Step Wise SEO

PFI optimization techniques are based upon the factors that influence the feeds ability to either achieve or not achieve the objective.

While paid for placement (Overture, Google AdWordsTM, FindWhat, etc) offer simple procedures for getting a site listed, part of the ever-increasing strength of the PFP market, the processes that are necessary for optimizing PFI are different.

With no guarantee of a high placement and reliance on relevant submitted content, i.e. does Overture Site Match xChangeTM (Formerly Inkromi and from this point onwards referred to as OSMX) feel this is 100 per cent relevant to a search or 1 per cent, the challenge to the market is much greater.

In order to demonstrate that the challenge is not as unfathomable as it may seem to be, the following techniques are listed for optimizing PFI.

• Understand where paid inclusion data appear within the search network - the usual place for paid for inclusion data is within the `web pages’ results.

These are pages that appear when the search term has either:

(1) Limited coverage within paid for placement or directory listings or
(2) Exhausted all of the paid for placement or directory listings and appears thereafter!

Here is a simple example to further explain this - if a search is performed for `credit cards online’ on Yahoo! the searcher will be presented with Overture’s top listings `Sponsored Sites’, then listings from the Yahoo! Directory Listings and lastly, once these forms of results are exhausted, `web pages’ which are OSMX.

• Understand what is being submitted - following on from Point 1, as the listings that appear in paid for inclusion are so low in the pecking order the marketer must be careful of which words, phrases, listings to submit.

 In the example above, creating a PFI listing for ‘credit cards online’ would not be a good thing to do.

 However, ‘online credit card service’ would appear on page 1 in 15th spot as all other sources had been exhausted.

 The reason for this is volume; the number of searches for ‘online credit card service’ is 5 per cent of the number of searches for ‘credit card online’.

 The advantage is relevancy; those 5 per cent of searches are going to traditionally have more relevant searchers as the searchers have pre-qualified themselves with a longer, more considered search term.

• Don’t submit too little - the issue here is once again volume. The best content to submit to a PFI engine is large bulk amounts taken from sites with lots of data on their site.

This lends itself extremely well to catalogue retailers (such as WH Smith or Amazon) or publishers (such as Dalton’s Weekly or McGraw-Hill).

In many instances the effort needed for one listing in PFI is the same effort as 10 000 listings.

The more listings submitted, the less of an issue the smaller search volume becomes, as a larger percentage of more specific searches will match the PFI content submitted.

• Understand ‘how’ to submit there are many way to submit to PFI engines, many of them will provide assistance with the whole procedure, others will recommend third parties to assist with submission.

 The most important variable to take into account is relevancy. PFI listings are not guaranteed number 1 spot, even on the ‘web pages’ or equivalent section of the site.

 It is important to ensure that a submission of a listings for ‘Sony 28 Widescreen TV Model’ has title, description, supporting text and URL, and that all of these elements contain the same information.

 If this is not done the engine will bump the listing down for being too vague. Understanding the variables of PFI are of high importance.

 For example, OSMX won’t allow anything but a listing to unique URL ratio of 1:1. In other words the listings can’t all point to a single page; this is considered to be spam.

• Don’t submit too much – PFI has a variable rate card per industry (vertical), and upon application this information can be gathered from the engine or a reseller.

 As with PFP the price is often dependent upon demand for the content: for instance, finance and legal services are more expensive than reference or computing.

 For this reason it is important to do research before submitting a feed. Ensure that considerations are taken into account when putting your entire catalogue of products online and that each and every product if sold justifies the cost per click.

 In many instances the best course of action is to optimize a feed to PFI up to the point where the AOV of the catalogue products or CPA of the online lead justifies the costs. Note: it is essential to have a tracking tool to perform this type of optimization.

In the example above the target return on investment from this paid inclusion feed is 3 x (or 300 per cent) so taking the site’s conversion rate (or even with historic data the actual feed conversion rate) and then applying it to the traffic expected from a listing, by removing terms that even if they converted would reach the ROI goal, will inevitably increase the return from the feed.

The drawback to this is that the amount of revenue received from the feed will decrease; however, the revenue made will be profitable or at least in accordance with the ROI goal of the campaign/feed.

 Weak PFI listing Strong PFI listing
Recorded Clicks 1000 1000
CPC (Fixed) $0.25 $0.25
Costs $250 $250
Site Conversion Rate 1% 1%
Sales 10 10
Average Order Value $25.00 $75.00
Revenue $250.00 $750.00
Return On Investment 100% ROI 300% ROI

• Creative management - a PFI listing, as with any other, appears within the search network with countless others.

 Make sure such listings aren’t neglected by relying on the title and description from the feed (i.e. catalogue or website listing).

 In many instances normal procedure is to substitute the title that appears in the engine with the title that appears on the site.

 Include calls to action; add unique selling proposition and should the website have a strong brand name be sure to include it.

Keywords: Paid for inclusion, PFI, search term, search, ROI,