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I tried goto and findwhat and neither was able to match the traffic I get from the other top search engines. As a matter of fact I get more traffic to my sites than all of goto gets for the same search!
Fortunately I have a great promotion guy working on my sites. They average 60+ #1 and 120 or so top ten rankings. The cost of this promotion was much less than what goto would cost me. In the end it pays to not take the quick and easy fix to a problem.
Always love it when the author, assumes the identity of both the client and the SEO Company, but fails to mention they are the SEO Company...
Webace is correct in one respect.. Many times optimization in the majors, will yield just as/more targeted traffic, for less money...
But a poor way of trying to blow one's own whistle...
I think it is important for people to know the facts and be able to consider the alternatives.
If you are really serious about succeeding on the net you need to make the most of every promotion dollar. Find yourself any really competent SEO and stop trying to fight the big odds by throwing money away.
There is so much competition out there and search engine promotion is such a specialized and competitive field that the average person is just not armed with the knowlwdge or time to do it right.
Think of it this way....your site is probably competing with sites that have pros promoting them. These are people who do this day in and day out. And what about the thousands of other pages out there competing for your keywords?
Most people think of promotion as an after thought. I own a web hosting site and I can't tell you how many people I've spoken with who thought if they build it they will come.
The fact is if you really want to succeed you should have knowledgable consultation during the design phase of your site. Most designers are unaware of the common and costly design errors they make when it comes to SEO.
Again I am not saying come to me but get some good help for your own sake. I am done for now, G'day all
PPC engines let you custom tailor descriptions and titles, and change them rapidly - that alone can be worth the price of entry. The ability to launch a new promotion quickly also comes into play. I once worked with a business that launched a product-specific website for a limited two month campaign, right before the Y2K changeover. It never would have been successful without GoTo -- SEO takes too long.
Also, I have a client who nearly doubled their AOL clicks with a GoTo bid, and they already held the number one spot on the regular AOL SERP. Top of the page is sometimes better than just being number one.
So your mileage may vary a lot from business to business and case to case. Intelligent PPC can be a very important part of the promotional toolkit.
No advantage, if the ROI is not acceptable for the specific business.
However as a Brick and Mortar retailer of many years. A long term balanced multie prong approach will always win. I can't tell you how many times I would come up against an event where we had done a direct mail catalog, TV adds,Radio and print. We would then in our wisdom decide to drop something and get killed. In the brick and mortar world the Halo effect of it all working together makes it Pop (a customer may need to see you several times before they react).
I am learning that the sames principals apply to the web. A top of the page Looksmart listing brings good traffic but add a good INK ranking on the same page and traffic increases. As Tedster said Goto plus Aol is a win, That also applies to the rest of the goto partners. Now add to that page a good banner add and you have a grand slam.
The end result, is the site good enough to give you a conversion rate that equals a acceptable ROI ?
Balance is always Important.
