When you choose key words for search engine optimization of your web site, it's a good idea to choose general keywords that will draw a lot of exposure. After all, you aren't paying for each site visitor, so the more the better. For example, the keyword "internet marketing" gets about 22 million searches per month. This is a very general keyword, but the idea with free searches is to draw even a small portion of these prospects to your site. Since it's free, the more the merrier.



Long Tail Key Words

However, when you are paying per click, your strategies should be different. General keywords draw lots of clicks (that you pay for) but usually result in low conversion rates as they draw people with a very wide variety of needs. A better way is to use more specific keywords. Less people will see this but those who do will be far more likely to buy. For example, if you set up a pay per click campaign for the keyword "internet marketing", you would show your ad to about 22 million web surfers a month. This would be very expensive if used in a pay per click campaign. How do you choose successful long tail keywords that will draw a crowd of better prospects without making you pay for thousands of tire kickers?

Number Of Impressions

Long tail keywords draw less impressions and may seem "puny" when you look down a list of words. We are often mesmerized by key words with millions of impressions per month. The truth is that a long tail keyword that is specialized to your service is far more profitable. Remember, keywords that get 3,000 impressions per month get 100 per day. If you get 4% of the people to visit your landing page, that means 4 visits per day. If you get 10 specialized keywords at 100 per day, you are getting 40 visits per day at a much lower cost.

Cost Of Clicks

Smart keywords mean much lower cost per click. For example, the keyword "internet marketing" gets about 1 million impressions per month. To be listed in the top three results costs about $6.10 per click. However, the key word "internet marketing system" gets about 2,000 impressions per month costs only $2.40 per click to be in the top 3 positions. That's about 66% off the cost of advertising AND if you sell an internet marketing system, you will get leads that are much more qualified and ready to buy that those who click in from the general keyword.

Higher Percentage Of Clicks Lowers Your Cost Per Click

Another benefit of really focused keywords is that Google actually rewards you for high click through rates by raising your position in their results without charging more. Conversely, they charge you more per click of your ad draws a low percentage of clicks per impression. For example with the general keyword "internet marketing", you may get less than .5% of the impressions to click. With "internet marketing systems" assuming you sell such a system, you may get 2% to 4% click through rates. Google will adjust your position accordingly. High click through rates move you up and low click through rates move you down in the results position. A good indicator of your success is your click through percentage. The higher the better. We recommend that you bid enough to be in the 5th position. After a few days, if your click through percentage is high, Google may have moved you up to the third or forth position at no extra cost. This gives you a huge advantage over your competitors.

Different Ads For Different Needs

Many of our clients do not have enough ad groups in their campaigns. We suggest separate ad groups that address specific needs and specific keywords. In our current example, let's assume you have an ad group for "Internet Marketing System" but you also want to use the keyword "systems that sell online". You will find that a separate ad group works using those keywords in the headline work best. You can't fit both keywords in one ad, so we suggest different ad groups that have ads with the keyword used by the prospect to find you is in the headline of the ad. This always results in much higher click through rates,

Different Landing Pages

With ad groups designed for specific key words, you can now build separate landing pages for different keywords. Landing pages where the page headline matches the headline in the ad are much more successful. Ads with a headline the same as the keyword used to find you are far more effective as well. In our example with "internet marketing system", an ad that starts with "Internet Marketing Systems" will draw much better than any other headline. A landing page with the title and headline "Internet Marketing Systems" will also be far more successful because people looking for "internet marketing systems" will feel they have finally found what they are looking for. Most visitors will not read your page if the headline does not address their interest.

Choose more specific three or four word keyword phrases and you will make money with pay per click advertising. If you stick to general words, you will get lots of impressions and lots more clicks but your clicks will cost more and sell less.