Paying for Inclusion in Directories and Search Engines

Paying for Search Engine Listings
Along with directory PPI, nearly every spidering search engine has a PPI program in place (Lycos/FAST, AskJeeves/Teoma, AltaVista and all of the Inktomi-based engines). These programs ensure that specific pages within your site will be added to a search engine's database within a specified period of time (usually between 48 hours and seven days), and will also be respidered on a regular basis. Prices vary by engine and program from about $12 to $78 per URL for one year of inclusion.

Search engine PPI differs from directory PPI since the search engines gather the information from your actual Web page, as opposed to simply using the title and description that you submit to them. As with the directories, however, paying their fee will not affect your rankings in the results pages; it will ensure only that your page is somewhere in their database. It could be in the top ten, or it could be number one zillion and 12. It's up to you to optimize your site using all of the goodies I discuss in my search engine optimization articles and search engine marketing newsletter (High Rankings Advisor).

The good thing about these PPI programs is that your optimization efforts can be rewarded very quickly if you know what you're doing. It's a pleasure to be able to see the fruits of your labor in a mere 48 hours! These PPI programs also give you the opportunity of tweaking your page in hopes of improving your rankings.

Pay-Per-Click Ad Programs
Along with PPI programs, we also have PPC programs such as Overture, FindWhat and Sprinks. These programs are actually advertising campaigns, as opposed to traditional search engine optimization. You bid on certain keywords, and if you're among the top bidders, your ad will appear in the sponsored/featured section of many search engines and directories. Since many searchers believe these ads are actually relevant to their search, they can bring a lot of traffic. Even those who understand that they are ads may still click on them if they are highly relevant to their search query.

Google has its own unique PPC program called "AdWords Select." These ads appear along the right-hand side of the results pages. Bidding for keywords at Google is quite a bit different from programs such as Overture, although many of the basic principles remain the same. For more information on running a successful Google AdWords Select campaign, I recommend purchasing Andrew Goodman's special report entitled, "21 Techniques to Maximize Your Profits on Google AdWords Select."

The downside to PPC programs is that you'll need to spend a lot of time managing your bids to ensure that you're getting the best possible click price. It's also worth mentioning that once you stop paying for PPC keywords, your site will no longer be shown in the sponsored/featured listings, and you'll lose all your PPC traffic. Because of this, if you do choose to go the PPC route, you may also want to optimize your pages to appear in the "regular" results. This way if the expense of managing your PPC campaign is too high, you'll have your regular listings to fall back on.

Sourced By: MarketingFind.com

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