Yesterday, Google updated the Google Suggest search box. Google Suggest proposes or completes a keyword when someone is searching on Google. The two most interesting development are the ‘Navigational suggestions’ and ‘Sponsored links in suggestions’

 

Navigational suggestion not only proposes a keyword to you but also provides a direct link to a website. For example, if you enter ‘cra’ in Google search box, Google will put forward a link to Craigslist.

 

 

The second unusual update, is the sponsored link suggestion. Very similar to the ‘Navigational suggestion’, Google proposes a commercial link to your search inside the search box. This PPC ad on the Google search box is a little bit too much. Google is clearly trying to make easy money but I think that Google’s success is based on the fact that the user is not bombarded with advertising (and never on the first page)! With this update it is not really the case anymore.

 

 

I think that Google should focus more on the user experience, to retain traffic to make profit with the regular PPC, instead of focusing on where they can place some ads

Online Marketing, PPC, Search Engine 1 Comment May 21st, 2009

Today we have over a thousand confirmed cases of swine flu around the globe. The swine flu is huge news event covered comprehensively by the different medias (TV, Press, Radio…) and a large part of the population wants more information on it.

 

Based on Google traffic estimation, there were over three million online searches in April 2009 for keywords relevant to the swine flu.

 

 

The weird thing is that Google is making an incredible amount of money with this enormous number of searches via its Pay per Click (PPC) service. For example in England, the NHS (National Health Service) and the Directgov (official site of the English government) are the top PPC results, many others also bet on swine flu related keywords, the face masks manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, online newspapers et.c.

 

 

With an average of $0.5 per click, over 140 bidders and three million monthly searches you can guess how much money Google is making.

Online Marketing, PPC, Search Engine 2 Comments May 18th, 2009

How do you bring traffic to your website via a pay per click (PPC) campaign? It is actually pretty effortless and very easy to do.

 

The principle is simple, just select cheap and high volume keywords. Generally, if a keyword is highly searched the cost per acquisition is important. But the idea here is to look for new high volume keywords.

 

The best way to do that is to have a look at Google trends (Today’s Hot Trends) and select the most relevant keywords to your website. Another good website is YouTube (Top Video, Most popular etc…). Or you can just go to your news website (BBC, Yahoo, etc) for an update on the latest hot topics.

 

 

After I recommend having a quick look at Google Keyword estimation in order to see the CPC and volume estimation (generally you should avoid using generic words inside your keyword).

 

It is easy to get a keyword like, for example, ‘Britains Got Talent’,or even ‘Susan Boyle’, for $5 cents per click.

 

 

If you are a news and/or video blog it is very useful way of developing your traffic at a low cost and to show to your audience that you are at the top of the trends!

PPC, Search Engine No Comments April 28th, 2009

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