• How to Gain Search Engine Optimization Benefits from Text Ads

• There are 5 good reasons as to why text ads are essential to marketing your business online.

• How do text ads stand up against alternate forms of online advertising?

• How should I buy Text Ads to Gain Maximum SEO Benefit?

How to Gain Search Engine Optimization Benefits from Text Ads

Search engines use various factors to determine the importance of a website. One of the most important off page optimization factor used is based upon the incoming links a site has. These incoming links are analyzed and the data most commonly used are:

1        The quantity and quality of incoming links to your site.
In a nutshell, search engines determine a site with more incoming links to be more popular and therefore more important. This is one of the essential factors in determining the ranking of a website in the search engine results page. However, not all incoming links to your site are the same. A link to your site, from a site that itself has a greater number of incoming links to it, will be given greater weight than one that has a low number of links.

However, a link from a site with a large number of incoming links may not in itself provide you with much benefit. That is because websites on the internet can be categorized between good and bad neighbourhoods. Free for All sites and Link Exchange sites are examples of bad neighbourhoods which have been referenced by search engines such as Google as sites to avoid. Therefore, in order to gain maximum search engine optimization benefits from an incoming link, it is essential that the site linking to you is of good quality.

2        The link text also called anchor text of the incoming links to your site.
An anchor text is essentially the text found within a link. Take a look at this sample link:

Search Engine Optimization Resources

<a href="http://www.seoresources.info/>Search Engine Optimization Resources</a>

The term "Search Engine Optimization Resources" is called the anchor text. Since most people who would link to your site usually describe your site based on your site's keywords, the anchor text of a link pointing to your site will help search engines determine what keywords your site should rank well for.

How Can I obtain Links?

There are several ways you can obtain links to your site. The first way is to contact website owners of complementary websites and ask them to link to you. Such a method of obtaining links is painstakingly time consuming. This is due to the numerous correspondences involved in seeking link partners and the low response many webmasters face.

The second method is to make a resourceful feature on your website that would cause others to naturally link to you. Such methods, while ideal, may result in slow or no response.

The third method is to purchase text links to your site. Purchasing text links will allow you to be assured of consistent and quality links to your site that will continue to point to your site for the long term. Purchasing text links also places your link in a more prominent spot on websites rather than in an obscured links page which would result in greater number of visitors.

There are 5 good reasons as to why text ads are essential to marketing your business online.

1. Text advertisements are not blocked by ad blockers.
As opposed to online banners and other graphical advertisements, static text ads are never blocked by ad blocking software. As such, every impression will be visible to all site visitors which results in more visitors to your site at a lower cost per visitor.

2. They look as part of the publisher's website
By appearing as part of the website’s content, visitors to the publisher’s website will not subconsciously “filter out” such advertisements and will be more likely to see your text advertisement.

3. They drive targeted traffic.
By advertising on sites with the same theme as yours, visitors viewing your advertisement will have the same interest in your product or services. This increases the likelihood of converting the visitor into a customer.

4. They help improve your natural search engine rankings.
Many search engines base the popularity of a site on the quantity and quality of the links the site has pointed to it. A site with a large number of quality links will therefore rank higher than a site with a lower number of links.

5. They lower costs.
Text ads cost less than alternate forms of advertising such as Pay-Per-Click, Banner, and Pop-Up advertising. They are far more effective in creating a return on your investment.
 

How do text ads stand up against alternate forms of online advertising?

Pay-Per-Click VS Static Text Ads.
Static text ads on average cost less than pay-per-click advertising. For example, if the cost per click is only $1.00 (which is considered normal for non-competitive keywords) a click through rate of 5 a day will cost you $150.00 a month and you won’t even gain search engine optimization benefits. However, with a high quality static text ad, you can have an unlimited number of clicks while paying a flat fee.

In addition to the higher cost, Pay-Per-Click advertisers are also vulnerable to Click Fraud where about 20%* of all Pay-Per-Click cost is fraudulent.

Banner Advertising VS Static Text Ads.
While able to provide visitors with a graphical impression of your products or services, banner advertising risks getting blocked by advertising blocking software. Furthermore, with most banner advertising priced by the number of impressions given, a large number of the impressions that you pay for will never be seen due to banner blocking programs.

Pop-Up Advertising VS Static Text Ads.
Pop-Up advertising is slowly losing its effectiveness on the internet as more and more browser programs come enabled with pop-up blockers. Microsoft Internet Explorer, which dominates the internet browser market, has introduced the pop-up blocker feature as part of its latest updates. As such, purchasing pop-up advertising is not an effective form of advertising.
 

How should I buy Text Ads to Gain Maximum Search Engine Optimization Benefit?

1. Beware of the number of outgoing links.
A site with a large number of outgoing links pointing to your site will have a lower weight when it links to you than a site which contains a lower number of outgoing links. For example, consider two websites with equal characteristics except that one has 50 outgoing links and the other has 20. A link from a site with 50 outgoing links will be weighted less than a site with 20 outgoing links.

Search engines attempt to filter out those sites that attempt to spam it. It is recommended not to purchase text ads from sites with more than 20 advertisement or sponsored links.

2. Don’t just buy high PR sites.
Purchasing text links from sites with high PageRank causes the inbound links to your site to appear unnatural and therefore more likely to come under scrutiny of a search engine’s spam control team. Purchasing text links from sites of varied PageRank will allow your site or webpage to appear natural.

3. Don’t just buy site-wide links.
Purchasing site-wide links to your site will increase the link count to your site faster than purchasing single links. However, by focusing your attention solely on site-wide links, your site is more likely to become flagged and therefore scrutinized by a search engine’s spam filters.

4. Keep links for a longer period of time.
Even through a search engine may have already crawled your site from a link you purchased, it is important to keep the link active long enough so that search engines can allocate the linkage data to your site. It is important that links are kept for at least 3 months for the full benefits of a link to be passed through.

5. Buy links to both sub pages and to your home page.
Having incoming links to your homepage is important in optimizing your overall site. However, with competitive keywords it is essential to link to sub pages (such as a product or service page) that reflect the keywords you are after.

6. Mix up your anchor text.
 While having consistent anchor text to your site enables you to rank well for that particular term, having exact anchor text for all your incoming links can cause your site to become blacklisted by search engines.
 

What is PageRank?

PageRank is a value from 0 to 10 assigned by Google on various web pages on the internet based upon its quality and link popularity (number of links from 3rd party sites that link to that page). A site with a PageRank of 0 indicates that it either has not been ranked yet or that the information has not been updated yet. Many search engine marketers use the PageRank value in determining whether or not to purchase a link from a certain site. Average prices from link brokers are as follows:

The general rule is to purchase links not only from high PageRank sites but also from lower PageRank sites so as to maintain a natural link growth. To find out what the PageRank of your site is, simply download the Google toolbar at http://toolbar.google.com/

What is Alexa Ranking

Alexa ranking is a ranking of 5 000 000 sites across the internet by Alexa - an Amazon.com company - based upon the amount of traffic it receives. The lower the ranking, the more traffic the website receives. For example, a ranking of 0 to 1 000 000 indicates that the website is one of the top 20% of sites visited on the internet based upon the determination by Alexa.