Internet Marketing Series: ad banner advertising written by Claudie Clot, CEO of advancis.com

When it comes to search engine promotions, it is very easy to become frustrated. After all, what seems to be an easy way to promote sites and products often turns out to be an impossible task. It has gotten to the point that many marketing professionals do not really consider the tool as part of their Internet marketing mix anymore. Sure, most will register the sites with the engines and directories, but they have come to expect that traffic originating from search engines will not allow them to meet their objectives.

Indeed, the search engine promotions game is very difficult to play. Competition is fierce; results can be unexpected and often unfair. It is not uncommon to see poorly- designed sites that offer low-rate products or services rank much higher than professional sites providing first-class content. Chances are, your site ranks lower than sites that should not even deserve to be listed in search engines.

To make things worse, almost every search engine uses a different technique for ranking the sites it indexes. Develop pages that satisfy the requirements of all search engines, and you are bound to build a site that cannot help your visitors find what they need or want. You might get higher rankings, but you have little chances of converting the visitors into customers.

So, why bother? Well, the reason is simple: search engine promotions are cost-effective. Most will direct visitors to your site for free; even the ones that charge fees still offer one of the least expensive ways to attract visitors.

But remember, getting results takes time. Companies that offer superior content, regularly update their sites, and eliminate broken links and missing images will eventually achieve high rankings. Plus, by carefully orchestrating their approach, advertisers will be able to derive sales as well as attract qualified leads from search engine promotions. Yet, this requires a different perspective; one that focuses on attracting high-quality leads, and not necessarily traffic. By concentrating your efforts on elements of the promotion that other companies often ignore, you will be able to get solid results. It's time to make search engine promotions work for your site; it's time to go beyond the techniques every other webmaster uses and to develop a solid strategy that produces real results.