How can I get my site to show up on the first page of Google?

I have come up with a a way to explain how Google PPC works and how to approach the purchase of PPC advertising, this list is designed to quickly help clients understand how to purchase PPC advertizing and make it easier for me to help them make smart cost effective decisions.

  • Review
    1. Review current website with regards to
      1. Organic Search
      2. Usability
      3. Messaging
      4. W3C*  Standards
  • Competitive Analysis
    1. Review competitors websites to determine
      1. Content Quality
      2. Messaging
      3. Ad-words, Ad-sense, and other PPC (pay-per-click) expenditures (we have tools for this)
  • Goal Setting
    1. Work with client to determine goals for the ad campaign
  • Budget
    1. Based on competitors expenditures, and key word choices we recommend a budget
  • Campaign Creation
    1. Setup ad campaign with various services, Google, MSN, Yahoo, Hotmail, and various other services
  • Tracking
    1. Install Google Analytics on clients website
    2. Install server based stat program on web server (webalizer, urchin etc)
  • Recommendations
    1. Based on results of web-traffic and conversions; make recommendations to client on budget, PPC locations, and ad-words.
    2. Determine ROI for current campaign and make adjustments based on success and budget.

    How does this all work? (google)

      • Cost: The costs associated with your typical PPC campaign can vary dramatically based on the words or phrases you wish to purchase, the location that you purchase them in and what your competitors are paying for those words or phrases.  Google uses an auction and budget format to charge for their PPC services, Below is an example of how Google sets the price for the word "Condo"
      • Location: where do you want to purchase the word, if you just want your ad to appear in Seattle, your cost would be less than if you wanted your ad appear nationally.
      • Popularity: if your word is popular, with your competitors the price will be higher than if it is specific or unique, for example 2 different entities are interested in purchasing the same word, the person that is willing to pay more gets first position on the page, until their budget is used up. If you are the only person that wants to buy a specific word then your cost would be very low, an example of this is “Condo” vs “Paul Fasel”  Paul Fasel is very unique and no one but Paul Fasel would want to bid on that phrase. While “CONDO” is very popular, and thus would be very costly to purchase.
      • Budget: you pay for views and clicks until your budget is used up, for example you have a $500.00 per month budget, and you are willing to spend 17.00 per day for your word in the Seattle area, you are willing to pay up to $1.00 per click for your word. This means that you will get at least 17 clicks per day before your ad disappears from the page, you may get more if your competitors budget is less and they have used up all of their clicks but the minimum you get is 17 clicks at $1.00 each.  If you do not get 17 clicks that day your budget rolls over to the next day, at the end of the month you only pay for the clicks that you use. If you only got 400 clicks in the month you only pay $400.00 for that month.
      • Management: After the initial setup the management fee includes monthly analysis of campaign success and tweaking of ad-words and phrases, and emailing of a simple report showing what words preformed well, and what words did not, along with budget and recommendations as how to change your campaign to optimize success.

      *W3C – World Wide Web Consortium www.w3c.org, they are the standards governing body for all websites, web code and browsers. To ensure your site is visible to search engines and your customers, the more compliant your site is the better it will perform in both search engine ranking and in your customer’s browsers. Click here to read more about W3C and how if can affect your search engine ranking.