Nancy’s post for today is found at Web-World Watch and is on the topic of organic results versus paid advertising.
Organic versus Paid Ad Listings
Nancy’s post for today is found at Web-World Watch and is on the topic of organic versus pay per click listings.
Organic Vs Paid Listings on Google
Consistently I have run into confusion on clients’ parts thinking that participating in sponsored search or paid advertising listings on Google, Yahoo or MSN will raise their organic ranking. This is not true.
Paid or Sponsored Search
These are the text ads that appear on the right side of the search query results screen and at the top of the page typically in a colored box. How one appears here is to use a paid advertising service unique for each search engine for Google, it is Google AdWords, for Yahoo, it is Yahoo Sponsored Search, and for MSN it is Microsoft adCenter. To get top ranking in the results you must have a higher than you competitor maximum cost per click setting and a”satisfactory” click through rate. You also must have a Good or Great quality score. Quality score is the factor of a tight match between your landing page content, ad text and keyword trigger list. To get in the colored boxes you need typically a click through rate of over 2.5%.
Organic Search Listings
This is also know as the SERPs (search engine results placement). Organic listings are determined by each search engine’s algorithm. Google has over 150 different factors which it will consider to determine your site’s placement on the page. Some of these factors include size of your website, how frequently you update your content, how many quality sites on your topic link into yours, the keyword density of your keywords on the page and their match to the search query, how long you have held your domain name, the length of your renewal, and many other secret factors known only to Google.
Organic and paid results do not affect each other. They are entirely separate and participation in one has absolutely no bearing on performance in the other.
Domain Expiration Don’t Let It Happen to You!
When you get a notice that your domain is about to expire, make sure you react, and react quickly. There is nothing worse than having to let a client know that in their ignorance and lack of action that they have lost their domain name or will have to pay several hundred dollars to get it back if they can even get it back.
ICANN has rules on what happens when a domain name expires. However the charges to get it back are in part determined by your registrar. In several situations the client has ignorantly not responded to numerous notes from the registrar to renew their domain name. In some cases they felt that they were on auto renew, but did not realize that their credit card had expired that was on file with the registrar.
If you let your domain name expire, this is typically what will happen. First your registrar will give you a grace period, then they will repoint the domain to a parking page in some cases taking down your email and website. Sometimes they don’t do this, GoDaddy will hoping to get your attention. If you still don’t respond, then the registrar will take back and own your domain. You will have to pay sometimes several hundred dollars to get your domain back at this stage, but you really have no choice. If you still don’t respond, then anyone who had reserved your domain gets an opportunity to buy it. Finally the domain goes back on the open market.
I have seen some registrars automatically keep control of the domain for several months trying to get more money from you to return the domain to the original owner.
The bottom-line is that if you want the domain you should not let it expire. If you have, then sometimes the best action is to move to a new domain name. It simply may be too costly to get your domain back.
Routinely when I renew a domain I start 30 days out. Sometimes the client does not know the registrar and research needs to be done. Sometime the client does not even own the domain and work needs to be done to secure it first. DO NOT wait until the last minute to renew your domain, it is simply too crucial for your business!