We're doing quite a bit of search engine work at the moment - that's is, we're working on sites to help them achieve a top search engine ranking.

It's really easy to quantify the benefits of search engine work. Here's an example:

• A site is in a niche whose main product attracts 80,000 searches per month.
• 3% of the people who visit that web site buy the product.
• The product sells for $60.

If we get the # 1 position for that main search term here's what will happen.

1. 33,600 visitors - 42% will click on the # 1 position
2. 1,008 sales
3. $60,480 sales per month

Perfectly quantifiable. Which means that our client can look at the amount we've quoted him, look at our track record, look at the potential rewards and make an informed decision on the Risk/Benefit ratio.

According to data released by the UK Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), total online advertising expenditure in the UK totaled £1.4 billion ($3.4 billion AUD) in 2005 – a huge 65.6% increase on 2004.

The UK figures almost mirror the Australian industry which shows that online advertising will overtake the amount spent on print and radio advertising by the end of the year.

Wow!

It’s very easy to understand this incredible growth - online advertising is fully accountable, flexible and it works.

No more do advertisers have to take pot luck with ad campaigns based on nothing more than readership or viewers who have no interest whatsoever in what is being advertised.

As good as Pay Per Click advertising is (and it's fantastic), getting high search engine rankings for the terms people search for in relation to your business or product is even better.

Here are 2 reasons why:

1. It’s free—You don’t have to pay each time someone clicks your link (although you might/probably have to pay someone to get your site highly ranked) 2. More people click on the ‘normal’ search engine listings than the Pay per Click ads

In our above Pay Per Click Case Study (in the full article), you saw that 2.2% of people who see the ads click on them.

A high search engine ranking can get clicked on about 40% of the time!

Google has just purchased YouTube (a video web site) for a staggering $1.65 US billion.

Microsoft are launching a new portable media player - called the Zune - in time for Christmas (in the USA & hopefully Australia).

Copyblogger is quickly gaining a reputation as the best copywriting blog on the web. Check it out for some fantastic copywriting tips.

Email: brendon@tailored.com.au