Internet marketers are being urged not to overlook the importance of display URLs when using pay per click services.

According to Randy Pickard, vice-president for product innovation at research firm User Centric, display URLs are an important component of pay per click (PPC) ads.

Writing on the SEOmoz blog, he said that studies show they capture "a significant proportion of the gaze time" allocated to paid-for advertisements.

With this in mind, marketers should alter display URLs in order to attract more clickthroughs, adding descriptive keywords to the end of the domain name.

He acknowledged that this tactic may not work in all cases, as "stuffing in" keywords could reduce the branding value of a PPC ad.

However, he stated: "The potential long-term benefit of acting upon a successful test can easily outweigh the short-term cost of a failed one. Thus, for many PPC advertisers, a closely monitored display URL test is likely a worthwhile effort."

Writing on the Microsoft adCenter blog recently, the company’s retail search media analyst Simone Schuurer said Mother’s Day presents a number of commercial opportunities for PPC advertisers.

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