The fact is, anyone can get “on the first page” of Google by simply opening an Adwords account and paying the market rate for a given keyword. Sure enough, your ad will appear somewhere on the first page of results among the SPONSORED listings–probably not what you had in mind when you forked over your hard-earned $600!  The promise of getting listed “on the first page of Google” is presumed to mean getting listed on the first page of natural search results.  The way these shady firms hide behind semantics calls to mind the character Benny Gibbs, who in the movie “Trial and Error” was a con man accused of fraudulently advertising copper engravings of Abraham Lincoln for $17.99.  Customers did in fact receive a copper “engraving” of Abraham Lincoln which, by the way, also happened to be a copper penny!  Sometimes semantics makes all the difference in the world.

The harsh reality is that achieving a true top ranking in the organic search results is most often neither cheap nor easy.  This is not to say that it’s impossible or takes forever; just that it isn’t likely to happen in a few days.  Part of this has to do with how the search engines work.  Google, for example, looks for one-way links, or “backlinks”, from relevant¹ authority sites.  But link-building campaigns, even when aggressively pursued, often start out slow. Webmasters must see the value in your content, which presumes you have content and plenty of it.  They must see how a link to your site adds value to their own.  It’s a process that starts by contacting one webmaster at a time.

So when considering paying an “expert” to accelerate your ranking in the search engines don’t be afraid to press the sales rep for clarification on exactly what is being promised.  Ask clarifying questions and get things in writing.  A little due diligence goes a long way when your hard-earned dollars are at stake.

^{1. Not all externally linking sites must be relevant in subject matter so long as they are quality sites; but all things equal, a link from a relevant site is preferred.}

This toolbar is a tracking program that records the URL’s of all websites visited from that particular browser and transmits this information to Alexa, where it is then used to compute a ranking for each recorded site. This is known as a site’s “Alexa Rank”.

Why is a site’s Alexa rank important?
Forecasting the response rate to an ad on a particular website requires knowing how much traffic the site receives. In theory, Alexa’s rank does just that. It provides a statistical ‘best guess’ based on information from actual web surfers. Some pay-per-click networks offer Alexa’s information as a resource for assessing the relative strength of various websites in terms of traffic received.

Is Alexa accurate?
There has been some controversy over Alexa’s methodology. Some critics feel that too little is known about the size of the sample population from which the tracking information is obtained. There is also some question as to what extent the web surfing behavior of the sample population is representative of that of internet users in general. In theory, given a sample population that is both random enough in its distribution and large enough in size, there is the possibility that Alexa’s ranking system is accurate.

Alexa’s ranking system is probably best be viewed as just one of many tools available to internet advertisers.

Now, just to be clear, the ads we’re describing are the ones that typically appear in a fixed location on a website, often near the top or side of a page. They’re sold in quantities of ‘1000′ at a time, and are for the most very untargeted. An exception to this general description would involve placing a banner ad for a very specific product or service on an equally specific website. For example: an ad for microscopes on a site that rates and reviews microscopes–pretty targeted.

But the fact is, people are beyond desensitized to banner ads. The problem is that for so long, these ads have been irrelevant to the subject matter at hand. Someone reading about acne cures isn’t likely to care about a banner ad for a cell phone plan.

What about targeting?
Obviously, the biggest knock on traditional banner ads is that they are untargeted and therefore largely ineffective. But Google and many other search engines offer contextual banner ads on a pay-per-click basis. So, for example, a user types in the keyword “Software” and then visits a website that appeared in the list of search results. The ad is then displayed somewhere on the corresponding page.

Does this type of contextual ad cost more?
Yes, these types of ads will be more expensive even when they’re purchased on a pay-per-click basis simply because the space they take up could otherwise be sold in smaller ad units for greater profit. Some math has to be done to determine the viability of a banner ad campaign. The best way to start is small. Test, deploy, re-test.

Pay-per-click is especially useful for start-up websites, or for websites that have not been optimized for the search engines. It can take months or even years to rise in the search engine rankings for certain keywords. But who has that kind of time or patience? A pay-per-click campaign offers the possibility of top placement…for the right price.

So how does the Google quality score affect my cost-per-click (CPC)?

Most pay-per-click programs operate on a bidding system. The more popular a keyword, the more intense the competition, the higher the bid price. But wait, not everyone pays the same amount per-click for the same ad position. Google calculates a “quality score” for the landing page that is linked to the ad. Landing pages that are determined to have the greatest relevancy receive the highest quality score. The higher the quality score, the lower the cost per click. So when designing a landing page, pay particular attention to the keywords and content. The keywords used to trigger the pay-per-click ad should be relevant to the content of the landing page.
How to come up with relevant keywords, you ask?
A good tool to use when trying to come up with relevant keywords for your pay-per-click campaign is the Google Keyword Tool. Just type in a keyword and the tool will automatically come up with a list of keyword suggestions including statistics on monthly search volume and intensity of competition for each keyword or key phrase. As a general rule, the competition for a single keyword will be far more intense than that of a key phrase consisting of two or more words–e.g., “Cars” versus “Used Cars in Seattle”.

Other considerations for any pay-per-click campaign include budgeting, testing and tracking.