What Search Engine Strategy is most Effective?
Today you must pay to gain advantage in any search engine as recent advertising statistics show. Search Engines -- 87% Links from other Sites -- 85% Printed Media -- 63% Word of Mouth -- 58% Newsgroups -- 32% E-mail -- 32% Television -- 32% Books -- 28%There are three ways:
1) You can pay directly to a search engine for listing ($40 to $399 US) but there is no guarantee you will get a favoured position, in fact you may just get a listing.
2) You can go to pay per click sites such as (Overture, Ask jeves) and pay a minimum monthly fee ($20 US per month) With services such as Overture, it is always clear what you are paying for.
3) Subscribe to an "adword type service" (such as on Google) where the cost is unknown until you get the bill. The major problem with this service is the inability to control costs like you can on the individual search terms (example, the string: "** .20" after a term locks you max bid on that term to 20 cents, regardless of what you have set for the group.) Without those kinds of controls, the cost per click is too unpredictable. In the end, it makes those prospects potentially very expensive. But the only way to understand the conversion rate of a product is to take the risk. It is a vicious cycle.