sponsored listings which enable your URL to be displayed in a highly visible ad space when the results of a specific search term is returned.

These services all work basically the same way. They have a method of determining the “known” number of searches performed based upon a certain keyword, such as “widget.” Then, if a potential customer goes to a search engine where you purchased the keyword phrase “widget repair” (and maybe others, budget permitting) and types “widget repair” that potential customer would see not only the normal search result, but also your website’s sponsored listing on their computer screen. If all available impressions were purchased, the potential customer would see your ad every time a search for “widget repair” was performed. If only a portion of the total impressions is purchased, the ad would rotate with other sponsored listings.

There are also dedicated paid listing services that resemble your average search engine or directory. You will find that potential customers use these services — just check out the popularity of Overture.com (formerly GoTo.com), findwhat.com, onesearch.com, etc. If you are so inclined, a dedicated paid listing service may be just the ticket to driving more traffic to your website.