Google Adwords or Not

Two scenarios:

1. Your organic SEO has been so successful that you are now number one for most organic search terms you've been targeting
2. You have a brand new domain name and you have no traffic and want some fast

In either of the above, would you run Google Adwords?

Yes would be the qualified answer.

If you are top of the Organic listings, you are (unfortunately) not the first at the top of the page - if it is a relatively competitive keyword / phrase, you'll be number 4 with three Adwords / sponsored listings above you. The general Googler probably does not realise that these are paid for advertisements.

If you are wondering how to kick start your brand new domain name / web site - Google Adwords is a superb marketing tool and provides a marketing ROI on a par or normally way better than any other marketing method.

We are not currently a 'qualified' Adwords provider, but we have set up many campaigns on behalf of our clients. The key to a successful Adwords campaign is the same as an organic campaign, chosing relevant keywords, designing an advert for those keywords and providing a landing page for the relevant advert - rather than the home page.

We meet plenty of people who are shocked at the amount of money they are spending on their Adwords campaign. Many of them aren't sure whether it converts into anything and hence generating income. It is quite interesting to hear their feedback as we can normally identify a few keywords that aren't creating any business for them and save them money.

Another way of looking at it is that we remember running marketing programmes for generating seminar attendees - where we'd spend £10,000 on the whole programme for 200 'leads' (attendees). A different marketing budget altogether and nowhere near as cost effective as Adwords and puts things into perspective in the digital age.

Directory Listings and Pagerank

Google PageRank - the holy grail of search optimisation?

Maybe, maybe not. As always, no simple answers for anything related to search engine optimisation. Before Google, Yahoo ruled the Internet and they started out as an Internet Directory listing every web site that was available. I was first interested in the Internet in 1993 and they were absolutely dominant.

As the years passed, and Google reigned supreme, the listing of your web site in many directories was seen as an important way of boosting the importance of a web site through their backlinks in the eyes of Google's algorithm.

Until recently this was the case and I would always recommend a day sitting at a PC and searching for relevant places to ask for a link / pay for a directory link. Then quite recently they introduced the 'no follow' meta tag which means that if you pay for listings you should put this tag on so all search engines know that it is a paid for link and hence not give you any value.

So has that completely devalued the listing of your web site in directories? It has and it hasn't!! I still suggest it so you can have as broad a base as possible to promote your web site - even if you do not gain any additional Pagerank. Some directories do still add value to your Internet prescence. The most important is DMOZ. However, it is now practically impossible to get listed as it is a volunteer based system. The best method I have found is just to have yourself listed in a local listing with a general listing pending - ie never reviewed or listed!! The reason DMOZ is so important is that the directory is used in many other web sites - including as Google's directory.

Yahoo still has some value to it - but it does cost quite a lot of money for an annual listing. Not quite the philosophy it started with all those years ago.