First consider how much the advertising will cost you per click. This all comes down to how popular the search terms are and how many visitors a website receives. Search engines typically require bids for particular places in the ad spots on particular pages. If you bid too low, you’re outta luck. If you bid too high, then you’ve got the spot but you’ve out-priced yourself. You’ve got to find a happy median, which takes time and careful analysis.

Also consider the fact that with PPC advertising, you could be charged for multiple clicks by the same users. Software like Google Analytics will typically alert you if this happens and you will need to contact the search engine to get your money back. Make sure your marketing company monitors this so you won’t end up spending extra dollars for the same person over and over again.

Keep in mind that search engine optimization (SEO), which is cheaper to implement, also works just as well as PPC advertising. Many times simple SEO may generate the same, if not more, people to your website than a banner ad. It may be beneficial to implement SEO marketing first before starting a PPC campaign to see just how well you may be from keyword searches alone.

As with any traffic driving tool, PPC advertising just drives traffic to your website. It can be rather chaotic determining how much of the traffic is actually useful traffic (that is people who are consuming your product or service). If only a few of the ten thousand clicks you paid for actually bought into your product, then you may need to re-evaluate your SEM campaign.

Using analytic software such as Google Analytics is the best way to monitor how effective your SEM campaign is working. While some companies may have great success with PPC advertising, be sure to evaluate the real cost of the investment to determine if it is a necessary endeavor.

To build your digital advertising campaign, there are a number of tactics you can use. One SEM tactic is search engine optimization (SEO), which is implementing popular keyword terms that relate to the content. This is way to generate organic search to your website and increase the number of page views.

Another tactic is to pay for ad space in the sponsored links spots on pages relating to your website (i.e. pay per click ads or PPC). This can be rather expensive and can costs several thousand dollars depending on the type of service your promoting (popular search terms cost more) and the number of clicks your link receives. There’s a bidding process with PPC ads making them difficult to obtain for a novice, so if you’re new to SEM you may be better off sticking with SEO keyword search.

Part of your SEM campaign should include link building, that is, quality websites that link to your website. A search engine will analyze the links to your website as well as the links of your links (i.e. link popularity). If you have good link building on your website, the search engine will page rank your site better in its listing. Remember that quality is more important over quantity. If you have questionable websites linking to your site then expect to the search engine to reject listing your website or list it near the bottom of searches.

No matter what you’re budget is, it is important to organize an SEM campaign for your website. SEM is the best way to reach your target customer and get the most out of your promotional expenditures.

Implementing SEO terms into web content seamlessly takes practice. Inexperienced writers will highlight words and use keyword search terms that seem out of place in the text. This can detract from the quality of your website. People are wary of websites that use bright bold texts and hard sell advertising, but people appreciate authenticity and simple, straightforward information. Using SEO terms in a simple, straight forward manner is an effective way to promote your website and get traffic.

You may be wondering how you can determine what SEO keyword search people are using. The best way to figure this out is to come up with a list of terms you would use if you were looking to come across a website (like the one you plan to create) with the information you need. Once you have created a list you can consult a program like Google AdWords Keyword Tool to see how many searches the terms you have are getting. Keywords that have a high number of searches are typically popular SEO terms. If you use popular SEO terms, then you can be sure that others are using them as well. This means more competition between your website and other sites with similar content as yours.

You generally want to choose SEO terms that have a lower amount of competition and that are as specific as possible. This can be a difficult median to reach, but is necessary to get the traffic you need to your website.

One of the keys to Google search results, is filtering legitimate web sites from sites that offer nothing to Google users. Most spammers register thousands of domain names and put up boilerplate content with little value added to the user’s knowledge. In their attempt to discern useful sites from copycat sites, Google relies on several factors including time a user spends on the site, bounce (does the user bail immediately after landing on the home page), and back links from other legitimate site owners.

In addition to usability metrics, Google also looks at the domain expiration date. Legitimate businesses tend to register their domains for 10 or more years, to prevent accidental deletion of the domain from their account. People who are trying to spam Google, typically register their domains for a single year. This allows those site operators to determine which domains get traffic and drop the domains that don’t make money.

If you are a small business owner, I would recommend you that your domain name is registered til at least 2013 (or beyond). This is an easy way to send a signal to Google that your company is real, provides value, and is not going away anytime in the near future.

In May, I began working with a Wedding Officiant in Buffalo, NY. Like most professionals, Sandra Hustead was using a non geo domain name for her primary business address. Sandra was kind enough to provide some articles for Local Expert’s wedding planning blog, so I decided to provide free SEO advice.

After a quick search on Google, I noticed that Sandra’s site was buried on page four in the search results for several key local search terms, commonly used by brides to find a wedding officiant. Cross referencing with GoDaddy, I found that both BuffaloOfficiant.com and BuffaloOfficiants.com were unregistered and available for Sandra to use as her primary online address. I sent Sandra this message:

“Sandra, I would register BuffaloOfficiant.com and BuffaloOfficiants.com and then build your site on this domain. My experience is if you provide quality content and link to this domain you should be able to secure the #1 position on Yahoo and Google whenever any bride searches for “Buffalo Officiant(s)”.

Sandra registered BuffaloOfficiants.com in May 2009. Tonight I did the same search on Google and was happy to see that Sandra’s site was #4 for the local search term “Buffalo Officiants”. While satisfied with the results, a quick scan of her Metatags indicated areas for quick improvement.

The current Metatags on BuffaloOfficiants.com:

<title>Welcome</title><meta name=“Keywords” content=“buffaloofficiants, officiants, weddings, marriage, services, non-denominational, minister, officiant, local officiants, ceremonies,civil,service” /><meta name=“Description” content=“I am available to perform your wedding ceremony in WNY. I absolutely love what I do!” />

This evening, I suggested changing the Metatag for BuffaloOfficiants.com to:

<title>Buffalo Officiant Sandra Hustead specializes in non-denominational wedding ceremonies</title><meta name=”Keywords” content=”buffalo officiants, officiants, weddings, marriage, services, non-denominational, minister, officiant, local officiants, ceremonies, civil, service” /><meta name=”Description” content=”Buffalo wedding officiant available to perform your wedding ceremony. I absolutely love what I do!” />

We can track Sandra’s progress and see if her site rises in the search results for the local search terms “buffalo officiants”, “buffalo officiants”, “buffalo wedding officiant”, and “buffalo wedding officiant”.

By changing to a geo domain, Sandra was able to rise from the back pages to the first page. Now, changing the meta-tags to provide better targeting, should help her achieve top billing in her local market.