Your website can show up on the first page of the search engine pages when people search for what you sell. That's a pretty bold statement, but it's true.

Go to Google.com and type in your keywords. Look at the results. See the long box at the top and the small boxes along the right-hand side? You'll also see something similar when you search Yahoo and MSN. These text ads are noted as "Sponsored Links" or "Sponsored Results". Merchants have arranged to have their ads show up on those pages but they only pay for every visitor who clicks through to their website. These ads are called pay-per-click (PPC) ads.

You can get those positions too. These ads are shown only when people type in your keywords. Consider how they can fit into your advertising mix, even if you are marketing a local business such as a retail store.

Here's what to do: For as little as $5, you can place an ad on a pay-per-click search engine. These are search engines where you pay to be listed on the first few pages. Two of the largest PPC search engines are Google and Yahoo.

Here's a very important part many website owners don't know: both Google and Yahoo are pay-per-clicks that supply results to other search engines. For example, if you buy an ad on Google, your site can show up on the first pages of Google in addition to showing up on:

AOL
Ask
Earthlink
Lycos and more

Also, websites that offer large amounts of information (content) have arranged to show PPC ads from Google and Yahoo. For example, About.com shows Google ads. This is a "content partner". You can also choose to have your ads show up on their content partners' sites. You'll get more exposure. You will pay only when visitors click from these sites too.

You decide how much you want to pay for each visitor. That's your bid. Your bid determines where you show up in the listing. Generally, the highest bid gets the highest position. In industries that have low competition, you may pay only a few cents per click. In highly competitive markets you can pay dollars per click. For example, the keyword "car insurance estimates" is estimated to cost $34 PER CLICK at this writing.

Your costs will depend on a variety of factors, including:

-how many competitors you have at the time you run your ads
-which search engine you run your ads on
-which position you'd like - first, second, third, etc.
-what your daily budget is
-how long you want your ads to run

Wherever you place your ads, you'll want to say something compelling in your ad to get people to click through. You'll need to follow the advertising guidelines of each search engine. They usually don't allow any language such as "We're the best! Check us out!" Otherwise you can imagine their results will be filled with hype.

If you want to find out more about PPC search engines, go to:

Google http://adwords.google.com
Yahoo Search http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com

PPC ads are the fastest way to show up on the first page of search engines - even as quickly as today!