If you’ve noticed a steep drop in your website’s organic rankings or seen a noticeable decline in web traffic and leads, then chances are your website’s been penalized by the latest algorithm update from Google. Google’s Panda and Penguin algorithm updates are intended to promote higher quality content from blogs and websites as well as eliminate attempts by webmasters to fake their way towards higher organic rankings through black-hat SEO techniques.

In the aftermath of Panda and Penguin, countless websites have seen their ranks and traffic take a significant dive due to poor or manipulative SEO techniques. While both target websites that deliberately utilize manipulative techniques in order to achieve high organic rankings, it’s also caught thousands of legitimate websites in its dragnet.

The best way to recover from a Google penalty is to transition your current online marketing strategy from links to pay-per-click. As it turns out, Google’s business model is primarily based on attracting traffic through organic results, from which a percentage of users end up clicking on the sponsored listings at the top of the search results. In fact, Google’s seen a 40-percent increase in PPC click-throughs, according to Deeho SEO.

By bidding on PPC keywords and phrases through Google AdWords, not only will you be able to more effectively target your potential customers, but you’ll also see your website appearing within the sponsored listings before the regular search listings, giving your website greater visibility and with time, higher organic search rankings.

PPC works as an alternative to waiting on a long and thorough analysis of your current SEO techniques to pay dividends. Nevertheless, it’s always best to find out what triggered your Google penalty and take steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Along with improving overall website quality and link auditing, effective PPC management techniques can help you get your organic rankings back and restore traffic.

In the world of online marketing, there are plenty of tools at your disposal you can use to generate both results and revenue for your webpages. Pay-per-click advertising is one such tool and in the right hands, it can bring about stunning results. In order to understand the intent of PPC advertising and its impact on your online marketing efforts, you must first ask yourself a simple question: “What is PPC?”

Pay-per-click ads are sponsored advertisements that appear alongside natural, non-paid search results, usually segregated underneath clearly-defined “sponsored links” or “sponsored ads” sections. Advertisers reserve or bid on the keywords and/or phrases their target audience is most likely to type in the search field as they search for specific goods and services.

If their search query matches the keyword or phrase, the PPC ad will appear either above or to the right of the natural search results. PPC ads also appear on non-search engine websites. These ads are usually found in areas where they can be easily seen by visitors but without distracting them from the website’s content.

Bid-based PPC is the most common model of pay-per-click advertising. It works similarly to a silent auction – advertisers bid on their keywords and phrases against other advertisers. These auctions play out each time a visitor triggers an ad spot as a part of the search engine results page. Bids are usually paid for on a cost-per-click basis – the advertiser is charged whenever a visitor clicks on the bidded link.

There are plenty of PPC management services out there, but Google AdWords and Bing Ads are considered the most reliable and visible. These organizations offer a variety of tools for fine-tuning, analyzing and bidding on preferred keywords and phrases. For example, AdWords allows advertisers to set a daily budget and automatically manages CPC bids.

Keywords are the key to any successful Pay-per-click campaign, but it can be tough figuring out the right way to use them. Fortunately, Google AdWords make the tough task of PPC management a bit easier to deal with. Google match types play an important role in helping potential customers find your product without having to sift through or bid on countless unique query ideas. Learning how to use match types seems difficult at first, but they become powerful tools with enough practice.

The main three Google match types are “broad match,” “phrase match” and “exact match.” Google actually encourages you to start off with broad match keywords to gain a large number of impressions and refine from there. However, your main goal should be to minimize as much irrelevant web traffic as possible. You can see for yourself the different match types available and how they relate to matching search queries:

Broad Match: The user’s search term only has to match one word of any terms contained in your bidded keyword to display your ad. (i.e. “dress shirts”)

Modified Broad Match: Uses special anchor words that absolutely must match one or more words in the search keyword. Insert a + sign in front of the keyword to identify it as an anchor word. (i.e. “dress +shirts” or “+dress +shirts”)

Phrase Match: The entire bidded keyword appears within the matching search query in the exact order that the keywords appear. For example, the phrase “striped dress shirts” matches “striped dress shirts,” “cheapest striped dress shirts” and “buy striped dress shirts” search terms.

Exact Match: Contains the exact bidded keyword as it appears and does not contain any additional terms, plurals or variations. For the keyword “striped dress shirts,” there’s only one matching term. (i.e. “striped dress shirts”)

The ultimate success of any pay-per-click campaign depends on how well your ad efforts score. Google and other search engines give quality scores based on the following factors:

• Ad relevancy
• Keyword and search term relevancy
• Landing page relevancy

In other words, it’s all about keeping your campaign relevant to the users you want to attract and convert into viable customers. Raising your quality scores through good keyword PPC management and landing page relevancy will help you get the best return on investment when it comes to your marketing efforts.

Here are five ways you can improve your campaign’s quality score, which in turn can raise your click-through rate, increase ROI and drive more customers to your products and services:

1. Generate keywords that are relevant to your target group. Relevant keywords play an important role in when it comes to quality scores. Researching your analytics can help you produce a well-targeted list of relevant keywords.
2. Fine-tune your keywords through ad groups. A single ad group with a bunch of keywords isn’t as effective as several carefully-segmented ad groups with a few relevant keywords each.
3. Connect your keywords with quality content. How people see your ad’s content can make or break their decision to click through. Not only should your content be focused and appropriate for the relevant keyword, but it should also grab visitors’ attention and keep them engaged.
4. Split test ad groups. Running two ads side-by-side while comparing data from both can help identify strong performers and shake out less successful ads. Remember that using the “Rotate evenly” option in your Google AdWords settings will give all of your current active ads equal presence.
5. Create effective and relevant landing pages. After clicking through, your visitors should arrive at a well-designed, concise and relevant landing page. Keyword consistency should carry through to the page’s title tags, page headers and body content.

Length: 30 minutes

Increasing your pay per click advertising budget does not equate to increased revenue. In fact, your budget might have nothing to do with your revenue. Instead of focusing on spending, learn different solutions for different problems in this Tuesday’s webinar at 10am MT. It’s time for you to take the guessing out of your PPC advertising budget.

From our PPC management webinar you will learn:

• When you should increase your PPC budget
• When you should decrease your PPC budget
• What to do once you’ve been consistently hitting your daily budgets
• What the display network is and how to use it to increase traffic

Length: 30 minutes

Coordinate Your PPC and SEO for Maximum Results

This webinar spotlights a recent case study that illustrates how running both PPC and SEO together can significantly increase results. We will discuss how revenue jumped from $10,000 per week to $17,000 per week.  This exciting webinar will also discuss the following:

• Find out how claiming more search engine real-estate can greatly boost ROI.
• How much traffic are you missing?
• Common objections for not running both
• PPC keyword strategies that help your SEO keyword research

Length: 30 minutes

PPC advertising can be an overwhelming endeavor to jump right into. Without understanding why certain words cost what they do, many people grow frustrated not knowing what to expect from their advertising expenses.
Take the guesswork out of pay-per-click advertising. Learn from our PPC agency specialists what factors determine costs per click so you can confidently enter this industry.
From our webinar you will learn:

• How the rules of supply and demand affect costs
• What determines Quality Score
• Exceptions to the rules

When it comes to pay per click advertising, sometimes it’s not what you say, but what you don’t say that helps make the sale. Negative keywords help you efficiently reach your audience because they make it so your ads never display on certain search terms. This means when an irrelevant term is searched, like “toy boats” if one of your keywords is “boating toys,” your ad will not display. In doing this, you save money which can be put toward relevant advertising. In this webinar, one of our top pay per click services specialists will teach you how to optimize negative keywords to reach your target audience.

In just 30 minutes you will learn:

• What negative keywords are
• How to find negative keywords for your account
• How to implement negative keywords in Google and the Display Network

Pay per click advertising (also known as PPC) is a cost-effective way for businesses to allocate their advertising resources. By only paying when an ad receives a click, clients can be assured that they receive the most promising leads possible.

Start with Keywords

PPC is only as effective as the keywords used to create your campaign. Carefully selected keywords (especially ones that are specific to your lines of business) are the foundation of good advertising.

Identify Negative Keywords

Next, negative keywords filter out the searches you don’t want. For example, you may not want to “waste” clicks on searchers looking for tutorials, pictures, or instructions. Using these as negative keywords prevents ineffective displays and clicks.

Finish With Geo-Targeting

For local businesses, the most important part of a campaign comes with Geo-targeting. Geo-targeting refers to the Radius your campaign covers–the coordinates of your “center” and the span of the geographical area that you want to reach.

Geo-targeting needs between brick-and-mortar businesses and those which are service-based differ.

For example, a local florist with a tight budget may restrict their search to a small Geo-targeting radius, paired with Geo-modifiers that identify the name of their neighborhood specifically. This way, they attract “locals” who are looking to fulfill a need in the immediate future. Conversely, a plumber who is able to offer a larger service area will likely increase their radius and identify a greater amount of Geo-modifiers.

When selecting geo-targets, make sure to examine potentially valuable areas just outside your radius–such as transit stops or shopping centers. It may be worthwhile to expand your search area just enough to include them!

A marketing agency can help you decide on an ideal Geo-targeting strategy and refine it as needed, conserving your resources and delivering the highest quality leads possible.

Why should you outsource PPC management instead of keeping it in-house–or doing it yourself? There are many ways a good pay per click management firm can increase your bottom line and help you rest easy at the end of each day. Here are three of the most important.

1. Specialization & Experience

Realistically, no business owner or department manager can manage a pay per click ad campaign the same way as a PPC management company can.

This isn’t due to any failing on the part of the ownership or management. It’s just simple math: the team at a good pay per click Management Company has a great deal of combined training and experience with PPC campaigns.

Each individual on a good team will have undergone extensive training and certification (such as Google AdWords Certification). More importantly, each member of the team will have gone through the kind of learning curve that can cost business owners thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars to work through. Plus, you’ll be the beneficiary of the massive advertising brain trust that typically exists in this environment.

2. Savings & Profits

Think hiring a PPC management company will wreck your budget? When you consider the kind of revenue an specialized, experienced ad management team can bring in, as well as the costly beginner’s lessons you’ll avoid by hiring a team instead of doing it yourself (not to mention keeping up with the ever-changing world of PPC advertising), you can actually count the money you spend outsourcing as an investment with an incredibly positive return.

3. Peace of Mind

At the end of the day, the best thing about hiring a professional pay per click Management Company is the sleep you’ll get at night! The world of pay per click management is demanding at the best of times–and hair-pullingly stressful at the worst. A good PPC management company will ensure you can relax, knowing the future of your business is in good hands.

Why outsource your PPC management? As you can see, it’s a great way to bring experienced professional onto your team in a way that saves your budget, increases your profit, and helps you sleep better at night!