Using PPC in informational searches
-
What is your take on using PPC to be the "first" result in an informational search when your goal is truly to deliver information, educate, and affect public opinion?
I'm following a large bureaucratic non-governmental organization who has a mission to get accurate information to the public -- they have nothing to literally sell, not even donations -- they're a membership NGO, and this is part of their charity mission. They have sat at about 6th place in the organic rankings for years, while other non-profits and for-profit companies on the other side of the issue (that do have something to literally sell to the traffic they generate off this search) rank in the number 2 and 4 spot. Wikipedia ranks number 1. An About.com site generally ranks #3.
On related long tail keywords the bureaucratic NGO often doesn't even rank at all in the organic searches -- it's all the opposing non-profits and for-profits dominating those long tail informational searches.
Now I'm seeing the bureaucratic NGO is doing PPC to be the first result on the main search and a bunch of long tails. I am seeing some changes in their website, too, to make it less bureaucratic, more user-friendly, less technical and boring, and more visual and interesting. I'm not privy to what they're doing internally, and I'm not sure if they are doing link-building for climbing in the organic rankings. I'm a newbie to SEO - most of my understanding is based on Moz Beginner's Guide, Moz Link guide, discussions on here, and what I find from googling about SEO concepts. I gather from the google searches that I've done that you don't normally try to use PPC to buy first place in informational searches -- that with informational searches, you should be emphasizing quality link building. I'm also not sure how sustainable it would be to stay at the top position by buying the top position through PPC -- although its conceivable to me that this organization could do that indefinitely, because they're not trying to make a profit off these searches, and they're big and got the bucks.
Any insights on PPC in purely informational campaigns?
-
Thank you for posting this! I had read another thread about a non-profit's Google grant, but I didn't fully put two and two together the relevance to this questions, plus how I should get on it with setting it up!
-
Hi,
Have you heard about Google Ad Grants? You should check once whether your website eligible for Ad grants or not.
$10,000 per month.
"Google Ad Grants is the nonprofit edition of AdWords, Google's online advertising tool. Google Ad Grants empowers nonprofit organisations, through $10,000 per month in in-kind AdWords
advertising, to promote their missions and initiatives on Google search result pages."
To know more @ http://www.google.co.in/grants/
Or if not eligible you can start PPC campaign with low budget and if you need any help on running campaign please ask your question here. You will get all the answers.
Hope this helps.
Thanks
-
This is just my opinion. I think that a lot of people who run PPC on informative content are running a "mission" and not a "business". To them the mission is more relevant than the costs.
And, I am sure that a lot of people running PPC for the informative content of a "business" are blowing a lot of money. Of course, all forms of promotion have a cost, so I don't promote my content. I allow and hope that my visitors will do it for me. So far, I am having more success than failures.
-
It's great to get your perspective EGOL -- I have been reading good posts from you on other threads about PPC, too, and those have helped me ramp up my knowledge of PPC.
To clarify, the large bureaucratic NGO is an organization whose mission I support, so I'm interested in whether they're doing good SEM and SEO as a supporter, not as a competitor. I want to see them doing effective things for SEO and getting that mission out there.
Also, I'm interested in their strategy to know when and whether it is effective for my websites as well -- as in: general learning.
-
Some people simply want visibility.
Linda suggests that they have embarked on a new desire for visibility and that their organic efforts will follow. That could be true.
Maybe they have no organic efforts or inept organic efforts.
Whatever the reason, you might never know. All that you know is that they have decided to pay for exposure at this time. It could be a vanity effort or a sign that something impressive is about to occur.
You are probably right. They seem to have a "mission". _These are not the kinds of competitors that I enjoy. This is a situation where Google results reflect "mission" rather than "merit". _
These might be good competitors to have if you want to sell a website that ranks above them. But, at the same time they might not be the type of buyer who's money you would enjoy as much as owning the website above theirs..
-
If you set up a ppc campaign for something you'd like to rank for organically, you can get information you could not get from Google otherwise, such as what searches are bringing up your ad, which can help your organic efforts going forward. It is also a way to get people to see your information when they may not have been able to find it organically yet. It sounds like you have the money available to test this, so try it and see what results you get.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Why not just use an alias if the only change is a different domain Name?
We are rebranding our store with a new name. We have purchased a NewDomainName. Can I just make the "Old Domain Name" an alias for the "NewDomainName"? The site will not change in any other way than having a new logo. This is an e-commerce site with over 100 categories of artisan made products. So once we move the site, the old domain will be empty. Thank you Stephen
Branding | | stephenfishman1 -
Using keywords for e-commerce SEO / marketing
For e-commerce sites, how do you generate an increase of site/ product optimization using keywords and without paying for advertising? Any creative ideas?
Branding | | Malibu_Surfboards902650 -
Spam in search engine results for company brand name
Hi, I'm having a strange problem with a certain comapny. When you Google their brand name the first 8 results or so are related - their site, Google+ page, Twitter etc. The rest of the results are completely unrelated to the site and much of it is in another language and looks really spammy. According to the site owner until recently the first 50-60 results were related - mostly local results, press releases, and franchise companies listing his business. They don't have a great link profile but that shouldn't have them dropping out of the results, especially since they're still ranking in the top 1-8 positions. Here's the strangest part: the company name is Libertana. All the spammy results are not so much spammy, they're related to the syllable "na". Examples: Ivanyukite-Na Mineral Data įt$koka!na's sounds on SoundCloud - Hear the world's sounds Bosiniya na Herizegovina - Wikipedia What on earth is going on? Why would they rank for the last syllable of their name?
Branding | | storemachine0 -
What vanity Url should I use for Google+ business page?
I recently been given the option to choose between my brand and my most important keyword for my Google+ business page. the site is a touristic site for a popular location. The keyword is the name of that location. Which one is better for Seo purposes? Thanks.
Branding | | ceci27101 -
Long term risks of using .org for commercial websites
Hi everybody, I'm having a 'heated' discussion with a collegae about .org domains. Originally .org domains were created for non-profit organizations and it was fairly difficult to get a .org domain ( like .gov and .edu still are). Nowadays it's easy to register a .org domain and i see plenty of commercial .org emd's ranking well. We are planning on launching a new white label in the Netherlands (.nl) and have several domains in our portfolio that we can us for this. I recommend using an exact match .org domain (.nl and .com are already taken) for the new white label www.exactkeyword.org. **My collegae says don't use www.exactkeyword.org, because we aren't a non-profit organizaton and we can't garantuee we won't lose our rankings over the next 3 to 4 years. He would recommend going with the available www.exact-keyword.info. ** Who right and who's wrong and why? Can i garantuee no risk with .org for a commercial organization?
Branding | | PrizeWize0 -
Using Multiple Locations for Google Business/Maps
Hey MOZers, I currently work for a company with several other offices in other countries. Is it possible to set-up Google 'Business' and Google 'Maps' pages so when a user in a given country queries 'our business' on either Google 'Search' or Google 'Maps' they will receive the relevant business information for that country. For example, if an internet user in Canada enters a query for 'our business' in Canada (and we have an office in Canada) is there anyway to set up our Google Business page and Google Maps page so that user receives the contact information for the Canada office, rather than the US office? Conversely, if someone in the United States enters a search query for 'our business' is there a way to set it up so that the user receives our address in the states?
Branding | | NiallSmith0 -
What are some good ways to market a used car sales site?
I have thought of using craigslist and other classified ads, social media and of course good old SEO. What else can be done to drive traffic to a used car website?
Branding | | MangoMan160 -
Anybody use Twibbon to promote a website/cause/event?
I stumbled across Twibbon today - it's a service that basically creates an easy way for you to brand your Twitter/Facebook pictures, and to allow others to promote your cause as well. I'm not sure if I'm late to get on board here or if this is a relatively new thing, but it seems pretty cool. I can definitely see this really working out for promoting philanthropic causes. It would also work really well for events - imagine if every speaker at an SEO conference used Twibbon to brand their Twitter/Facebook? I think it would really help with branding, for both individuals and businesses.
Branding | | AnthonyMangia1