Every web site owner has wanted to drive additional traffic to their web site – and of course we’re all in a big hurry to do it. But have you ever thought about the fact that any webmaster can drive great qualified traffic to their site in less than one day? That’s right – you can literally set up an entire traffic driving campaign and see the traffic coming to your site even in the same day! Here’s how:
Harness the Power of Targeted Search with Google
The absolute fastest way to get really serious targeted traffic to your web site is to use the power of Google. You know, Google - the guys that get, oh say, over 50% of all searches conducted on the Internet today. Yeah Google - the guys who figured out how to produce relevant search results. Google - the guys who went public and made like 20 zillion dollars. That Google.
They have a brain-dead easy-to-use advertising product called Google AdWords – and you can set up an account, create keywords, have them appear on the relevant search terms in the Google search engine, and see real live qualified traffic to your web site in the space of a few hours.
Setting Up a Google AdWords Account Step-by-Step
Okay, take a deep breath. Settle into the chair in front of your computer and get ready to go. Follow these steps exactly:
1. Navigate your browser to:
https://adwords.google.com/select and click on the ‘Sign Up Now’ area.
2. Select the appropriate language and gepgraphical targeting – ‘Regions and cities’ if you are a local business, ‘Global or nationwide’ if you serve all regions (we’ll use this setting for our example). Click the ‘Save and Continue’ button.
3. Next you choose your countries. If you are a North American business, I highly recommend selecting ‘United States’ only. To do this – go to the right hand box entitled ‘Selected Countries’ and highlight ‘All Countries’ with your mouse. Then click the ‘Remove’ button. The ‘Selected Countries’ box will now be empty. Go to the left column and highlight ‘United States’ – then click the ‘Add’ button. Click the ‘Save and Continue’ button.
4. Now you name your ad group and create your first online ad. Don’t worry – you can always go back and edit your ad at anytime. Just have fun with it for now! To get started, think up a name that you want to call your first group of ads. Type this name into the box labeled: ‘Name this Ad Group’.
Now go to section ‘A: Create Ads’ just below. You simply fill in the boxes and Google does this cool ‘automatic update’ that shows you what your ad will look like as you are filling in the boxes. When you have an ad that you like - click the ‘Save and Continue’ button.
5. Choose the keywords that will trigger your ad. If you sell ‘tennis rackets’ then start with that keyword. If you sell ‘palm pilots’ then start with that. Once you have typed in a search term, you can always use the ‘Keyword Suggestion Tool’ link on the same page to expand your list. Google will automatically suggest words that may expand your traffic. Be sure to do a reality check against this list – it’s automated and some terms may not be appropriate for your business. Once you have a list of keywords, click the ‘Save Keywords’ button to continue.
6. Choose your maximum bid. I always set this to $.05 (five cents) to start. This is Google’s minimum bid amount. You can always change it later if you need more traffic. Type in .05 and click the ‘Calculate Estimates’ button. Ignore the resulting estimates – they are almost always wrong. Simply click the ‘Save and Continue’ button. At this step Google will ask if you want to create another ad group – simply bypass this step by clicking the ‘Continue to Step 3’ button.
7. Now you specify you daily budget. I suggest being conservative here as well. You can always increase this later. For now – figure out how much you can spend each month for traffic and divide by 30. Put in an amount that is this number or even lower. I usually start with $5 per day as a maximum. When you’ve decided, simply click the ‘Save and Continue’ button.
8. Entering your contact information and password. This step requires you to give Google a valid email address that you can check – in order to send you to the final confirmation and billing step. Fill in your email and pick a password that you can remember – preferably one that has at least 1 numeral and is difficult to duplicate easily.
When you’ve filled in your information, click the ‘I agree – Create my AdWords account’ button.
At this point you should see the following message: “Thank you for signing up with AdWords. Please check your email (you@youremail.com) for a message from Google containing a link to our verification program.” Follow the link in that message to confirm that we have your correct email address.
9. Check your email and finish setting up your account. Go to your eamil and retireve the Google email. Follow the link inside – this will verify that your email is valid. Then simply login to your AdWords account using the email address and password that you supplied in the last step.
10. Once you log in you will see the following message: “Note: Your account hasn't been activated. Payment information is required in order to run your ads. Please provide your payment information on the Billing Preferences page in the "My Account" section. Typically, your ads will begin running almost immediately after you submit this information.” Simpy follow the ‘Billing Prefences’ link and enter your credit card information. When complete click the ‘Save Changes’ button.
11. Your AdWords account is now live! You will see traffic from your ads coming to your site almost immediately if you have selected popular keywords.
Then entire process described above can easily be completed in less than 2 hours. I just did it myself in less than an hour. Good luck and remember if you ever have any problems with the account running through too much cash – you can simply ‘pause’ the account giving you time to reduce your bids, or delete keywords. While you won’t become an AdWords expert from this start up guide, you will begin to see highly targeted web traffic come to your site in less than one day!
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