How To Drive Traffíc Away From Your Website


Let's take a look at some of the reasons why your website visitors may be leaving your website before they've had a chance to hear what you have to say; or to put it another way, if you want to drive traffíc AWAY faster than you attract it, here are some of the things you should do.

1. Give Web-visitors Too Many Options and Choices

Social scientist and Swarthmore College professor, Barry Schwartz, has coined the phrase, "the paradox of choice." His studies have concluded the more choice you give people, the less likely they are to make a decision. Some choice is good, but too much choice creates confusion: it's a case of diminishing marginal utility.

A well designed website explains, directs, guides, and focuses visitor attention on the things that are of real benefit to your visitors and to your company.

Every business provides a variety of products, services, and information to their customers, but these things are not all of equal importance. Your website is a place to focus attention on your core marketing message, not a place to provide a shopping líst of everything you are able to do and every product or service you may be able to offër.

2. Give Web Visitors Too Much Information To Process

Architect, author, and information designer, Richard Saul Wurman, in his book, 'Information Anxiety' talks about, "the ever-widening gap between what we understand and what we think we should understand."

Good website design is about more than technology and aesthetics; it's about deciding what information needs to be presented and what information needs to be left out. If you are truly an expert in your field, you should know what information is important to your customers in order for them to make a decision. Too much information is like too much choice, it confuses rather than clarifies. Focus on delivering meaningful content or risk having your visitors hit the exit button.

3. Give Web Visitors Too Much Non-relevant Content

The only thing worse than overloading your website with more information than visitors can absorb is confusing them with useless and non-relevant content.

Non-relevant content is content that doesn't advance your major purpose: to deliver your marketing message in an informative, engaging, entertaining, and memorable manner. If it isn't relevant, dump it.

4. Give Web Visitors Too Many Irritating Distractions

Websites should be designed to direct visitors to the information they want and that information should be the content you want to deliver.

You cannot sell someone a product or service they do not want. A real prospect is one that needs the same information you want to provide; the art of salës is directing potential clients to relevant information, and presenting it in a way that visitors see your product or service as fulfilling their needs.

On the surface, third-party advertisements and banners may seem like a good way to make some extra cäsh from your traffíc, but these ads become so distracting, visitors either get fed-up or clíck on one of the links that takes them away from your site. Whatever few bucks you earn from these ads, you are loosing by chasing real customers away; this of course assumes you are a real business with something legitímate to sell and not a website that's an excuse to deliver advertisements.

Other nonsense like favorite links and silly fluff-content merely distracts visitors from investigating your site to find what they are looking for.

5. Give Web Visitors Too Many Red Flags

Website visitors are constantly looking for red flags that tell them that the site they are visiting should be skipped as soon as possible.

If you want to make sure visitors won't deal with you make sure you don't provide any contact information: no contact names, no telephone numbers, and no mailing address is a sure sign that you won't look after any problems that arise from a website transaction.

Your website must be designed to build trust and foster a relationship, not scare people away.

6. Give Web Visitors Too Many Decisions To Make

How many decisions do you demand from your visitors in order for them to do business with you?

Take for example the seemingly simple task of purchasing a new television. Do you purchase the inexpensive but old tube technology, the newer Plasma technology, or the LCD technology? How about all the various features to choose from like picture-in-picture, commercial skip-timers, and on and on? All you really want to do is relax with your spouse and enjoy a good movie - is that on a VSH, DVD, Blu-ray, or HD-DVD?

7. Give Web Visitors Too Many Stumbling Blocks

Do you make people go through the order processing system before they can find out how much something costs, or do you demand potential customers read a ridiculous amount of small print legalese that only a lawyer could understand?

If you want to drive traffíc away from your site make sure you build in as many stumbling blocks as possible.

8. Give Web Visitors Too Many Forms To Fill-in

Do you attract your visitors with special offers or free white papers and then demand that they fill-out complex forms, surveys, and questionnaires before you give them access to what they came for? If you do, you are probably losing a lot of people you attracted, and you are guaranteeing that your next email promotion will end up in the trash.

9. Give Web Visitors Incomprehensible Page Layouts

Good design, proper page layout, consistent navigation, and well organized information architecture that promotes serendipity, helps visitors find what they're looking for and provides a pleasant, efficient and rewarding experience for the website visitor.

Website designs that rely on technology, databases, and search engine optimization rather than focused content, coherent organization, articulate presentation, and a memorable, rewarding experience are designs designed to chase traffíc away.

10. Give Web Visitors Too Many Confusing Instructions

One of the most frustrating experiences website visitors encounter is confusing instructions and incoherent explanations of how your product or service works or how to order what you are selling.

11. Give Web Visitors Too Many Reason To Clíck-out

If you really are determined to fail, make sure you provide website visitors with as many reasons as possible to leave your site: irrelevant links to your favorite sites, links to your suppliers because you're too cheap to put their information on your own site, or any combination of the reasons mentioned above, all contribute to driving traffíc away from your site.

My Top Website Traffic Generation Techniques

I recently conducted a 2 1/2 hour teleseminar that I entitled "Website Traffic Generation Techniques That Work." I conducted the teleseminar for two reasons:

1) I was partnering with two esteemed clients/friends in creating an in-demand product. Our combined knowledge and experience guaranteed a website traffic generation product better than any similar product that I'd seen recently!

2) I was tired of seeing so many people with websites getting practically ZERO traffic when it is so easy. I wanted to explain to my subscribers and clients, in a plain-English fashion, some very effective but simple methods of getting visitors to their websites.

My websites currently get so much traffic that, while we could always use more traffic, I no longer worry about getting website traffic. I've reached what my friend Jack Humphrey termed critical mass - that point at which one could actually stop promoting for a while and the traffic would continue.

When you look at website traffic generation - big picture - it's just a matter of identifying where your ideal traffic is, and "standing in front of it!" Here are just a few ways that I do that. We covered many more in the teleseminar.

These are all fast and easy to implement:

* Article Writing - Write 300 - 1000 word articles on topics that your market cares about. Make sure that the articles address a problem, worry or challenge that your market faces. In the article point them to solutions that they can find on your website. It's that simple.

* Affiliate Programs - With an affiliate program, you have others send you traffic, and you don't spend a penny until that traffic converts into sales. You can set up a simple affiliate program selling an ebook through Clickbank or PayDotCom.com and have an army of people working hard to send you customers in no time.

If you don't have a product, you can take private label products, and with a little effort, create products that your market will be clamoring for, and that affiliates will be thrilled to market for you. The best duplicable SYSTEM that I've seen for doing this was developed by Louis Burleson. You can learn all about Louis' easy to implement system at: http://NoHypeInternetMarketing.com/TheKey/

* Ebay Sales - With over 100 million registered users, Ebay is simply too big to ignore as a source of traffic. The most important thing about that incredible number of Ebay users is that they are buyers. They visit Ebay with credit card in hand, and all you need to do is be there with the products that they are looking for.

By some estimates that I've seen, Ebay gets MORE searches per day than Google!

There are dozens of ways for you to lure some of those millions of visitors to your website. Ebay even makes it easy for you to sift through their database and see WHAT the most common things are that people are searching for. What could be easier? You sift through their database, determine what lots of their users are searching for and then create simple information product that cater to those concerns. Then you advertise on Ebay, extremely inexpensively, letting people know that you have the solutions over at your website.

* Organic Search Engine Traffic - This seems mysterious or difficult to many people. However, if you understand that people visit the search engines seeking solutions to their problems, then it's as simple as determining what problems a lot of people are searching for solutions to, creating solutions to those problems, and then making people aware of the solutions through content on your site.

As an example, this article addresses the massive problem of most websites not having enough traffic. It tells them of the solutions offered on my site, and finally the article facilitates the search engines telling searchers that my site is where they'll find the solution. I'll feed this article to the search engines through my article distribution channels.

* Social Networking Sites - Sites such as MySpace, Youtube, and dozens of bookmarking sites, get millions of users every day. MySpace rapidly grew into the sixth most visited site on the Internet.

MySpace users set up accounts and conveniently categorize themselves into interest groups. Using very simple techniques, you can redirect massive traffic from MySpace to your website. You can also build your mailing list by interacting with targeted niches on MySpace. The other social networking sites function similarly.

* One of the easiest ways to get massive, extremely targeted traffic is through joint ventures. Through joint ventures, you get those who already have the attention, trust, and loyalty of the traffic, to send their traffic to your sales page. This is totally risk free and one of the easiest and fastest ways to grow a web business.

Through organizations such as The International Association Of Joint Venture Brokers (IAJVB), you find large list owners, product owners, or joint venture brokers. You set up huge, mutually beneficial partnerships, and leverage your combined assets. You can get more information on using IAJVB at: http://TheInternationalAssociationOfJointVentureBrokers.com

In the teleseminar, we also covered generating an endless flood of highly targeted visitors through methods such as publishing a newsletter, blogging, creating viral ebooks and software, creating educational or entertaining multi- media products, etc. We showed that there as so many ordinary, easily-implement traffic generation methods that there really is no reason for any website to suffer from a lack of traffic.

Actually, I'll retract that statement. Your website does have to be about something that people are interested in. There does have to be enough people in the world interested in your niche to offer you a pool of people that you can "stand in front of." I've just shared with you my top website traffic generation technique. Now all you need to do is implement them. You can discover many more by listening to the MP3 recordings or reading the PDF transcripts from my recent teleseminar at: http://TrafficGenerationTechniquesThatwork.com

Book Giveaway!

Rachelle, from http://zyphe.blogspot.com shared a contest with me that I'd like to share here too. Thanks, Rache!

Katie Hart is holding a contest on her website where you can win huge prize packs. The packs include the following:


(1)
A Bride Most Begrudging by Deeanne Gist
The Cubicle Next Door by Siri Mitchell
Shivering World by Kathy Tyers
All She Ever Wanted by Lynn Austin
Beyond the Blue by Leslie Gould
CD - My Other Band - Volume One
Four selections from Katie Hart's ARC/galley pile

(2)
Comes a Horseman (hardcover) by Robert Liparulo
River Rising (hardcover) by Athol Dickson
Mark of the Cross by Judith Pella
Three selections from Katie Hart's ARC/galley pile

(3)
A Garden to Keep (hardcover) by Jamie Langston Turner
The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Caught by Neta Jackson
Paper Moon by Linda Windsor
Three selections from Katie Hart's ARC/galley pile


"But how do I win any of these packs?" you ask. Simple! Just tell others about her site, Waterfall Books and the huge book giveaway! You may email your friends, post the announcement on social/dating networks like Myspace and Hi5 or send out bulletins everywhere, etc. It's up to you. Pump out your creative juices to spread the word. Just know your limits so you may not be banned for spamming.

Whenever you've done something to promote Waterfall Books, email Katie (theloneislands@yahoo.com) to let her know. She is giving one point for each promotion you do - two points or more for creative or extra influential ways of promotion. At the end of January, there will be a tally of points and the top 3 highest point getters will receive the prize packs mentioned above respectively!

But there's more! Go to http://zyphe.blogspot.com/ and leave a comment informing Rachelle that you've subcribed to her yahoogroup and you've done what you ought to do (promotion, marketing, etc) and then you'll be entered to win a book from her!

The winner will get to choose any of these 7 brand-new books:

• Lasher by Anne Rice
  
• The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice
  
• Belinda by Anne Rampling
  
• Lakota Dawn by Janelle Taylor
  
• Savage Destiny by Rosanne Bittner
  
• Miracle by Deborah Smith
  
• Tempt Fortune by Hebby Roman
  

Don't forget to leave your contact info in your comment. She said, she's picking a name from all the entries and post the winner on January 15, 2007.

So, what are you waiting for? Start charming away and keep those subscribers comin'!


Links ideal to include:
http://reviewingchristiannovels.blogspot.com
christiannovels-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

7 Characteristics of a Great Webpage

What makes for a great webpage?

Wouldn't you like to know the main ingredients for creating a superior webpage? What basic elements you must have if you want a solidly designed webpage? A webpage that will stand out and be noticed by your visitors. One that will keep those visitors returning to your site, again and again. An effective webpage that is 95% better than most of the other pages on the Net.

Follow these simple design features when creating your next webpage and you will have the answer:

1. Good Keywords

The nucleus. The conception. Good keywords are the very first building blocks you must consider before your webpage even becomes a dim notion in your head. Picking the right keyword or keyword phrase is the ultimate factor that will determine the success or failure of your webpage. You must do major research on the keyword or keyword phrases that will be the focal point and drawing card for your webpage.

You must get this right. It is vital. It is the single most important element of a webpage. You can use keyword research software and sites such as GoodKeywords, Wordtracker.com, Nichebot.com, or superior keyword research software such as Brad Callen's Keyword Elite.

Regardless of what process you favor, you must choose your keywords very carefully. You must chëck the competition for your chosen keywords or phrase. You must chëck the number of searches made each month for your keyword. You must also chëck the keyword density of your page to see if it will register in the search engines. You may have to adjust or fine-tune your keyword density at a later date.

Make sure you place your keyword in the title of your page. Place it in the first Headline on the page and many marketers also place their keyword or phrase in the url. For example: www.yourdomain.com/keyword.html This will help the search engines and surfers to find your page quicker.

2. Simple Design

Keep it simple. You must keep your webpage simple and direct. Keep it professional. Make sure it is readable and clear to all your visitors. Do a spell chëck. Do a grammar chëck. You may also want to chëck how your webpage looks in all types of browsers (www.anybrowser.com). Better safe than sorry.

Keep your visitors in mind at all times when designing your webpage. Keep it on topic, keep it related to your keywords. Most marketing studies show that's it's best not to confuse your visitors with too many options. If you're selling a product or products, limit the number on each page to one product if you can.

If you have a comparison page, limit the number to three or four. Studies also show that if you present too many options or products, the conversion rate goes down, not up. Keep all your products related. If you have a page on laptops, don't start discussing the benefits of owning a SUV.

Keep your sentences short and the number of words on a page down to 200 to 300. Many sites break up longer articles into multi-pages, this will be of some inconvenience for your visitors but you will have more room for advertising - your call.

3. Optimized

Let's face it, the average webpage will get most of its traffíc from the search engines, mainly Google, although MSN and Yahoo are also worth considering. Optimize your page for Google. Use a simple hierarchy, keep your pages no more than three clicks away from the main page. Linking all your pages to your index page is a good practice, always do this. The search engines will find your page faster if it is linked directly from the main index page of your site.

Using blogging software/structure that comes with such free blogging software as Wordpress will optimize your pages for you. Blogging systems have a linking hierarchy (categories, archives, etc.) that are very search engine friendly. It's almost impossible not to optimize your pages if you're using a blogging system. Plus, you have an RSS feed that will syndicate your content and place it into the search engines very quickly.

Chëck factors such as Mega Tags, title description and content. Use a robots text file for the search engine robots.

If you're new to building webpages, you may want to chëck out Google's Webpage Creator, you can create your pages and have it hosted free by Google and they will be indexed immediately in Google. Big Plus!

4. Easy Navigation

A great webpage will have easy and simple navigation. Link your page to and from your main index page if you can. Make sure you link to it from your sitemap page. Many webmasters put all the main links on their site at the top or the bottom of all their webpages, so that a visitor can freely move around and find what they're looking for. Keep your visitors' comfort level in mind at all times.

Double chëck to see all links on your webpage work! You may be surprised how many don't work, especially if you link out to other sites. The search engines don't like broken links, neither will your visitors.

Also double chëck to see if all images on your page display properly. Nothing will bring down the quality of your page faster than images that don't load.

5. Fresh Content

A great webpage will always have fresh content. Make sure you update your webpage often. Our world's technology changes rapidly, make sure your material is current and still revelant.

Remember, 9 times out of 10, the only reason a visitor is on your page is for information. Make sure you deliver. Make sure that information is recent and accurate. Besides, there is nothing like fresh content to keep your visitors interested and coming back for more.

6. Bookmarkable

A great webpage will always be bookmarkable. Your visitor will want to bookmark your page and return to it for more information. Make sure you make it easy for your visitor to bookmark your page. Use a bookmark scrípt. Make sure you have a favicon, this is a small logo you place on your site and it will be automatically picked up and displayed in your visitor's bookmarks, drawing attention to your page. Consider a bookmark and favicon like bread crumbs, all leading the visitor back to your page.

7. Cool

Every great webpage should have a WOW factor! Try to make your page stand out from the crowd. Try to make it unique, try to make it cool. Just remember, a simple professional webpage with valuable information is always cool. And remember there is nothing like a little good 'word of mouth' to get some traffíc drawing PR for your page. Great buzz about your webpage is worth its worth in gold.

So the next time you're designing a webpage, go all out and try to create your webpage with all of the characteristics listed above. Start with your keywords, keep it simple, proof-read and test for coding errors, create good navigation and optimize for the search engines, make sure you provide valuable fresh content and information. Last but not least, try your hardest to make your webpage memorable and bookmarkable. Make it a professional webpage that will be superior to the majority of other pages on the web.

Aim high and you will reap the rewards.

The Basics Of Podcasting
by Madison Lockwood

Podcasting in its simplest form is the uploading of MP3 files to the internet, where they can be accessed by the majority of the online universe with little more than a modern browser. You might consider a podcast to be an audio blog, although podcasts are basically standalone units of communication and not limited solely to “audio.” The term is also applied to short video pieces that are uploaded for general consumption; that is becoming more common, but the term was born as a reference to the audio format. Although the term stems from Apple’s iPod line of products it is generic in nature and refers to any MP3 (and increasingly, video) file provided via one Internet channel or another.

To that end, the number of channels that are now using podcasts is nothing short of phenomenal. They are used in educational formats (distance learning programs) and by the mainstream media. Business Week Online is an example of excellent utilization of the format. They provide professionally conducted interviews with both newsmakers in the business world and with experts on topics like developing technology. It is both an extension of their current events function and the features section of the magazine that focuses on broader industry analysis.

Every major news outlet online ­ ABC, ESPN, Fox, CNN and so forth ­ use podcasts to augment their print-and-graphics webpage formats. You can find them on political websites and blogs, often carrying the candidate’s message but more often carrying the opponent’s gaffe. This particular phenomenon has led to the practice of campaigns hiring “trackers” to trail their opponent from public event to public event with a video camera, hoping to catch a misstatement, a contradiction or some sort of unfortunate occurrence that can be distributed via the assortment of political websites and blogs that clog the web today.

You can now “subscribe” to podcasts that are delivered via an RSS application automatically to your computer. “Podcasters” are individuals or information distributors of some sort that provide an ongoing series of podcasts. Podcasts very quickly found their way to the marketing and advertising industry, which has adopted them for widespread use on the Internet. Video podcasts in particular have become the most recent form of “popup” advertising on the web. You can be clicking through a commercial site and suddenly you are watching a commercial.

The proliferation of podcasts that are webcasts of mistakes, poor behavior or just plain foolishness began with people in the public eye but now extends well beyond the currently and formerly famous. Because these snippets of audio and video are so widespread and move across the digital network so quickly, one begins to feel uneasy. What if someone catches me falling off a bicycle and thinks it looks funny enough to share?

When email entered our society, it provided a screening device to communication that was somehow comforting. Podcasts and to some degree the whole social networking phenomenon create the opposite effect. It’s easy to feel exposed, regardless of the fact that you’re still one person using one computer.

For a technical explanation of the various methods of podcast delivery, take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting. They provide an excellent and extended explanation of the various software options and delivery choices that you can make in allowing podcasts into your life. For a fairly comprehensive directory of podcast feeds and sources, try http://www.podcast.net/. As a good resource for news in the podcast universe and also for a directory, there’s http://www.podcastingnews.com/


About the Author:

Madison Lockwood is a customer relations associate for http://www.apollohosting.com. She helps clients understand how a website may benefit them both personally and professionally. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, & VPS hosting to a wide range of customers.

Five Tools for Spying on Your Competition
by Kim Roach (c) 2006


Did you know that an ancient Chinese military document unlocks many of the secrets to your online success? This book is called "The Art of War" and was written during the 6th century by Sun Tzu. This famous document is one of the oldest and most famous studies of strategy and has had a huge influence on military planning as well as business tactics.
Sun Tzu wrote about the importance of knowing your competitors before competing. This wisdom is crucial to your online success. Here are some quotes that verify this truth in the art of war as well as business.

"If you know yourself, but not your enemy, for every battle won, you will suffer a loss."

"If you know your enemy and yourself, you will wín every battle."

Before you create your own marketing strategies, you must first know your competitors. By understanding your competitor's strategies, you can always stay a step ahead of them.

The key is knowing how to obtain all of this vital information without having to hire a PR firm, an FBI agent, or an undercover spy. Luckily for us, all we need are a few online tools to find out exactly how are competitors are running the show.

1. SpyFu.com

The first tool you should add to your arsenal can be found at SpyFu.com.

SpyFu.com is the long-awaited sequel to Googspy.com, a free competitive research tool that allows you to research your competitors marketing campaigns. SpyFu.com, however, stands head and shoulders above its predecessor, providing over twenty times more data.

This website monitors nearly 4.5 million domains, showing you exactly how much your competitors are paying for search advertising on a daily basis, the total number of clicks they are receiving, and their average ad position. SpyFu also reveals the exact keywords that your competitors are ranking for in organic search and who their top 100 competitors are.

2. Internet Archive

The next spy tool will enable you to explore a website's history and how it has changed over time. You can find all of this information at http://www.archive.org.

Many of you have probably heard of the Internet Archive. However, you may not realize that it is an extremely powerful tool for spying on your competition. Using this free and simple tool you can discover:

• How often a website has changed their copy?
  
  
• Whether or not a website is split testing? (This alone could show you years of data on what type of copy works best. Testing your own website copy is extremely important, but you should also be checking to see what your competitors are doing as well. You can learn volumes just by looking at what their salës page looks like over time.)
  
  
• Find out if your competitors have made any big changes in their offer, including price, bonuses, guarantees, etc.
  If you're just looking to have a little fun, then look up Google in the Internet Archive and see what their site looked like in 1998. You see, competitive intelligence can informative as well as amusing!
  

Next up is one of my favorite search tools.

3. Search Status

Search Status is one of the best SEO tools around. It is a plug-in for the Firefox browser so it comes completely free of charge.

You can use this tool to:

• Highlight no-follow links
  
  
• View any page in Archive.org
  
  
• Show all Whois information. This is especially useful if you want to find out who the owner of a website is. (great for setting up a joint venture)
  
  
• Show robots.txt file. This feature will show you exactly which pages and directories a website does not want listed because they want to keep them private. (can be quite informative.)
  
  
• Show Indexed Pages. Find out exactly how many pages a website has listed in all 3 major search engines.
  
  
• Show Backward Links. This feature will show you exactly which sites are linking to the current page or website that you are visiting. This is especially useful for finding link partners and affiliates.
  

The next tool will allow you to find out which web host a company is using. This information can be found at:

4. WhoIs.sc

Once you arrive at this site, you simply enter the domain name into the search box. You will then be taken to a page that will give you a wide variety of information on that domain. Scroll down to where it says "name servers". In this column you will often find the exact URL for the web hostíng company they use.

Our final spy tool comes straight from Google, allowing you to keep full-time tabs on the Internet without the hours of research it would normally require.

For many years, companies paid lots of monëy to PR firms to provide news items and updates on their competitors, often referred to as a "clipping service". With the onset of the Internet, these tools are now automated and free.

One such tool is:

5. Google Alerts

Using Google Alerts, you can easily monitor what is being said online about you, your company, your products, and your competition.

Google alerts shows results from the Web, Google News, and Google Blog search. All of this competitive intelligence can then be sent directly to your email inbox.

Simply enter the terms you want to track and Google will scour the Internet on a daily basis to keep you updated on your particular industry.

These alerts can notify you of when new links start pointing to your website, when someone uses one of your articles, or when the blogosphere mentions your name.

If you want to keep up with your competitor, simply enter the company name or their product and you can begin tracking what people are saying online about them.

Google Alerts is an indispensable tool for market research. Start creating your own Google Alerts at http://www.google.com/alerts.

Keep in mind, however, that these are only tools. Some of the most powerful competitive intelligence comes from actually surfing around your marketplace, visiting the forums, and buying your competitors' products. This is the only way to get a complete picture of what is happening in your industry.

If you want to wín in your marketplace, it's time you go undercover.


About The Author

Kim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews and SEO-News newsletters. You can also find additional tips and news on webmaster and SEO topics by Kim at the SiteProNews blog. Kim's email is: kim @ seo-news.com

How To Write Google Adwords Ads That Get Clicks
by Ryan Cole

A typical AdWords newbie is often guilty of several profit-squashing mistakes when setting up his first campaign. There are dozens of no-nos, but perhaps none so egregious as writing ineffective ads.

An effective AdWords ad is one that gets lots of clicks — that's the only thing you should be concerned about when writing your ads (except, of course, Google’s editorial policy). If you’ve done your keyword research, you’ll get impressions; if you’ve got a page that converts to sales, you’ll get a return on your investment. But getting people to your landing page is the ad’s job, and there are some things you can do to pump up your clickthrough rate (CTR), which will improve your ads' positioning and lower your click costs.

First, some ad basics. Each AdWords ad comprises four lines of text: the first is the headline, which can contain up to 25 characters including spaces; the next two are the ad copy, 35 characters each; and the last is your display URL, also 35 characters. (There is actually a fifth line — the destination URL — but that won't display with your ad and shouldn't affect your CTRs). Obviously, the headline is most important, because it’s usually the first thing a searcher sees. If you can make your headline jump out from the rest, your ad will be more visible. Fortunately, Google makes this pretty easy.

You may have noticed that, when searching on Google, your search query is bolded when it appears in any of the search results. The same thing goes for sponsored search results: if you include the keywords you’re bidding on in your ad text, specifically the headline, your ad will stand out.

But what if you’ve got hundreds or thousands of keywords? You can’t be expected to write a different ad for each keyword, right? Of course not — and you don’t have to. In AdWords, your keywords can be separated into groups, aptly dubbed "ad groups." Each ad group should contain a set of keywords and phrases that all have a common thread. For example, if you’re bidding on the term “widgets,” you should place each phrase containing that term into one ad group. You then write an ad whose title contains the word “widgets” — for example, “Get Your Widgets Here.” You can even repeat this for terms within ad groups. For example, in your “widgets” group, you might have the terms “red widgets” and “green widgets.” You can take these out and place each in its own ad group, along with any other similar phrases. Then your ads will be even more focused — for example, “Get Red Widgets Here.” The more keywords that appear in your ad, the more relevant your ad becomes.

Chris McNeeney, author of "AdWords Miracle," has some great copywriting tips. Chris used to write classified ads for a living, and his mastery of the art is evident in the techniques he outlines in his book. For example, he talks about a method called "stop them in their tracks." To stop potential customers in their tracks, you've got to come up with ad copy that tells customers to do the opposite of what they're trying to do. In keeping with the widgets theme, you could write an ad whose headline says, "Don't Buy Any Widgets!" Follow that up with some relevant ad text that entices people to buy your widgets rather than someone else's, by including the benefits your widgets offer; e.g., "Check out ours first. Better, cheaper, and guaranteed." This kind of ad will get people's attention right away, and getting their attention is all you need to do.

And now, an experiment. Pretend you want to buy something online. Head over to Google and do a search for whatever it is. See the sponsored links? Look at the headlines. Which one jumps out at you first? I’m betting it’s the one that seemed most relevant to your search because it contained the exact information you searched for. What’s the headline look like? I bet at least one of the words is bolded (if not all of them), and I’ll bet the rest of the ad lets you know exactly what you’ll get when you click on it. This is the best way to figure out how to write ads. Put yourself in the place of your target market, and then actually do some searches and check out the ads. Which one makes you want to click? Ask people you know to do searches and tell you which ads grab their attention. You’ll probably find it’s the same kind of ad every time.


About the Author:

Find more articles by Ryan Cole at http://www.theinternetmarketingblog.org. Read more about Chris McNeeney's http://www.theinternetmarketingblog.org