Keyword Search Marketing with Microsoft adManager: Tim Kimber, guest blogger

If you've invested some time on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), you may still not be appearing where you want to in search engine rankings. There can be a multitude of reasons for this, including the fact that it can take many weeks for your site to get properly indexed, the keywords on your site are just too popular meaning that you're competing with too many other people (for example ‘Plumber in London'), or the design of your site simply does not lend itself to keyword searches.

If your site falls into any of these categories, Keyword Search Marketing may be a solution for you. This is effectively paid search to bring an advertisement for your website to the top of any search page. There is a train of thought that in some cases, trying to move up the free, organic rankings with Search Engine Optimisation is so time-consuming and complex that it's better to spend a small amount of money on buying Keyword Search Ads.

You may already have a Google AdWords account for paid advertising on Google search. However, what you may not realise is that MSN and Live Search, whilst clearly smaller than Google, can offer some very cost-effective search advertising on their networks. Not only that, they also provide features that Google does not have, in the form of unique tools such as in-depth campaign analysis and intelligent research and targeting, based on location, age, gender, day and day part. The result is a quality audience that converts on average 77% more than the other major search engines, and nearly double that of Google (click here for more details). To top it all, you can advertise on MSN and Live search from within your Office Live account.

The service for MSN and Live Search advertising within Office Live is called adManager. Simply log into your Office Live account, click on ‘Promote your business' then click on ‘Activate now' in the Advertise on Search Engines section. You can sign up for free and get £25 in ad credits:

Then, it's simply a matter of following the steps to create your ad:

Select your keywords:

Decide the amount you want to bid on each keyword:

Lastly, once the ad has gone live, enter your keywords into Msn.co.uk or Live.com to see the results:

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