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Recently Yahoo enlisted the help of Mike Moran author of Do it Wrong Quickly to do an extremely poignant blog about the most common pitfalls of SEM. These ideas are perfectly on target. Yahoo is suggesting not to target by position, not to focus on clicks, and giving advice about quality landing pages. Maybe it’s the fancy purple flexible keyboard they sent, but I’m starting to have some positive feelings towards Yahoo. Below is a short summary of the post, that can also be found here.

Moran first points out the common error of wanting to be number 1 at all times, everywhere. While having your ads show as number 1 is definitely not a bad metric, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the most effective metric. What newcomers often forget is that the engines are always evolving, and changing how results are seen. Currently we are in a period where the search engines are personalizing results, so that different searchers get different results for the same keyword. Ergo if you are focused on rankings 100% of the time a good portion of your marketing efforts are wasted because of the restyled patterns of the algorithms.

His second point, that I might have put as number 1, is marketers simply wanting to see traffic drawn to their site through ads. If you are truly utilizing paid search you care more about conversions than you do traffic because you are paying for every click; but if you’re not seeing any sales your investment on ad spend is wasted. Here’s a little formula I came up with myself to help clients understand this concept.

High Traffic + Low Conversion Rate = Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

High/Moderate Traffic + High Conversion Rate = Rock & Roll

Lastly Moran touches on landing page creation. This can be a touchy subject for those who simply want searchers to either opt in or out by filling out a form after reading the page’s sales pitch. While this may work with people who already know a certain amount about your product, what about those who are researching? Focusing on content that both educates and promotes your product or service can turn any searcher into a potential customer.

There are approximately 658 more pitfalls in SEM, but knowing these first three are critical when first starting a campaign for yourself or a client.