Pay-per-click advertising is a very common type of paid search-engine inclusion. In pay-per-click advertising the advertiser (i.e., Web site owner) bids on a submitted page's ranking for a given keyword and is subsequently billed the bid amount each time a visitor to the site arrives there via the search engine. The highest bidder gains the highest ranking. The second-highest bidder gains the second-highest ranking, etc. Pay-per-click listings are usually displayed separately on search engines' results pages. Depending on the engine pay-per-click results will be listed as Sponsored Results, Sponsored Sites, or something similar. Pay-per-click can be a rather costly solution for competitive keywords, but it remains the only way to guarantee a high search engine ranking.
Due to its potential cost pay-per-click advertising is mostly directed at commercial Web sites. Pay-per-click programs are offered by such entities as Yahoo!, Google and Kanoodle, and MIVA.
