Friday, October 31, 2008

How Keywords Can Help Your Pay Per Click Advertising

By Brian Basch

A good list of keywords is vital for a successful pay per click campaign. You should be diligent in your research and attempt to find the best keywords. Try to compile a substantial list and leave no stone unturned to be successful.

You may be puzzled about how you can do this. Let us use a keyword like "loan" for our example. This is a well searched keyword. Because it is also very saturated it is hard to get a good placement with it. Extending your keyword research will earn you some better placements.

Think of different way that your word might be interpreted. For instance, someone searching for the word "loan" might be looking for information on how to get a loan, what do do if their loan is in trouble, how to buy a house, or how to get a good loan with bad credit. Condense these concepts down into keywords that are related to your base keyword. For instance: "bad credit loan", "house loan", "getting loan" and "refinancing loan" are all possible options.

All these keywords are small variations on your original keyword. You can research them and find more niche keywords. In fact there are so many different loans to be had. Put these keywords together with your initial list and look at all the different keywords you have made from your original keyword.

You could even create an ad group made up entirely of the names of lenders. Want to take this a little further? Add an extension like .com, .org, or the extension of a country you're targeting to the end. Even if there's no such domain, you'll encounter people who've type this information into a search engine. They'll see your ads, and increase your chances of a click.

It's best to avoid general keywords, since there's so much competition for them. Instead, take it a little further, and expand on terms that are related to your general word. Rephrase various terms, too. "Bad credit loan" can easily be rephrased as "loan bad credit" to reach a different set of searchers.

Campaigns and keywords can be created around the different search keywords that your potential buyers will be looking for. It is wise to try all sorts of different keywords and phrases as searchers can use a wide variety of keywords and phrases.

Think about using domain names, product and serial numbers, and even plurals and misspellings of words as a springboard for your keyword list. Think about eliminating spaces between words - this is a common typing mistake that results in a large number of searches.

Use company names and domain names, as well as variations on them. Think about using superlatives like "best" or "cheapest", and remember that there may be spelling variations in different countries.

You should also use keywords from your web logs. These are good as the stats will show which keywords visitors are using to find your site.

A good keyword list is the foundation for a successful pay per click campaign. To ensure your success, explore all your options before you decide on the words you're going to target. - 16003

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