Small Biz Web Exposure Blog

Many people with websites get into the game thinking that they can be a player right away, just by using simple, or even advanced SEO techniques.  JoesDiscountCars.com certainly carries the same weight with the almighty Google as AutoTrader.com does, right?  Get some good meta tags in place, whether Google looks at them or not (depends on who you ask), get a few hundred words of meaningful content on your home page, get some depth on your site, and you, too, can compete with the big boys in your space, even though it’s crowded with big boys, your site is new and no one has heard of you, right?  Riiiiigggghhht…..  And monkeys will fly out of my butt.  And for the recored, I know that there is a lot more to SEO than what I just mentioned above.  So, no comments.

But, there are ways to play with the big boys, and do it quickly, if you have a little bit of an advertising budget.  In all the major search engines, you can purchase a search result and get right on the front page with the biggest players in the game.  And you can do it 20 minutes after you flip the switch.  Pay-per-click advertising is the easiest way to get seen by a large audience who is looking to find what you’re selling.  And you can very easily narrow your market to the exact group you’re looking to target, in many cases out-positioning the big boys in doing so.  AutoTrader.com sells all over the United States, and maybe in international markets, whereas JoesDiscoutnCars.com sells in good old Scranton, PA.  While AutoTrader.com can reap the benefits of people clicking in from California, Alaska and Florida, JoesDiscountCars.com would really benefit from clicks coming in from Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and maybe even as far away as Allentown.  And with just a few enhancements to his PPC campaign, Joe is playing first base on the National Used Car Sellers softball team.

While you will never really be able to eliminate the competition in PPC, you can out-maneuver them by targeting a specific geographic location and by bidding on geographically-specific keywords.  Want to sell used cars in Scranton?  Joe can certainly bid on “used cars”, but it’s gonna cost him about $20 per click, or maybe even more, to be seen in the top 5 positions, let alone #1.  And really, the potential to get clicks from all over the world is far too great, even if Joe puts his location in the ad.  And Joe doesn’t want that.  Joe just wants to get the word out to the local yokels who are looking to purchase his fine, previously-owned merchandise.  By bidding on “scranton used cars” and keywords like it, now Joe has the opportunity to rub elbows with AutoTrader.com.  They are still likely to be around, as it’s very possible they have lists upon lists of possible geographic locations to bid on,  and use dynamic keyword insertion to throw up a specific ad for each of those keywords.  But, you’re there.  And User X may see the AutoTrader ad right next to yours, but with some clever ad copy, you have just as good of a chance of getting that click as they do.  And for FAR less than if you just bid on “used cars.”  And over time, as SEO starts to really take off, you can lower that PPC spend so you don’t compete against yourself, and pay for clicks you might have gotten organically.

Now, how does this bridge the gap between obscurity and SEO success?  When a new website jumps into the mix, it has lots of things stacked against it.  First off it needs to be indexed.  While this can happen quickly, you’re at the mercy of the search engines as to when it will happen.  You can’t just call in and order up and indexing.  Once that’s done, you have prove your worth to the search engines.  If you don’t, you’ll remain in obscurity forever.  Once you start gaining some relevancy mojo, you need to show the search engines that not only are you relevant, but you are MORE relevant than every other site.  Besides obtaining links into your site, this is the most difficult task you have on your plate.  In the case of search engines, sites are irrelevant until proven otherwise.  Through hard work and determination, any site has a chance to rank very high, even in some very competitive markets.  But, it can take years for that kind of success, and while you’re waiting for that success, however you measure it, to come, you can fill in the gaps, get  seen and even help out your SEO efforts by potentially getting people to link to your site.

And if you have the budget to spend, why not start that walk across the bridge?

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 10th, 2010 at 11:34 pm and is filed under Pay-Per-Click. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.