Sponsored Links, PPC Search for Profits

Sponsored links play an integral part in pay per click, or PPC, as well as in the overall search engine optimization, or SEO, process. To know what sponsored links are and what their purpose is in the grand scheme of PPC and SEO, one must first understand PPC and SEO and their places within Internet marketing.

Search engine optimization is a process by which web traffic is driven to a certain website via the use of targeted keywords and keyword phrases. These keyword and keyword phrases are to ensure that this particular website ranks high up on search engine result pages, thus making it more likely for users to click on that link.

Pay per click occurs when marketers’ pay for their ads to be placed on a search engine’s results page. Such ad’s and links will feature content, products, or services that are relevant to the web search that consumer performed. The idea behind pay per click is that marketers’ only pay for the ads or links they have posted on a search engine results page if an Internet users clicks on them. This is called clik-through.

Those ads and links are sometimes called “sponsored ads” and “sponsored links.” They tend to appear next to or above the results on a search engine’s results page. They can appear anywhere the Webmaster or blogger chooses to place them.

As in choosing keywords and keyword phrases for proper search engine optimization, to be effective, sponsored ads and sponsored links must accurately describe their relevance to the search’s subject. For example, someone typing the keywords “kayaking in Colorado” into a search engine should pull up a page of results. Two effective sponsored links above the list of results could be one linking the user to a company that gives kayaking tours throughout Colorado and the other to a company that rents kayaks and gives kayaking lessons in Colorado.

Google, Yahoo!, and MSN are the three biggest search engines and thus the three search engines marketers want to place their sponsored links on. Out of the three search engines, Google remains the largest and the most sought after by marketers’ for their sponsored links.

Generally, Google treats sponsored links in the same way as it treats search engine results. If a web page appears on a Google search results page, it is not there because it was paid for. It is there because Google determined that it would be relevant to the search. Of course, sponsored links are paid for (if they are clicked on that is). However, sponsored links and ads must have useful links or they will be removed. Google has guidelines for sponsored links and ads to follow.

Sponsored links and ads must be relevant to the web search that pulls them up. Also, they cannot intrude, distract or annoy the user in any way. No pop-ups or flash ads are permissible on a search page. Sponsored links will be clearly identifiable and separated from search results. And, at the most, only three sponsored links will appear above the search results.

Both the format and label “Sponsored Link” distinguish sponsored link and ads on a Google search results page. The format for posting a sponsored link or ad includes a title, a short description, and a web address. As such, it is imperative for any marketer to have a well-organized PPC management campaign.