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SWeCS NEWSLETTER - 6 September 2004
- Sensis Bidsmart Launched
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You may have seen the TV advertisements about the new Australian search engine Sensis.com.au, which also provides results for the Telstra and Bigpond websites. Sensis have now launched their Pay Per Click service, which allows you to advertise at the top of their results on a "pay per click" basis. That is, you are listed for free, but pay a certain amount per click when someone visits your website. So what are the details of the new Sensis Pay Per Click option (called Bidsmart)? It works very similar to Overture Australia (which provides results for Yahoo, Altavista, and NineMSN). For the majority of search terms, the minimum bid is $0.10 per click. However, there are higher minimums for more competitive keywords. If you wish to bid on terms that are traditionally much more popular (eg. "flowers"), you might find that the minimum bid is raised to perhaps $0.50 or even $1.00 per click. It also works similar to Google Adwords in the sense that they rank sites according to a combination of bid price AND your advertisements popularity. So, even if you bid a lower price that your competitors, if your ad is popular and clicked on a lot, it can end up being listed higher. Only time will tell whether the new Sensis search engine will be worth using. If the end user can't find what they're looking for, they won't go back to it. But in the meantime, as it costs nothing to be listed, it's worthwhile considering opening up an account and having your site listed there. That way, if web searches do switch to Sensis and stick with it, you'll be up the top of the results. And like with all Pay Per Click campaigns, you know that you only get traffic that is relevant to your business - your listing doesn't show up unless someone has searched for your particular product or service. To find out more about Bidsmart, or to sign up for a free account, visit www.bidsmart.com.au. If you find managing your Pay Per Click campaigns all a bit too much, our Pay Per Click Management service has been extended to cover Sensis at no extra cost. More information can be found at www.southwestecommerce.com/ppc.htm.
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This fortnight's question comes from Gary: "I understand that it can be hard to get your website ranking high for certain keywords, but even when I type in my Business Name, my site isn't listed in Google at all. Why!?" There could be a number of reasons why your site has not been included in Google. First of all, to be completely sure that your site isn't listed at all, do a search for a unique phrase of text that is on your website, and make sure that you use inverted commas. For example, if on your home page you have the words 'PO Box 2340, Bunbury', then try searching for "PO Box 2340, Bunbury" (including the inverted commas, which ensures Google searches for those words in that exact order). This will really narrow down the results, and you will be able to see if your site is in the Google database or not. If it's not, the main reason for this is usually because your website has no websites linking to it. Google are well known for not listing websites in their database unless they have at least one, or sometimes at least 4 or 5, websites that link to it. Not only is this necessary for the Google software to locate your site in the first place, but it also indicates to Google that your site is popular enough to be listed. Although Google has over 1 billion webpages in it's directory, there are many billions of others that aren't listed. So try to build as many incoming links as possible to your website, from reputable sites, and then search again after about a month. If you still aren't listed, then this can be a sign that your website has been banned for some reason. At this point you may wish to either contact Google direct or perhaps seek professional advice from a search engine ranking specialist.
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If you're looking for photos to use on your website or other marketing material, there is a website at www.istockphoto.com that supplies great photos from as little as US$0.50 each. You have to purchase a minimum of US$10 in credits to open an account, but when that's done, you can search through their database of over 115,000 images and download photos that you are then free to use for commercial purposes.
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Here are some error messages that might be a bit more useful sometimes...
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Browse through the SWeCS Ecommerce Library, full of FREE information about getting more out of the Internet. Sections include Web Site Development, Web Site Promotion & Internet Marketing, Online Commerce, Computer & Technical Issues, and Miscellaneous.
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www.dunsboroughbayvillageresort.com/news/newsindex.htm www.west-oz.com/newsletter/newsletter.asp
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