Archive for the ‘Search Marketing’ Category

With 2012 just around the corner and thoughts for New Year's resolutions at an all-time high, here's 7 books that have inspired me heaps in business, life and as an SEO. And I hope that one or two might inspire you for the year ahead! Continue reading

SEO agencies can be expensive for small and medium sized businesses, and more and more such sized companies are deciding to manage their own SEO activities in-house. Few have the luxury to treat it as a full time position and allocate it significant time and resources, meaning it can get overlooked completely for more pressing issues. Continue reading

Most PPC enthusiasts will be aware of the four common AdWords matching types:

• Broad
• Phrase
• Exact
• Negative (can be broad, phrase or exact)

Here is a quick overview of what keyword matching is all about, for the non PPC folks:

Keyword matching allows you to control how precise a user's search must be to trigger your ad on Google search pages. Defining how broadly or narrowly your keywords are targeted helps you reach the audience you want. Source AdWords Learning Center

However based on AdWords definition of match types, I think I have found a new one and I am naming it the 'bogus broad match'.

So what is the bogus broad match type?

Good question, it seems to be a hybrid of the broad match type and the ability to bid on partially related keywords. How and when it evolved I am uncertain, although I am pretty sure of its existence.

Let's look at the characteristics of a broad match first:

• Other words are included in the query
• Terms in the query are not written in the same sequence as your keyword
• The query is similar to your keyword. This includes plurals and synonyms.
• All the terms must be present

The bogus broad match takes all the above characteristics except for the last one "“ not all the terms have to be present.

By this I have had an experience of bidding on a two worded keyphrase and the ad showing for only a one worded search term.

An example of this would be to bid on the keyword phrase 'bank holiday' on broad match and for your ad to be shown for the search term 'holiday'. This would result in unqualified paid traffic landing on your site, eeek!

You may wander how I discovered what the actual search term was "“ this was not through a third-party analytics package, it was though AdWords very own Search Query Report.

This is difficult to prove without providing login details, and I am curious to see if anyone else has experienced a sighting of the bogus broad match type.

How to overcome the bogus broad match type?

If you believe in that the bb match type existing there is a way to overcome it and it involves the lesser known negative embedded match type. This did the trick for me, but seems a little unnecessary:

e.g.
Bank holiday
"“[holiday]

You may have to include embedded negative plurals and synonyms "“ although I have not had a problem with this.

It is always good practice to run search query report every now and then as part of campaign optimisation and if you do, you may encounter the bogus broad match - be warned! Of course, it could be a blip in the search query reporting or perhaps even a blip in my reporting - although I would like to say the latter is unlikely to be true as I have experienced it several times in the last couple of months. Anyone else seen the same?

I'LL LET YOU BE THE JUDGE!
Last week I spent sometime checking out the AdWords Campaign Optimizer and was left a little ruffled as to whether it was a useful optimisation tool or another way for Google to monetize on advertisers spend. It's been around for a couple of months, so let's have a quick look at what it does:
Google blurb:

1. "It's an on-demand AdWords tool that provides personalized campaign ideas in just minutes"
2. "Since Campaign Optimizer is an automated tool, we suggest that it be the first step -- not the last -- in optimizing your account."

And here's what Google says it can be used for:

1. Change daily budget. Budget adjustments can affect your ad visibility and bring you more traffic.
2. Add new keywords. Campaign Optimizer proposes targeted keywords that relate to your landing page.
3. Change keyword matching options. The right matching option can help you reach customers more effectively.
4. Adjust keyword maximum cost-per-click bid. Your maximum CPC bid (in addition to your ad quality) affects your ad position.
5. Change ad text. Your ad text affects your click-through rate.

Google covers itself several times by stating that it's an automated tool and should only be used as the first steps of optimisation.

There are hints of useful optimisation tips for the novice AdWords user, although Google seems to have a very clear and loud optimized call to action of its own - "spend more money" and perhaps Campaign Monetizer would be a more fitting name? Not sure why I think this? Re-read the above bulleting points!

Unfortunately the monetization is geared towards Google's ever expanding pockets, rather than the average and often lonely AdWords advertiser. Those that have an understanding for AdWords are unlikely to find the basic suggestions of any use and those that don't are encouraged to spend more money with a lack of any real PPC optimization.

To justify the tools name it would have been nice to see it better integrated with the existing AdWords' conversion tracking. Albeit Google does state that the Campain Monitizer Campaign Optimizer should be the first and not last step in optimization, and although it does indeed make sense, I am still left questioning who will find the tool useful or benefit from it? The AdWords newbie, the intermediate PPC chappy, the seasoned veteran or perhaps Google itself? Me thinks the latter!

Am I being a too cynical? Are Google finally feeling the pinch and responding with subtle money spinners for a quick win? I will let you be the judge of this, although you may want to checkout the AdWords Top Ad Placement formulae post over at PPC Blog if you are still insure :)!

It's been quite a debate for a while now - should you consider keywords as separate entities with regards to quality score? Do keywords with a low quality score create a bad neighbourhood for all others? Should you ditch lower performing keywords? And are your keywords solo or team soldiers? Well it appears that keywords are team players, they do influence each others quality score and you should consider dumping keywords with a low quality score as they can have a negative effect within the 'hood! How do I know? "“ well a combination of first hand experience, talking to Google and through fellow SEM pros. Ask Google During a recent visit to Google London, I asked these very questions and the answer I received was pretty straightforward and went something like this:

AdWords quality score is housed at an account level, with keyword quality scores having an accumulative affect on the overall account quality score. And the account quality score also has an impact on a keyword's quality score.

What can we learn from this? Well it is safe to say that keywords with a lower quality score can have a negative influence on neighbouring keywords and that they aren't solo soldiers "“ they are team players and if one gets hit by a low quality score then they all feel the pain to a certain extent. First hand experience Over the last year I have seen patterns to suggest that an account with a good account quality score, receives favourable quality scores for newly added keywords. An example of this would be an advertiser that has a heavy part of their budget allocated to brand terms and has a particularly good account quality score. As new non-brand terms are added, their associated quality scores are often very good initially and then slump after a while - kind of like a honeymoon period. My take on this is that Google uses the account's overall history until the keyword has had time to build up its very own history and then allocates more weighting to the keyword's quality score rather than the overall account quality score. Has anyone else had similar experiences?

Last week, I had several interviews for some rather tasty PPC & SEO jobs in London, UK. It really does appear that the demand for skilled SEM employees is incredibly high at the moment. A common and unsurprising question often asked by recruiters and potential employers was to give a brief concise definition of SEO. The simple answer that I gave is that it is the practise of optimising a web site both internally and externally to increase the volume of targeted traffic. With search engines especially looking at two key factors, results that are both relevant and popular to its users. Relevance (on-page SEO) - the actual content on the page; this can be the text that a visitor can see and also the source code that search engines (& visitors) can read. The relevance of a page relates to the keyphrase that a user queries in a search engine and the search engine matching that with key elements on a page such as the title tag, header tags and the actual content of the page. Popularity (off-page SEO) "“ every time another site references/links to your site, search engines perceive this as a vote that your site is important. The more links, the more votes "“ the more popularity search engines credit the site as having. The popularity increases every time your site acquires a new link, although not all links pass equal value (it depends on how much popularity/authority the linking web page has, as well as to how much relevance it has in relation to the page receiving the link). Off-page SEO can also impact relevancy "“ with the keywords in the anchor text and surrounding area of the inbound link playing a major role. Here is a very simple ranking formula: Increased Relevance + Increased Popularity = Search Engine Trust + Higher Rankings A more thorough ranking formula was discussed last year. White Hat Vs Black Hat SEO Another common question asked was to give my view on white & black hat SEO. This is a tricky question in an interview scenario "“ for those of you who are new to the terms white hate SEO is following practises that are accepted and encouraged by search engines, whereas black haters spam & manipulate the content (both on-page and off page) to achieve higher rankings. Dave Chaffery notes that there are many shades of grey of SEO:

Its really about the combination of how proactive and how ethical you aim to be with SEO.

It can be very difficult to compete by being an 100% white hat SEO for very competitive keywords. You need to be aggressive and also appear natural in your link acquisition, but at the same time have a significant degree of ethical best practises. In the 'shades of grey SEO' article I would not feel at all comfortable trying on hats 1 to 4, and explaining which hats I would try on in an interview scenario is not easy as many agencies perceive and publicise themselves as being 100% white hat - although I think most SEOs are neither one extreme or the other and fall somewhere in between. What colour hat are you?

For me, the new facelift that GA 2.0 is colourfully parading is a very smart move. It has a simple and yet elegant web 2.0 look and feel - so be it a little belated! It has been a little over a year since GA offered web analytics solutions for all, and although early adopters were keen to register and wait for its release "“ these adopters were often quite tech focused, or partial to a bit of geek activity. For the not so geeky, a lot of newbies to web-mastering/analytics have been intimated by GA's interface and found it to be far too complex. In many cases this was true, as finding simple things often required rummaging around through data that was unnecessary for their needs. The Second Wave of Google Analytics is Now If you who have been hesitant or have colleagues that have been out of the analytics loop, now is a great time to step into the ring and flex your analytics biceps and discover just what you have been missing. It now really does has a nice homely feel. The next wave of GA adopters are likely catch a second wind for the mighty 'G' and one that has the potential to be stronger than the first "“ unleashing Google further and deeper into the homes and offices of wanna be web marketers. And what about the New Features? The most useful features seem to be the customisable dashboards and the ability to email reports. Although I think the focus on this release, has been to make GA easier to use and less so on offering new features "“ a job well done! If you are new to GA or want to see how some of the new visuals look in GA 2.0, a visit to mashable will land you with 27 jammed packed Google Analytics features . Avinash probes a little deeper and highlights 5 key areas you should spend some time on. To finish off, Dave Cafferey suggests why perhaps you too should you use Google Analytics.

E-consultancy rountable briefings are usually a worthy read. Take the SEO or PPC ones for example. They require registration but are free and take a look into changes in the SEM marketplace and it is specifically related to UK search. Here are some highlights:

• The UK market for Search Engine Marketing was worth an estimated £1.41 billion in 2006, according to E-consultancy.
• Shortage of talent continues to be an issue "¦ there are not enough knowledgeable SEO people to go around.
• Growth of Social Media Optimisation and tracking "“ understanding the impact of social media on brand perception and search rankings.
• Before embarking on social media optimisation, it is important to understand the possible return on investment.
• Spending specifically on Paid Search amounted to £1.26 billion in 2006, equivalent to 90% of the total spent on Search Engine Marketing. Paid Search is becoming more like SEO due to importance of landing page quality.
• The landing page quality score introduced by Google means that paid search is increasingly becoming like natural search (search engine optimisation) "It really is bridging the gap between PPC and SEO" .
• Search has become much more granular than just looking at keywords. It is also important to look at demographics, time of day and other factors relating to the searcher's profile."Click profiles will become more valuable."
• Ideally, advertisers should treat Paid Search as a cost of sale rather than allowing budget to dry up to the detriment of the company when there there is still excellent ROI to be made.
• A lot of the SEO companies, such as Spannerworks, are offering social media optimisation services. "Traditional PR people often don't have a clue about online PR."

There has been quite a bit happening in the last month or so with Google AdWords, so here is a quick overview of the most significant news:

AdWords Editor 3.0 now available

Even though I don't use AdWords editor on a day-to-day basis, I do find it really useful especially for bulk changes or for setting up new campaigns. I have found the latest update of benefit tool, the changes this time are subtle, although it's continuing to improve all the time.

AdWords Keywords Search Tool Showing Search Volumes per Month

This is very much at the rumours stage, but it appears that Google is to offer a similar feature to Yahoo Overture Inventory Keyword Search "“ whereby search volume estimates are given for keywords for a given month. Currently a rating of 1 to 5 is given for search volumes, so let's hope Google gives us that extra bit of detail we all crave.

Google Content Network Ads to Show Sites URLs

Google plans to start showing publishers urls to AdWords advertisers, so you can see exactly where your ads are showing on the Google Network. Up until now you can only get this information from raw logs. I highlighted a Google Analytics hack for this back in December, and although this is a very useful addition to the armoury, I do not think it is as thorough as it could be "“ so I certainly welcome AdWords becoming more open.

Quality Score Update

Last month saw the latest quality score updates going live and you can also see a report (Great, Ok, Poor) of how various keywords are performing by customising columns within your AdWords account to show the quality score status. Many advertisers were seeing bugs with the launch of the quality score update, although this seems to have settled down now.

February SEM Resource of the Month

The OneBoxer blog is this month's SEM resource of the month. Why? Well it's great a place to get practical advice in getting listed in Google's Golden OneBox.

And with Google's announcement last month to include Local Results in the Golden OneBox, I thought it was about time I delved in a little deeper to see what it's all about.

This really is a truly awesome opportunity for local businesses to get super high listings in a (arguable) non-sweat 'location "“ trade/services' Google search.

Let's see an example for 'London Plumber':

You can see the OneBox results sits proudly mapped between the sponsored listings and natural results. Brian Mark, author of the OneBoxer, dishes out plenty of useful tips, mostly relating to Froogle and Google Base "“ although you will find much of which can also be applied for local businesses and OneBox results.

And the Sign-up Process?

Slow, but easy. You need to setup an account at Google's Local Business Center. You will then be sent a PIN in the post to verify your businesses location, which takes about 2 weeks.

Be sure that you enter all your optimised business details correctly first time, as alterations after verification require a new PIN to be re-sent and a further two weeks wait as I have recently discovered!!

The OneBox has a bright, bright future"¦