SEO Blog Post- Week 6 (Pay Per Click)

For this week of class, I read about Pay Per Click campaigns related to search engine optimization. I learned about the material from http://www.seocertification.org, which is a very informative site that offers bundles of information regarding SEO. Moreover, PPC campaigns are advertising campaigns that run on search engine result pages. Payment is based on the number of times an ad is clicked on the results page. Even more, PPC is the only form of online advertising where media is sold exclusively on clicks and not on impressions or actions. I found it interesting that PPC campaigns are all paid placements, but offer the best opportunity to generate traffic for a website.

There are three major players in the PPC Campaign arena:

1. Google: Google Adwords
• Considered the best in the industry 
• Can invest any amount
• Ads are added automatically 
2. Yahoo: Yahoo PPC Ads
• Defined minimum level for every single element of advertising ($.10)
• Human editors review your keywords and site, as opposed to ads being added automatically
3. Bing 

I also thought it was important to understand how to set up a PPC Campaign after learning about the benefits they offered. In short, it is critical to monitor keyword selection, bidding strategies, advertising text, and landing pages when creating a PPC Campaign. For example, bidding strategies could include Atlas One Point, BidRank, or PPC Pro. On the other hand, advertising text may include the title of your campaign and the ad text used. Further, landing pages make webpages attractive and motivate visitors to visit and possibly view your PPC Campaign. 

Overall, I have learned PPC Campaigns offer insight on how to efficiently track and monitor the success of a website's traffic or success. The following list includes some of the most impactful ideas that I took away from the reading I did this week:

• Google has the greatest overall reach, but Yahoo tends to have the highest conversion rates for PPC Campaigns
• Many experts recommend to use both Google Adwords and Yahoo PPC Ads simultaneously 
• Usage data that is generated from a website is often the most important research to analyze 
• Keyword level tracking systems should be used to distinguish which PPC search engine results in the most cost effective option and best converting visitor rate