BCL Performance Marketing: Ethical Affiliate Marketing Australia: Pay-per-click and search engine issues

Pay-per-click and search engine issues

Try pretending that you are a new or existing customer who tries to get to your site by typing in your web address or name in the search engine boxes. (Many users do this if they can't remember if you are .com.au or .com, if they are unsure of the spelling, or simply out of habit.)

Look at the results and think about your response (as a customer). Would you click on the first address that displays your URL - is it paid or organic? Would you be tempted by the competitor's ppc advertisements, or would you see them as intrusive?

If there is a paid link that displays your URL and leads to your website, is it yours or is it an affiliate who will collect commission if your customer clicks there? You can check by right clicking on the link and viewing the destination link. If in doubt, click on the link and do a test transaction to see which affiliate claims the sale. Note: you must click on the link to set that affiliate's cookie in order to identify them.

There are some simple steps that can be taken to ensure that, when a potential customer is trying to get to your site through the search engines, they get direct to your site. There are some who disagree with my approach on this, but this is what I would do if I was a merchant.

1. Make sure that you are at the top of the organic search results for your company/website name. Unless your name is made up of very generic words, this is fairly straightforward for a competent web developer.
2. Forbid your own affiliates bidding on your brand name. Should you really pay commission for customers who are already trying to get to your site?
3. If you are concerned about competitors bidding on your brand name and any variations, especially now that Google has changed their rules (May 2008), bid on your own name yourself. It will be cheaper than allowing affiliates to do it (otherwise why would affiliates do it)




Posted by Gayle at May 14, 2008 12:18 AM

More on Affiliate Marketing

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