In today’s era of internet savviness, it is almost unheard of to operate a business without having a website. Consumers are apt to feel as though your company is more credible when you have a professional looking website to reference and/or direct them to. That being said, having a website is only half the battle. There are a few mission critical items to consider if your intention is to maintain a long-term presence online:

Search Engine Marketing (SEM). You now need to market your site and make it visible in the search engines. A Cost Per Click (CPC) campaign will help to promote your site in the various engines such as: Google, Yahoo, MSN, ASK, etc.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In conjunction with SEM, simultaneously incorporating SEO into the mix will help to supplement the cost of your paid efforts. Remember, all organic results equate to FREE traffic and who doesn’t want FREE traffic?

Return on Investment (ROI). Now that your site is visible and searchers are finding you through your SEM/SEO efforts, you need to determine how they are finding you and which specific keywords and search engines are giving you the best ROI. This is where a critical piece of the puzzle comes in place = Analytics. There are a number of analytic tools available today to measure online marketing performance. These tools will afford you the ability to make very educated decisions with your initiatives. Most tools will offer the functionality to ensure you are spending your advertising dollars wisely. Just a few variables an analytics tool can provide you with: bounce rate, conversion rate, shopping cart abandonment rate, percentage of new visitors versus returning, etc. Paying for clicks that do not convert into sales (or generate valuable leads) is a huge waste of money; especially given the state of the economy today.

Feel free to check out our Analytics Blog, which provides helpful tips and techniques to better understand web analytics: http://www.morevisibility.com/analyticsblog/index.php

A professional looking website + SEM +SEO + Analytics = $$$$$.

In a very strategic move, Yahoo has announced officially on April 9^th that they have a confirmed agreement with Indextools to acquire their web analytics software. More often known as IndexTools due to its branding, its formal name is Tensa. This move should put Yahoo’s search engine marketing offerings in a more preferable position by third party marketers and advertisers. The deal is set to close by the end of 2008’s second quarter.

Over the years, many marketers have preferred to utilize Google for their Search Engine Marketing tools. Google has investing a tremendous amount of resources to develop sophisticated tools and reporting capabilities which allow marketers the opportunity to make intelligent marketing decisions. In addition to refining and creating analytics technology, Google has gone a step further in making this technology free to its customers and has been offering them for quite a while. Yahoo’s analytics capabilities have paled in comparison to Google. By Yahoo taking steps in purchasing IndexTool’s analytics software the Search Engine is now becoming a more attractive channel for marketers to pursue. Bassel Ojjeh of Yahoo’s Strategic Data group has the following to say about the acquisition “We expect that the Indextools’ technology platform will provide our customers the opportunity to more quickly uncover and act on these insights, enhancing Yahoo’s status as a partner choice in online marketing and the must buy for the world’s advertisers.”

We should see the integration of this platform over the next few months. The first wave of implementation will likely benefit small to midsize businesses currently marketing in Yahoo. Following the first phase, they anticipate to add additional tools that will allow advertisers to monitor campaign activity and make campaign optimization more efficient and seamless.

So what is the benefit to Yahoo in acquiring IndexTools? Well, IndexTool’s focus has been concentrated on developing a “large base of customers by delivering a reliable, scalable and comprehensive platform for monitoring and analyzing sophisticated marketing campaigns,” says Marton Szoke, Managing Director of Tensa in a Business Wire press release. The Yahoo press release goes on to state, “With IndexTools Web Analytics and Bid Management, businesses gain accurate, insightful and timely intelligence about the effectiveness of their online marketing.” Thinking forward, the propensity of benefits is yet to be realized. I will be watching closely and taking full advantage of the suite of tools as they become available.

This acquisition should boost Yahoo’s overall market presence, and hopefully its market share. As an internet marketer myself, I have been wishfully thinking Yahoo would develop or acquire a robust analytics package that could be utilized in optimizing campaigns, bid management and for comparison analysis with Google Analytics. Finally, that day has come.

Some of you reading this may actually believe that headline. I come across too many small businesses that believe that pay-per-click (ppc) is not right for their business.

In 2008, all businesses should be taking advantage of ppc advertising and if you are having trouble convincing yourself or your team to try it, here are some ways to counter popular excuses.

We are a B2B company and most searchers are consumers

While many searches are conducted by consumers, B2B customers also use search engines to find vendors and services. More importantly, ppc advertising allows you to only target words used by your potential customers, limiting who will see your ad. Additionally, you only pay when someone clicks on the ad, meaning that they should be a qualified lead if you have good ad copy.

We don’t have the budget

PPC advertising does not require a large budget. You can start on your own for as low as $20 and grow from there. Your company must be able to spare a little money to test this medium and then calculate the return on investment. If the medium provides a good return, marketing dollars will be shifted there.

We don’t have an online store

PPC advertising isn’t only for companies with online stores. Many service companies use ppc to generate leads and you can do the same whether you sell physical products or a service.

We don’t know anything about PPC advertising and don’t have time to learn

That is why companies like MoreVisibility exist. Outsourcing makes companies more efficient and allows them to focus on their core competencies. It usually works out cheaper to outsource than to hire an in-house specialist.

We are targeting a very niche market

That is the perfect opportunity to use ppc to reach customers. No other advertising medium offers the kind of targeting and reporting that ppc does. With contextual and site targeting, you can also advertise exactly where your niche market is online.

We prefer display advertising to text advertising

While text ads are the most popular, ppc advertising is not limited to text. Google also offers display advertising (as well as audio and video). You will be able to place your display ads on websites of your choice.

I hope that the responses above help to convince you and your team that ppc advertising is a good fit for most companies.