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Choosing Your Keywords
Once you decide which option is the most effective for
your budget (We recommend the self-serve option as the least expensive and
no one knows your site and target audience as well as you do) it is time
to start targeting keywords.
Choosing keywords is usually one of the hardest tasks
facing search engine optimizers but the Overture setup makes it fairly
easy. Using the tools they provide you can easily see where each bid per
keyword will position you.
Before you begin you need to brainstorm a list of
keywords people currently use to find your site, if your site has been
around for a while and you have access to your site traffic logs this is
easy, otherwise you'll need to come up with a list on your own.
Fortunately the first handy tool they offer is the Search
Term Suggestion Tool. Simply type in a keyword or phrase and they will
show you related keywords and the number of times that keyword was
searched on in the last month.
Choose the ones relevant to your site and start a
running list. I recommend using a spreadsheet as you'll need to be able to
copy and paste during the signup process. Once you have a list of 20-40
terms (20 is the recommended minimum) you can start deciding on what to
bid for each keyword. The Current
Bid Tool will show the current bids and listings for each keyword.
When looking at your Return on Investment (ROI) you
have to fight the urge to go for the most popular keywords. Generally they
cost from $0.50 to $5.00/click and you will quickly exhaust your budget.
Unless you set aside a large budget it is best to start
small (with the least popular listings) and work your way up for the bids
or you may find your deposit eaten up alarmingly quick. There is a
adjustment period where you'll be tweaking your listings the first couple
of days and weeks so it is better to err on the side of caution.
The best keywords tend to be the ones that for a minimum
bid score in the top three (particularly #1) because of all the
exposure they get on Overture partner sites like Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista,
Netscape, Lycos and others...
For other keywords and bids you need to know what a
visitor is worth to your site in terms of how many visitors become
customers. This way you know what a maximum bid should be. Unfortunately
most sites don't calculate this vital information.
On popular keywords where you can't secure a top three
positioning with a $0.10 see how much it will cost to get into the top 10,
a quality title and description will still bring in traffic lower on the
page.
Choosing titles and descriptions is a little more
complex than writing Meta Tags for other search engines where the idea is
to get as many people clicking on the links as possible. Here since you
are paying per click you are looking for only targeted traffic and your
titles and descriptions need to accurately reflect your product or
services.
For example if you are selling games online you are
going to want to make sure your description reflects the fact they are for
sale and not free, otherwise you may get a lot of traffic that are looking
for free online games (remember you pay per visitor) and then they leave
once they see you don't offer any.
Rather than:
Huge Variety of Games!
you may want to use:
Purchase From a Huge Variety
of Games!
Including the search term in the title and description
is vital, as with any search engine people are looking for relevant
information and when they see the keyword they are searching for in the
title and description it inspires confidence!
You have 40 characters for the Title and then several
lines (190 characters) for a description. Take advantage of this to
practice writing some sales copy to get people to your site!
Once this is all done submit your listings and for the
Self Service option you'll get a confirmation in 3-5 days that your
listings are live. |
