There are a number of DIY schemes that allow you to pay for website promotion and I prefer Google Adwords for most purposes.  With this you set up an advertisement for your website, entering relevant 'keywords' or search targets that people are most likely to search on with regard to your business.  You then set a monthly pre-pay budget and when people search on relevant words, your advert will appear inviting them to click on it and visit your website.  You pay for every such click that links to your website until your budget is exhausted or until you top up your account - unless you pay by direct debit.

You can set your target area so for example, a plumber in Derby might consider restricting his target area to within 15 miles of Derby.  This works on the basis of a postcode so as a rule, only people searching for a plumber within that area would be shown the advert.  On the other hand a florist with a worldwide delivery service might want their Adwords to appear in several countries.  You choose the scope of your advertising campaign.

Google charge a non refundable £5 setup fee for this service but then you can manage your ad or even add new ones.  Then you can either pre-pay with a minimum £10 using a credit or debit card or alternatively, set up a direct debit instruction so that Google can top up your account as required so it is never exhausted.  The minimum price per click is one penny to whatever you decide is reasonable. 

The more you pay the more viewings your ad will receive and the better position your add will achieve.  Also some keywords require a higher fee-per-click since other websites will be bidding a higher fee and thus hoping to monopolise particular words or phrases.  You must decide if you consider the word sufficiently significant to pay the extra.  Mostly though, you'll pay less than your maximum preset bid for your keywords and as long as your ad states exactly what the viewer is looking for, the position of your advert is probably less relevant than the use of correct keywords and phrases.

Google Maps

Once you have an account on Google (the account is free) you can submit your website to appear on pages where people search for your keywords but in this case there is a local Google map shown so you can be located as follows:

My website East Leake Online appears at the top and also has an Adwords listing on the same page so anyone looking for local businesses in my village will immediately see it. Remember, with every internet search that 'hits' your website is a potential customer so a few pence for a high profile listing is a good investment providing your online marketing and website content is sufficiently compelling.  See the page for Selling Online

If you are interested in finding out more about website optimisation or if you would like to engage a professional SEO company to promote your website, please contact me first. Not all SEO services are quite as they seem or live up to their promises so you could end up paying a great deal and doing most of the work yourself.

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Last Updated 14/08/2008