Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your website

from Google. It’s called a

snippet

—text slurped directly from the web page and spat out

into the search results page.

Now take a look at this directory listing. Note the sentence-like structure, the

human touch, and the category information.

Directories aren’t likely to come out and find you the way robots will; site own-

ers need to submit to them manually. Sometimes you can purchase a listing, sometimes

they’re free, and sometimes you pay for the “privilege” of having your submittal

reviewed whether your site is included or not. While it’s a little extra work to achieve

directory listings, at least you can be relatively certain that your submittal will be

reviewed by somebody and your site will have a fair chance of getting in. This is differ-

ent from the robots, which do not guarantee review or inclusion.

Pay-Per-Click

No matter how blurred the line between unpaid and paid search gets in the search

engine results, you, as the SEO expert, will always know the difference. That’s because,

while it’s possible to get listed in robot search engines,

meta search engines

, and even

directories without actually doing anything, you (or someone you delegate) will have to

actively implement and carefully manage any pay-per-click (PPC) advertising for your

own site. And, of course, there’s that little matter of the checkbook too.

Here’s how PPC Works: You open an account with a PPC engine. You decide

which search terms you want your site to be seen for, and you write your own listing

(or often, several different listings) to correspond with your chosen terms. Every time a

searcher clicks on your listing, you pay the PPC engine a fee. You control the amount

you want to spend for each click (your

bid

), and this is a major factor in the placement

of your listing.

PPC is the SEO marketing venue over which you have the most control. It offers

you a chance to micro-manage your website marketing by being able to target specific

messages to specific terms, and even specific geographical locations. It gives you the

opportunity to change your message on a whim, and it provides some of the most

c03. 8:01 42