The holiday season is just around the corner with holidays for Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa and more! Celebrate this festive season by updating your website with one or more of the following ideas:

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If you are maintaining your own organic or paid search engine marketing campaigns you may be wondering what search engines are frequented most by web users. We generally tell our customers to optimize for all of the top 5 search engines, but you obviously want to spend your valuable time on the search engines that are providing you with the most qualified traffic.

Search Engine Market Share According to Stat Counter for Jun 09-July-10:

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Depending on your organization’s marketing budget, you may opt to manage your PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns in-house. While this can save you money on management fees, you run the risk of losing dollars if your campaign is not maintained correctly. Over the years, we have heard countless stories of under performing PPC campaigns from our current and prospective clients.

Here are 5 Common PPC Mistakes to Avoid:

1. Focusing on Budget and Not ROI – Many marketing managers view a PPC budget as another line item on a marketing report. This is common with small businesses. Unlike traditional media campaigns such as Television, Print or Radio, Paid Search Campaigns provide the opportunity for detailed analysis and analytics. Make sure you constantly track and refine your campaigns so you get the most out of your ad spend.
2. Sending All Traffic to Your Home Page – Your ads are ranked by a number of factors, including the relevancy of your destination URL. If you send your visitors to relevant landing pages, it will increase your ad position and your visitors will be more likely to convert.
3. Forgetting About Negative Keywords – Negative keywords are a great way to qualify traffic and avoid wasted clicks. Make sure you omit keywords from your campaigns that are not relevant to your brand, product or service. For example: if you sell Ferraris, do not include the search term “cheap” in your campaigns.
4. Not Checking the Competition – While you do not have to stalk your competitors, checking their ads and landing pages periodically will provide you with competitive insight. This knowledge gained can be used in your differentiation strategy.
5. Not Paying Attention to Ad Text – Be sure to include one or more of your keywords within your ad text and include a call to action. A good call to action will guide the visitor in the right direction after they enter your site. Placing keywords that are relevant to the search term in your ad text will also increase your ad’s relevancy and Click Through Rate (CTR) which will also help your ad positions.

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