What keywords do I choose for search engine advertising? I have created many websites and with each one, the process of selecting target keywords is not easy. At first thought, any webmaster would like to target the highest paying and most searched keywords. This is a bad idea? Why you ask? Well think about your search engine competition. Let’s use a topic of ice cream for a website. You build a website with everything related to ice cream. From cones, to sundaes to manufacturers, anything ice cream related is listed. The website is done, and you expect visitors. You submit the website to some search engines or even use a submission service. This process takes time so to get immediate advertising, a Webmaster might decide to use keyword advertising using the CPC method.
What is PPC and CPC? Before advertising you need to understand how the system works. Search engines such as Google use a CPC system or Cost Per Click. The system allows you to bid on specific keywords and search terms. If you have ever searched major search engines, you will notice ad boxes or sponsored links on top or to the right side of the results list. This is what you will be bidding on. Your ad will appear next to search engine results. Each time a visitor to the search engine or someone in their content network clicks on your site, you are charged for that click.
What keywords to pick? There are millions of keywords searched each month on search engines. But what keywords should be bid on? The obvious ones are NOT what you should even look at. The first one to come to mind is ice cream. But think about it. Who is your competition? Major companies and manufacturers with huge advertising budgets. Will you be able to handle the keyword bidding war with them? Big companies can afford to spend several dollars per keyword click. Small webmasters cannot keep pace with these types of advertisers.
Beat them with the leftovers. Big companies take the top XX keywords. So do Webmasters who blow their whole ad budget in a week. So how does this affect you?. There are so many other keywords searched that with the leftovers, you can attract many visitors. Big companies can afford to attract the masses with their huge advertising budgets. Do not compete with them on these keywords. Find other search terms that might be searched only 100 times a month. If you can get these particular search keywords for dirt-cheap prices, the collectively will help you with quality targeted visitors.
Where do I find top Search Engine keywords? There are many resources on the web that will help you find these keywords. One most often used is Overture.com and GoodKeywords.com. With these sites you can see the most search keywords for any subject and get an idea on what the keywords will cost per click. Using these two resources will get you started. Also the search engines themselves have wonderful tools to help you decide which keywords to pick.
