1. What are the top 3 “organic” search engines on the ‘Net?

a) Google
b) Yahoo Search
c) MSN/Live Search

2. What are the top 2 “pay-per-click” (PPC) search programs on the ‘Net?

a) Google AdWords
b) Yahoo! Search Marketing

3. What’s the difference between “organic” search and “paid” search?

• “Organic” search (aka natural search) will list the “best” / most relevant pages found for searcher’s keywords, as determined by the search engine being searched. Generally, inclusion and/or position on the search results cannot be bought, but could be influenced using search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.
• “Paid” search allows a marketer to pay to have his/her ad shown in response to the keywords entered by searchers. Generally, the higher a marketer is willing to pay, the higher position his/her ad will be shown.

4. What’s the difference between Google AdWords and Google AdSense?

• Google AdWords is Google’s per-per-click program. It allows marketers to pay to have their ad shown in response to keywords entered by searchers. The ad would be shown on Google search results and optionally on Google’s search network and content network.
• Google AdSense is a Google’s program for content publishers. Content publishers are being rewarded to put AdSense links on their webiste. Google determines the relevant AdWords ads to show on content publishers’ webiste based on the content of a particular web page. Content publishers get paid whenever a visitor clicks on a Google ad.

5. What’s a “keyword” and why is it important for search marketing?

A keyword is an actual search term that online visitors use at various search engines, to search for information, products, or services.

It is important for search marketing because it could tells whether a visitor is just browsing (e.g. digital camera), comparing (e.g. Canon digital camera review), or is ready to buy (e.g. Canon IXUS 800). By focusing on the so-called “buying” keywords, a marketing campaign has a higher chance to succeed.

6. The search engines place a lot of importance on the links that point to your site. What’s more important — the quality of links pointing to your site or the quantity?

The quality of links pointing to my site is more important than the quantity. In the old days, the more links, the better. But now the search engines place huge importance on the quality of links, i.e. where those links are coming from.
7. Which of the following is the most effective search marketing strategy?

a) Participating in a “link exchange” with other web site owners (aka “reciprocal links”)
b) Submitting articles to the ‘Net’s top directories, with links in the articles pointing back to your site
c) Paying for links on “link farm” pages that have links pointing to many different pages on the ‘Net .

Out of the 3 strategies above, the 2nd strategy (articles submission to top directories) is the most effective one. One-way relevant inbound links are the best.

Here’s the reason: the ‘Net’s top directories are all considered to be important, authoritative sites by the search engines. They all have very high PageRank scores (e.g., Open Directory = 8, Yahoo Directory = 8.)

Furthermore, the search engines have started to ignore reciprical links — they see them as cancelling each other out. Therefore requesting another party to link to your site in exchange for you linking to theirs is no longer an effective strategy!

Last but not least… “link farms” have long been on the search engines’ hate list. Whatever you do, don’t buy links on “link farms” because the search engines will actually penalize you for doing so.