When it comes to online marketing, whether you’re going the organic route with SEO and link building or targeting paid search through PPC or both (which you should, if you can, hint-hint), there are few, if any, aspects more important than choosing the right keywords.

So how do you choose the right keywords for your enterprise’s website? Depending on whom you ask, there are many ways to go about it, many online tools—Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery—that you can use, and a number of places to get started. But the important thing to remember is that no online tool or SEO expert knows your business as well as you do.

That’s why a brainstorming session should be a part of beginning an SEO or PPC campaign. Bring in everyone who’s important to your business and start talking; write down as many phrases as you can and don’t worry about repeating yourself or weeding things out just yet. Make a big, long list of all the ways people might try to find your site online.

Now you’re ready to turn to the tools, the online wizards, the keyword experts. They’ll help you figure out which keywords are most natural, most relevant, most specific, and most often searched. From there, you really can begin to realize the extent of keyword power.

These hints (with some liberties taken, of course) are excerpted from our white paper, Keyword Power: Optimize with Attention-Grabbing Keywords. To download this and other whitepapers, stop here and drop us a line.

Since the economic times are tough, people are holding back and spending less. For retailers, this can spell trouble, but there are ways to succeed even in today’s difficult economy.

Because customers are spending more conservatively, they are pickier about what they buy. This means that they might spend as much as a month doing research online about a product before making a significant purchase.  Because of this, it is important to maximize impact in online search and get products visible to customers in the purchasing phase of the shopping process.

Pay Per Click advertising, commonly known as PPC, is the best way to target customers in the purchasing phase. By using keywords targeted to specific products, listing competitive prices, and incorporating other measures to optimize a PPC campaign, you can maximize your impact in an online search by appearing to potential customers who are ready to buy.

This is particularly important during the holiday season, as getting ad campaigns ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday can mean the difference between ending the year in the red or in the black.

The pros for PPC are many. Here are just a few, from Network Solutions’ Winning Clicks guide:

• Calculation – PPC is easily measured. Marketers are able to get raw numbers within seconds. Return on investment (ROI) and cost per acquisition (CPA) are easier to calculate than for traditional print and broadcast advertising.
• Cost – You only pay when someone clicks on your ad.
• Speed – Everything about PPC is fast. The campaign can be running in less than a day
• Timing – You can set up your ads to only run when you want them to.
• Targeted – You can easily tap your target audience by using the proper keywords and ad copy.

Network Solutions has a series of whitepapers available to help small businesspersons navigate the world of search engine marketing. The guide to driving sales using Pay Per Click is just one of the resources available from Network Solutions. Download this helpful resource, and others, today, and learn the basics of PPC, as well as the specifics of working with a PPC provider, different types of conversions, and how to get a good return on your investment.

Attracting new customers is a primary concern of every business owner, regardless of size or industry. Without growth it’s hard to stay in business, much less profit, in today’s competitive landscape, and if you’re not taking advantage of all of the avenues available to help you attract those new customers, you are doing your business a disservice.

Pay Per Click (commonly referred to as PPC) is the major advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, content sites, and blogs. With Pay Per Click, advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an ad to visit the advertiser’s website. PPC is a great way to attract new, targeted customers, and, if done right, can capture customers right as they are ready to purchase.

It can be tough to jump right into anything new, and PPC is no different. There are many factors to take into account in order to run a successful PPC campaign, and without search engine marketing experience, it can be very intimidating. For this reason, Network Solutions has created a series of whitepapers to help small business owners get started with the basics of their online marketing campaigns, and to learn more about the specifics that can spell out success.

“Winning Clicks: Everything You Need to Know About Pay Per Click Advertising” is Network Solutions’ primer on PPC, covering the pros and cons of choosing Pay Per Click and outlining the benefits of bringing in expert help to manage a successful PPC campaign. Those interested can download the “Winning Clicks” whitepaper here.