4 Ways to Avoid an Increase in Google AdWord's Price-Per-Click

Handling your own Google AdWords account can be an incredibly time consuming and confusing experience. Trying to generate leads while conforming to Google's ever-increasing standards at times, may seem like a guessing game. And without hiring a pay-per-click professional, most ophthalmologists are probably experiencing an increase on some level to their price-per-click, which is the actual price they pay to have any one person click on an ad when it shows up in the search engine results pages. Recently, the Google AdWords program has created a robot (spider) dedicated entirely to crawling web pages in order to evaluate their quality.

What does this mean? Well, pages not meeting certain "quality" indicators are sure to see a dramatic increase in their price-per-click. And, what may be more important, since Google is now spidering sites in AdWords, one may assume it won’t be long until they incorporate this data into their organic search results - perhaps favoring those who use the AdWords program over those who don't.

So what are the "quality" indicators in question? For starters, your contact information should be readily available throughout your site, not just the Contact Us page. A small blurb indicating your email, phone and mailing address needs to present - I would suggest on every page - just to be safe. Oh, and make sure your Contact Us page is highly accessible from anywhere.

It's a good idea to have a Privacy Policy page clearly linked from your home page. As a medical professional, you may have a good idea what to include on this page, but if you think you need some help, Click Here to get a good idea of what Google thinks is important. And please - DO NOT COPY A PRIVACY POLICY FROM SOMEONE ELSE! This may seem common sense, but you'd be surprised.

Try to cut down on the number of "404 Page Not Found" error pages for all links internal and external. 404's are bad for both the end user and the search engine spider. Most folks who run across one will immediately leave your site - and so will a Google AdWords indexing spider. If your site has many error pages and you don't know how to fix this on your own, then contact your webmaster or visit Page1Solutions.com for a free LASIK website consultation.

Create a Links page. Linking out to other "high quality" web sites within the realm of the LASIK industry tells the spider that you consider yourself an authority and would like to be recognized as one. Finding .org and .edu sites as well as any particular LASIK associations you belong to and linking to them is highly advisable.

Tips for Google

I recently read this in an e-newsletter that I subscribe to and think it makes some very simple and obvious - but good - points. Here they are:

"- Link exchanges for SEO [Search Engine Optimization] is a bad idea. There is a big difference between link exchanges for SEO and two sites that happen to exchange links. Using automatic link exchanges, having highly unrelated links, massive amounts of links regardless of the quality, etc should be avoided at all costs.

- Purchasing links is definitely a bad idea. Some argue that Google could never find out who is selling links. (I have to say that there are ways to purchase links that are not obvious to Google or any other human. Be careful if you go this route for your LASIK website.) The fact is, though, that purchased links, at least at the most basic level where they are clearly paid for, is extremely easy to detect.

- Thousands of links does not mean what it used to. Links must be related. If you want to see a significant effect, they should also come from highly trusted websites in a natural way. It is possible to be hurt by bad links.

- Obvious SE [Search Engine] spam, such as hidden text, redirects, etc will eventually get you banned.

- Being a careful webmaster is important. Innocent and careless mistakes can and will cost you. Setting up a website with broken links, multiple URLs for the same page, poor navigation, etc will scream poor quality.

- Rehashing content does not work. Google wants one of two things: 1) completely original content, or 2) content conglomerated in a completely original fashion. This goes along the duplicate content filter that is talked about so much.

How do we know these things? Because Google has been open about what they are looking for. These are not theories based on observations; these are things that Google has discussed openly through employees, at conferences, through the tools they offer us. Unfortunately many webmasters simply do not want to listen.”

Visit this page for more information about link popularity.

The author of the article is Mark Daoust who is the owner of Site Reference. Hopefully, his words of wisdom will help you too.

Dan Goldstein
Page 1 Solutions

Choosing colors for your website

Colors can have a strong effect on your website visitors. A wrong color or the wrong mix of colors can impact how people view your site and navigate through it. On the other hand the right set of colors can effectively push a potential patient through a website to your intended goal.

Color is all around us and our subconscious emotions and reactions to them are worth noting. For instance bright colors tend to stir us up where softer colors tend to relax us.

When it comes to picking colors for your new website, logo or branding campaign, there are no definitive rules. Different things work for different people. They key is to identify what emotions you want evoked from a visitor due to the color you choose. In addition, depending on age, sex and cultural background, people will be attracted to varying colors. Traditionally, men look for strong, bold colors whereas women like to be surrounded by softer, pastel colors.

A good rule of thumb is to keep the number of colors on your site to a minimum, between 2-4, with one of those colors only used as an accent color. The accent color of your choosing should contrast with the rest of the site and drive the user’s eyes to a specific section of your site. A talented designer will incorporate all of the colors, including the contrasting element, and visual flow of the site to further drive your visitor’s eyes.

Below is a list of how colors can affect us in different ways:

Red - Passion, power, strength, attention-getting. Red is often a good choice for call to action items. Red can also invoke excitement, cheerfulness and warmth. The downside of red for surgeons is that it evokes the image of blood – something we definitely don’t want LASIK patients to think about.

Blue - Confidence, truth, and professionalism. It can also invoke dependability, patience, cooperation, understanding, and loyalty. It is often associated with intelligence, trust and reassurance.

Green - Wealth, money, prosperity, health, nature, hope and growth. It can also come across as fresh and soothing.

Yellow - Purity and joy. Yellow, a warm color often represents sunshine, energy and happiness.

Black - Authority, committed, classy, elegance, serious, and sophistication.

White - Purity, perfection, fresh, and cleanliness.

The right set of colors can be very effective in driving your visitors and getting the results you want from your LASIK website.

Aaron Gerblich
Account Manager
Page1Solutions

Hanging In There with Sticktoitiveness

Some of my most successful clients today didn't always do so well on the search engines. Many of them had new websites that the search engines were turning a cold shoulder to. Others had websites that used to do very well but over time had fallen out of the web's limelight. In each of these cases, determination won the battle for my clients and they now enjoy solid presence on the search engines, including Google.

If your site isn't doing as well as you would like it to be doing, one of the worst things that you can do is ignore the problem. If you're not happy, make your concerns known to your marketing company. They should have their finger on your website's pulse and should have a fairly good idea of how your site is performing, but ultimately they need you to tell them if you're not getting as many emails as you would like to. At Page 1 Solutions, we have a few different measures of a website's success, but our main way of telling whether or not our clients are happy is by talking to them.

If you want to do more with the web, whether it's because you're not doing well or because you're hungry for more, be sure to let your web marketer know how you're feeling. By being up front with your expectations, you'll hopefully get quicker results. If your web marketing company isn't being responsive, it may be time to find another provider, but keep doing what's working. Don't scrap your entire marketing plan. If you do that, you may find yourself sliding further downhill instead of climbing to a new level of success.

There is No Web Marketing Miracle

This is key to understand. No one can offer you instant, lasting results. You can pay for sponsored listings on the search engines, but when the money runs out, your presence is zilch. The only way to obtain lasting results on the search engines is through blood, sweat, and tears - well, and money. We all know well enough to steer clear of "get rich quick" schemes. We all need to learn that the same applies to "instant web results quick and cheap" schemes. Anyone who says that can position you well on the search engines for $50 a month has 50 angry surgeons on the line and is replacing them as they go. Don't be one of those surgeons. Start with a solid online investment and branch off from there.

Stick To It -tivenes

Above all, stay active in your web marketing. Web marketers are like those little lizards that can run across water. They have webbed feet and are speedy little guys, but if they stopped running...well, I'm sure that they can swim if they have to. Don't get caught standing still, or your competition will speed past you while you're struggling to keep your head above water.

Here's what you need to do:

Keep on top of your web guy.

Keep blogging.

Keep posting electronic public relations articles.

Keep adding pages to your website.

Eventually, your determination will pay off and you'll find that you've reached the first page of the search engines.

Jonathan Fashbaugh
Page 1 Solutions