We often use our blog to answer frequently asked questions that we receive from clients and the general public. Recently, the topic of bidding on search engine key phrases through pay-per-click programs has been a popular subject.

The most common Search Engine Marketing question is typically "how much will it cost per click for key phrases specific to my business and industry?"

Unfortunately, the answer to this question (like many search engine related questions) is extremely variable. Through pay-per-click programs such as Google Adwords, you are only charged when your paid listing is clicked. The amount that you pay per click is variable based on a variety of factors centered on the popularity of the key phrase. Google offers a Keyword Selection Tool which estimates that average cost-per-click for your specific keywords and phrases.

For many Search Engine Marketing programs (including Google Adwords), there is no minimum spending requirement. You set a daily budget which determines the maximum amount that you will be billed.

Search Engine Watch recently released a report detailing the average cost-per-click by industry. Their report is listed to the right.

There are a couple things to keep in mind when analyzing the Search Engine Watch chart.

First, the report comes from a relatively small sampling. Specific prices for key phrases relevant to your business, in your geographic region will vary.

Also, as businesses are realizing positive ROI through Search Engine Marketing, pay-per-click bidding continues to grow in popularity and expense. Of the nine categories listed, cost-per-click fees increased by more than 9% from February to March. And you thought gas prices were increasing fast!

Measuring a website's progress can be a difficult task. Unless your company sells products online via an ecommerce system, other non sales-related metrics should be used to chart productivity development over time.

Below are a few measurable components to consider incorporating into your company's website report card. Choose the attributes that correlate with your business objectives.

Page Views: The most obvious metric. Whether it be total page loads, unique visitors or another "hit" related statistic, monitoring page views has been a popular means of measuring website growth for years.

Engagement: One of the newest web metrics. Nielsen recently added an engagement metric which evaluates the amount of time that users spend on a site. Google (cost-per-action) and Microsoft (engagement mapping) each have their own ways of measuring engagement.

Referrers: Nothing beats a referral from a business partner, vendor or industry expert. Track the number of links directing traffic to your site. This has the added bonus of enhancing your listings within the search engines. (To see which websites Google recogonizes as linking to your site, type the following into the Google search: link:http://www.mydomainname.com).

Call to Action: Every website should have a primary call to action. Whether it be to have users complete an online inquiry form, signup for a newsletter, register a product, download white papers or simply subscribe to your blog, monitoring your site's #1 call to action is often a clear metric.

Does your website make the grade?

Throughout the past two years, we have discussed many ways to enhance your search engine listings by using targeted keywords and phrases to effectively promote your business.

Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team, describes an often overlooked way to enrich your site content  in a “Google friendly” manner. Matt suggests the use of the image alt attribute. Essentially, this adds a tool tip description to the images on your website. When a user mouses-over an image on your site, a small message will appear describing the image. When used effectively, the image alt attribute can assist your site’s search engine listing for target keywords and phrases.

DWebware customers can quickly and easily add alt attribute descriptions to their images through the Page Editor. To do this, simply right-click on any image within the Page Editor and select “Image Properties”. Then enter a short description describing the image into the “alt:” field. Remember to use relevant keywords and phrases when possible.