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Today:
Millions online
Tomorrow:
Billions online
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Volume 2, Number 7
August 28, 2002
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Creating the "Go To" Site: Drive Traffic To Your Issue
Website With Pay-Per-Performance Services
You have probably heard variations on these cliché's:
"If you build it, they will not come… unless you promote
it" and "If a Website launches in the forest, no one sees
it." While it is essential to develop an issue Website rich
in fresh and timely content, if people do not know it exists, they
will not use it and it will do you no good. Therefore, once your
site is up and running, it is essential to drive people to it.
There are many tactics available for driving traffic
to your site. For example, you should always refer people to your
site in all of your offline communications, press releases, interviews,
banners, and issue advertisements.
Though these efforts to promote your site are important,
it is crucial that you also develop and implement a search engine
placement strategy. Search engines continue to be the greatest resource
for driving traffic to your site. The most common tactics used to
boost search engine rankings include: (1) incorporating the keywords
that are most commonly associated with your issue into the visible
text and hidden (meta) keywords on your Website, and (2) convincing
your allies to link to your site from theirs. Now, in order to provide
an additional opportunity for your Website to rise to the head of
the class, most search engines offer sponsored links that guarantee
display at the top of search results. These services are available
for a fee, and can be quite reasonable for many policy issues.
Using Sponsored Links
You can see an example of how sponsored links work on Yahoo. Type
in "toxic mold", and you will see three links listed at
the top, under the heading "Sponsor Matches." Yahoo will
list the three Websites that have arranged to pay the highest fee
for each click through the "pay for performance" directory
Overture. Overture feeds into most of the major search engines,
and those that do not use Overture (for example, Google) have their
own pay per performance programs.
While e-commerce sites generally pay higher click
through fees for their keywords, policy issue sites will often find
little need to pay high rates. This is because far fewer people
go online searching for public policy issues than they do for goods
and services. At this point in time, top placement for many policy
issue keywords are available for the minimum bid (typically $0.05/click
through) and the number of people searching for these issue keywords
is small enough that top placement can be had for well under $100
a month. This maximizes the exposure of your site and your policy
position, and rationale to policymakers researching your issue.
After a few months of paying to be at the top of
the list in the sponsored links, it is possible to drive enough
traffic to your Website to make it rank at, or near the top of the
unsponsored links listed immediately below the sponsored links.
This is especially easy for issues with relatively small audiences.
Once your site has risen to the top of this small pond, you can
suspend your pay per click service and enjoy the free, high-ranked
listing. If ever your site slips in the rankings, you can always
reinitiate your sponsored link service until your ranking is once
again restored. In other words, the pay per performance service
can be used to jump start your site until traffic flow is established,
then your monthly fees can be eliminated.
Compared to the cost of a traditional policy campaign,
the pay per performance model can be quite affordable and help you
better achieve your policy goals.
Online Advocacy Tips:
Drive Traffic To Your Issue Website With Pay-Per-Performance Services
1. Determine the keywords that best match your policy issue.
2. Register those keywords with a pay per performance service.
3. Be sure your bid per click through is among the top three for
your keywords.
4. When your unsponsored search engine rankings put you near the
top of the list, discontinue your pay per performance service.
5. Reestablish your pay per performance service if your ranking
starts to slip.
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