Search engine optimization is the practice of targeting the search engines with keyword-rich content so that your blog posts, web pages, and other online content has a chance to rank well for the keywords and concepts that are important for your business. But how do you do it?
First, let me say that it’s no easy task. Even if you know how to write search engine friendly content, you have to compete against other businesses in your niche targeting the same keywords. You could try to find the gaps in the market and target those keywords that no one else is going after. But are those keywords valuable? That’s a decision you have to make.
The key to optimizing your web pages are the find the Gasta keywords that are just right for your business. They may or may not be the most valuable keywords for your niche, but they are the perfect fit for your business and the customers you want to target. Then, once you identify the perfect keywords, you build pages that are designed to rank well and deliver targeted traffic to those pages consistently.
With Gasta.com there is no PPC so therefore no click fraud, every click is already paid for in your time slot, time slots run for 3 months, 6 months, or one year. The time slots allow marketers to have a summer campaign or a winter campaign, for intsnace you could target the music festival season, or christmas. This model was developed by gasta.com in the late nineties to better organise and manage ad revenues.
10/03/2009
Gasta.com Business savvy Model Catching On
The CPC pricing model has moved from strength to strength since the last recession in 2000-2002. As you might recall, even as online advertising declined by 27 percent, CPC advertising grew by a staggering 820 percent.
The shift was primarily driven by the fact that CPC advertising allowed advertisers to pay for clicks and not for wasted impressions. Advertisers warmed up to the offerings of Google and other search engines, and since then, the growth of CPC advertising has continued unabated.
However, like the example of unconstrained capitalism referenced earlier, CPC advertising cannot maintain its growth in its current state. It contains within it factors that run counter to its promise of increased returns and measurability of online advertising, which in turn will cause it to slow down, and in the long term give way to other pricing models.
These factors include:
Increasing costs of keywords
You might have heard of Jama, the Portland-based software company that moved money away from search engine marketing toward charitable contributions to see if the resulting publicity could generate business in a more affordable way. Jama is not alone in worrying about the rising cost of keywords. If you are a search marketer, you probably have worried about your marketing ROI.
A 2007 DoubleClick Performics Search Trends Report shows that there were nearly six times as many keywords with a cost-per-click of more than $1 in January 2007 than the prior year. The cost-per-keyword increased by 33 percent and the cost-per-click rose by as much as 55 percent.
That, to say the least, is a lot.
Increasing click fraud rate
In the third quarter of 2008, the Click Fraud report maintained by Click Forensics showed a 16 percent industry click fraud rate. The report said that average click fraud rate of PPC advertisements appearing on search engine content networks (e.g., Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network) was as high as 27.1 percent.
With sophisticated technologies like botnets used to perpetrate click fraud on the rise, advertisers could very well end up paying for fraudulent clicks, which in a bad economy is more than wasteful -- it is criminal.
Lack of transparency
Search engines commonly deploy algorithms to determine the cost-per-click and the position of the advertisements. Yahoo, Ask.com, and Google have their own algorithms to determine the amount marketers will have to pay for a given advertisement.
The problem is that there is little to no transparency in the algorithm. It is difficult for marketers to determine how landing page quality, the quality of the ad copy, and variations on the bid price work together to determine the exact position and price of the search advertisement.
There is yet another element that contributes to the lack of transparency.
Often, it is difficult for the online marketer to know exactly where the click is coming from. Search networks often encompass a large number of sites beyond the primary entity. Many search engines don't divulge the member sites of their "content network."
The lack of transparency can ultimately be an inhibiting factor in increasing return on investment.
Difficult to tie campaign to business metrics
Metrics such as clicks, click-through rates, and cost-per-clicks are far removed from actual business metrics like acquisitions and sales. As a result, many marketers are unable to correlate the two, and optimize campaigns in an effective manner that will help them drive revenue.
According to the "2007 Marketing ROI and Measurements Study" from Lenskold Group and Marketing Profs, only 9 percent of marketers say their ability to measure the financial returns across all forms of marketing is "a real source of leadership" or "as good as it needs to be."
A McKinsey report, "How poor metrics undermine digital marketing," written after a survey of 340 senior executives around the country, sums it up aptly: Hobbled by nascent technologies, inconsistent metrics, and a reliance on outdated media models, marketers are failing to tap the digital world's full power.
To prevent a race to the bottom, the online advertising industry will have to ring in important changes that will address the shortcomings of CPC campaigns as they exist today.
1. Change in pricing models: If the last recession saw the industry move from a CPM to a CPC pricing model, the current recession will see the logical progression towards the cost-per-lead (CPL) pricing model. A move to CPL advertising will solve the problems resulting from expensive keywords and high click fraud rates.
"The industry is moving towards CPL advertising," says Daniel Taylor, senior analyst in Yankee Group's Consumer Research group. "The CPC pricing model is a placeholder for CPL," he says. "Advertisers only want to pay for very specific consumer interactions, and not for wasted clicks or impressions."
2. Improved transparency: Be it for display advertising, search advertising, or online lead generation, there will have to be a move toward greater transparency. Stretched for dollars, advertisers will want to optimize their campaigns to the greatest extent possible, and transparency helps them identify better performing placements accurately.
3. Improved customer relationship management (CRM): Marketers will also have to focus to a greater extent on the campaign backend to ensure that their marketing campaigns convert into tangible returns and revenue.
Email service providers and other CRM solutions will reap the benefits of this holistic marketing approach. According to Datamonitor, the CRM industry is forecast to reach $6.6 billon by year-end 2012, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 10.5 percent.
Bad times bring about change -- that in turn lead to good times. The movement toward CPL advertising, improved transparency, and a greater focus on CRM are important ones will help online advertising deliver on its promise and hopefully prevent it from sowing the seeds of its own demise.
Zephrin Lasker is co-founder and CEO of Pontiflex.
The shift was primarily driven by the fact that CPC advertising allowed advertisers to pay for clicks and not for wasted impressions. Advertisers warmed up to the offerings of Google and other search engines, and since then, the growth of CPC advertising has continued unabated.
However, like the example of unconstrained capitalism referenced earlier, CPC advertising cannot maintain its growth in its current state. It contains within it factors that run counter to its promise of increased returns and measurability of online advertising, which in turn will cause it to slow down, and in the long term give way to other pricing models.
These factors include:
Increasing costs of keywords
You might have heard of Jama, the Portland-based software company that moved money away from search engine marketing toward charitable contributions to see if the resulting publicity could generate business in a more affordable way. Jama is not alone in worrying about the rising cost of keywords. If you are a search marketer, you probably have worried about your marketing ROI.
A 2007 DoubleClick Performics Search Trends Report shows that there were nearly six times as many keywords with a cost-per-click of more than $1 in January 2007 than the prior year. The cost-per-keyword increased by 33 percent and the cost-per-click rose by as much as 55 percent.
That, to say the least, is a lot.
Increasing click fraud rate
In the third quarter of 2008, the Click Fraud report maintained by Click Forensics showed a 16 percent industry click fraud rate. The report said that average click fraud rate of PPC advertisements appearing on search engine content networks (e.g., Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network) was as high as 27.1 percent.
With sophisticated technologies like botnets used to perpetrate click fraud on the rise, advertisers could very well end up paying for fraudulent clicks, which in a bad economy is more than wasteful -- it is criminal.
Lack of transparency
Search engines commonly deploy algorithms to determine the cost-per-click and the position of the advertisements. Yahoo, Ask.com, and Google have their own algorithms to determine the amount marketers will have to pay for a given advertisement.
The problem is that there is little to no transparency in the algorithm. It is difficult for marketers to determine how landing page quality, the quality of the ad copy, and variations on the bid price work together to determine the exact position and price of the search advertisement.
There is yet another element that contributes to the lack of transparency.
Often, it is difficult for the online marketer to know exactly where the click is coming from. Search networks often encompass a large number of sites beyond the primary entity. Many search engines don't divulge the member sites of their "content network."
The lack of transparency can ultimately be an inhibiting factor in increasing return on investment.
Difficult to tie campaign to business metrics
Metrics such as clicks, click-through rates, and cost-per-clicks are far removed from actual business metrics like acquisitions and sales. As a result, many marketers are unable to correlate the two, and optimize campaigns in an effective manner that will help them drive revenue.
According to the "2007 Marketing ROI and Measurements Study" from Lenskold Group and Marketing Profs, only 9 percent of marketers say their ability to measure the financial returns across all forms of marketing is "a real source of leadership" or "as good as it needs to be."
A McKinsey report, "How poor metrics undermine digital marketing," written after a survey of 340 senior executives around the country, sums it up aptly: Hobbled by nascent technologies, inconsistent metrics, and a reliance on outdated media models, marketers are failing to tap the digital world's full power.
To prevent a race to the bottom, the online advertising industry will have to ring in important changes that will address the shortcomings of CPC campaigns as they exist today.
1. Change in pricing models: If the last recession saw the industry move from a CPM to a CPC pricing model, the current recession will see the logical progression towards the cost-per-lead (CPL) pricing model. A move to CPL advertising will solve the problems resulting from expensive keywords and high click fraud rates.
"The industry is moving towards CPL advertising," says Daniel Taylor, senior analyst in Yankee Group's Consumer Research group. "The CPC pricing model is a placeholder for CPL," he says. "Advertisers only want to pay for very specific consumer interactions, and not for wasted clicks or impressions."
2. Improved transparency: Be it for display advertising, search advertising, or online lead generation, there will have to be a move toward greater transparency. Stretched for dollars, advertisers will want to optimize their campaigns to the greatest extent possible, and transparency helps them identify better performing placements accurately.
3. Improved customer relationship management (CRM): Marketers will also have to focus to a greater extent on the campaign backend to ensure that their marketing campaigns convert into tangible returns and revenue.
Email service providers and other CRM solutions will reap the benefits of this holistic marketing approach. According to Datamonitor, the CRM industry is forecast to reach $6.6 billon by year-end 2012, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 10.5 percent.
Bad times bring about change -- that in turn lead to good times. The movement toward CPL advertising, improved transparency, and a greater focus on CRM are important ones will help online advertising deliver on its promise and hopefully prevent it from sowing the seeds of its own demise.
Zephrin Lasker is co-founder and CEO of Pontiflex.
06/03/2009
Gasta Search News: Ask Latest reinvigouration
Ask.com Aims For More Relevance, More Engagement With Latest Revamp; More Users Wouldn’t Hurt
Yet another update from search engine Ask.com just a year and a half after its last overhaul. It’s going live today in the US with its “next generation,” while the UK launch is slated for October 20. Goals include reducing searches to one click and providing direct answers on the results page in high-volume categories. The changes follow a shift in strategy announced last spring to focus less on the whiz-bang kind of services that might impress “the digerati” and more on practical results.
Ask says it has improved site download speeds by 30 percent compared to the same time last year. The search engine says it remains the thirteenth largest Internet brand in the UK and cites Hitwise, who says Ask.com’s unique users in the UK has grown 38.6 percent, faster than any of the other major search engines. From July to August, Ask.com’s unique UK users grew from 6.5 million to 6.9 million. In terms of market share, however, this is still a miniscule slice of the market. In August, Ask.com share was 2.69 percent, compared to Google.co.uk’s 73.13 percent, and Google.com’s 14.20 percent.
—Ask “now ranks and integrates content from a broader and more comprehensive set of content types – such as breaking news, blogs, images, videos, and music – right into the center panel.”
—Ask goes deeper into its highest-volume categories—Entertainment, Health & Nutrition, Jobs, and Reference—for direct responses.
—A new Q&A channel with direct answers to “everyday” questions. It draws on q&a content from across the web. There’s also a new direct answers channel—http://www.answers.ask.com/
—Dropping nav icons for text to make loading the homepage faster.
Yet another update from search engine Ask.com just a year and a half after its last overhaul. It’s going live today in the US with its “next generation,” while the UK launch is slated for October 20. Goals include reducing searches to one click and providing direct answers on the results page in high-volume categories. The changes follow a shift in strategy announced last spring to focus less on the whiz-bang kind of services that might impress “the digerati” and more on practical results.
Ask says it has improved site download speeds by 30 percent compared to the same time last year. The search engine says it remains the thirteenth largest Internet brand in the UK and cites Hitwise, who says Ask.com’s unique users in the UK has grown 38.6 percent, faster than any of the other major search engines. From July to August, Ask.com’s unique UK users grew from 6.5 million to 6.9 million. In terms of market share, however, this is still a miniscule slice of the market. In August, Ask.com share was 2.69 percent, compared to Google.co.uk’s 73.13 percent, and Google.com’s 14.20 percent.
—Ask “now ranks and integrates content from a broader and more comprehensive set of content types – such as breaking news, blogs, images, videos, and music – right into the center panel.”
—Ask goes deeper into its highest-volume categories—Entertainment, Health & Nutrition, Jobs, and Reference—for direct responses.
—A new Q&A channel with direct answers to “everyday” questions. It draws on q&a content from across the web. There’s also a new direct answers channel—http://www.answers.ask.com/
—Dropping nav icons for text to make loading the homepage faster.
Gasta News: Digital Britain
Digital Britain: Online BBC Rival ‘A Priority’; Govt ‘Must Act On Aggregators’
So keen are media watchers to hear the likely recommendations of Lord Stephen Carter‘s upcoming Digital Britain report, an overspill room was needed at the Royal College of Medicine this morning to house those gathered to hear him speak. But the communications, technology and broadcasting minister was giving precious few hints at the Westminster e-Forum...
Carter did say safeguarding independent online and digital news sources that rival the BBC is “an absolute priority”, “something future generations will thank us for”. He said a “strong, fully-funded, ambitious BBC, acting as an enabler for the rest of the sector” is in everyone’s interests, alongside a “strong (commercial) alternative”. But he spoke only generally, dodging detail and saving the real headlines for the publication proper later this month.
—Broadband for all: “In our fixed networks, I think we are reaching the stage where we require an acceptable minimum level of service for everyone.” Some reports have suggested Carter will ask telcos to guarantee internet access as a universal service obligation. BT (NYSE: BT), for its part, has requested government investment to offset its own spending on next-gen infrastructure.
—Carter’s thinking: Carter said UK ad spend will fall by six to eight percent this year. Another big influence - the falling share price and market cap of big media players like BT, BSkyB (NYSE: BSY) and ITV (LSE: ITV), which has seen its share price drop 70 percent in recent years. “These are salutary statistics, not least because they give you some idea of the ability of private markets to provide continued investment,” he says.
—BBC/Google (NSDQ: GOOG) effect: Guardian Media Group CEO Carolyn McCall told the forum BBC Worldwide has a distorting effect on the UK media market because it has exclusive access to BBC content. Though she was careful not to use the “G” word, her target was clear when she highlighted the concern of many in the newspaper business regarding search engines: “They don’t invest anything in UK content at a time when content producers are finding it very difficult. The government really needs to think seriously about the effects of aggregators.”
—Public service TV: Carter criticised commercial public broadcasters - whose sustainability is being reviewed by Ofcom - for failing to propose their own funding ideas: “Given that this is supposed to be one of our most creative sectors, it is one of the most conservative sectors when it comes to looking for future solutions”.
Carter’s review for the DCMS and BERR will urge legislative and regulatory changes to safeguard broadband access, salvage DAB, protect kids online and more, and could also result in regulatory framework changes at Ofcom, which is itself conducting a review of public service TV funding.
So keen are media watchers to hear the likely recommendations of Lord Stephen Carter‘s upcoming Digital Britain report, an overspill room was needed at the Royal College of Medicine this morning to house those gathered to hear him speak. But the communications, technology and broadcasting minister was giving precious few hints at the Westminster e-Forum...
Carter did say safeguarding independent online and digital news sources that rival the BBC is “an absolute priority”, “something future generations will thank us for”. He said a “strong, fully-funded, ambitious BBC, acting as an enabler for the rest of the sector” is in everyone’s interests, alongside a “strong (commercial) alternative”. But he spoke only generally, dodging detail and saving the real headlines for the publication proper later this month.
—Broadband for all: “In our fixed networks, I think we are reaching the stage where we require an acceptable minimum level of service for everyone.” Some reports have suggested Carter will ask telcos to guarantee internet access as a universal service obligation. BT (NYSE: BT), for its part, has requested government investment to offset its own spending on next-gen infrastructure.
—Carter’s thinking: Carter said UK ad spend will fall by six to eight percent this year. Another big influence - the falling share price and market cap of big media players like BT, BSkyB (NYSE: BSY) and ITV (LSE: ITV), which has seen its share price drop 70 percent in recent years. “These are salutary statistics, not least because they give you some idea of the ability of private markets to provide continued investment,” he says.
—BBC/Google (NSDQ: GOOG) effect: Guardian Media Group CEO Carolyn McCall told the forum BBC Worldwide has a distorting effect on the UK media market because it has exclusive access to BBC content. Though she was careful not to use the “G” word, her target was clear when she highlighted the concern of many in the newspaper business regarding search engines: “They don’t invest anything in UK content at a time when content producers are finding it very difficult. The government really needs to think seriously about the effects of aggregators.”
—Public service TV: Carter criticised commercial public broadcasters - whose sustainability is being reviewed by Ofcom - for failing to propose their own funding ideas: “Given that this is supposed to be one of our most creative sectors, it is one of the most conservative sectors when it comes to looking for future solutions”.
Carter’s review for the DCMS and BERR will urge legislative and regulatory changes to safeguard broadband access, salvage DAB, protect kids online and more, and could also result in regulatory framework changes at Ofcom, which is itself conducting a review of public service TV funding.
05/03/2009
Gasta Top Keywords
search engine advertising
search engine promotion
search engine submission
web search engine
search engine
search engines
search engine ranking
search engine marketing
search engine placement
all search engine
other search engines
search engine optimization
business search engine
asp search engine
search engine php
photo search engine
american search engine
names of search engines
world search engines
search engine rss
china search engine
web search engines
people search engines
christian search engine
medical search engine
search web sites
popular web sites
business loans
business loans calculator
new business loans
new business loan
business loan
search
people search
html search
search spider
property ownership search
search by email
name search
search terms
email address search
job searching
magazine article search
music search com
search message boards
china search
job search
job searches
jobs search
music search
photo search
breaking news
news paper
current news
rueters news
breaking news reuters
latest news
reuters news
unusual news
reuters news agency
local news
news archives
news today
dow news
france news
global news
nbc news
news and
news from
news headlines
news reports
news sport
news this week
news tickers
register news
retail news
shopping news
weather news
business startup loans
business startup loan
canadian businesses
business article
business newspapers
online business
sports business
business for sale
business monthly
business newspaper
businesses for sale
cards business
homebased business
top business magazines
bad credit loans
unsecured loans
fast loans
loans
sba loan rates
sba loans for women
listen to music
find music
downloading music
music
music downloads
radio online
reuters online
online jobs
online advertising
virtual games online
internet advertising
pay per click advertising
ppc advertising
advertising
web advertising
best of
pride of
the times of
times of
website promotion
website marketing
job websites
website designers
website for sale
reuters website
banks
bank
bank pnc
hotels
holidays
weekend breaks
internet
web promotion
affiliate marketing
web marketing
baby slippers
mortgage
tv over internet
video glasses
computer sales
tv over the internet
christmas breaks
computer terminology
economic articles
new year breaks
pet friendly holidays
video
seach engines
christmas shopping
computer stores
hotel
industry magazines
information
internet articles
london hotels
new bollywood releases
newspaper
s video cable
short breaks
spanish magazines
trade magazines
trends magazine
videos
search engine promotion
search engine submission
web search engine
search engine
search engines
search engine ranking
search engine marketing
search engine placement
all search engine
other search engines
search engine optimization
business search engine
asp search engine
search engine php
photo search engine
american search engine
names of search engines
world search engines
search engine rss
china search engine
web search engines
people search engines
christian search engine
medical search engine
search web sites
popular web sites
business loans
business loans calculator
new business loans
new business loan
business loan
search
people search
html search
search spider
property ownership search
search by email
name search
search terms
email address search
job searching
magazine article search
music search com
search message boards
china search
job search
job searches
jobs search
music search
photo search
breaking news
news paper
current news
rueters news
breaking news reuters
latest news
reuters news
unusual news
reuters news agency
local news
news archives
news today
dow news
france news
global news
nbc news
news and
news from
news headlines
news reports
news sport
news this week
news tickers
register news
retail news
shopping news
weather news
business startup loans
business startup loan
canadian businesses
business article
business newspapers
online business
sports business
business for sale
business monthly
business newspaper
businesses for sale
cards business
homebased business
top business magazines
bad credit loans
unsecured loans
fast loans
loans
sba loan rates
sba loans for women
listen to music
find music
downloading music
music
music downloads
radio online
reuters online
online jobs
online advertising
virtual games online
internet advertising
pay per click advertising
ppc advertising
advertising
web advertising
best of
pride of
the times of
times of
website promotion
website marketing
job websites
website designers
website for sale
reuters website
banks
bank
bank pnc
hotels
holidays
weekend breaks
internet
web promotion
affiliate marketing
web marketing
baby slippers
mortgage
tv over internet
video glasses
computer sales
tv over the internet
christmas breaks
computer terminology
economic articles
new year breaks
pet friendly holidays
video
seach engines
christmas shopping
computer stores
hotel
industry magazines
information
internet articles
london hotels
new bollywood releases
newspaper
s video cable
short breaks
spanish magazines
trade magazines
trends magazine
videos
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
