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Google Adwords making Quality Score improvements

According to a post yesterday in Inside Adwords, Google’s official blog about Adwords, “changes will take effect in all advertisers’ accounts over the next few days.”

They list three main improvements to Quality Score:

  • Quality Score is now more accurate — because it is calculated at the time of each search query
  • Keywords are no longer marked ‘inactive for search’ — all keywords are active because they are evaluated for every relevant query
  • ‘First page bid estimates’ replace ‘minimum bids’ in your account — providing a more actionable and useful metric to advertisers

You may read a detailed explanation by reading their “Google Adwords making Quality Score improvements to go live in coming days” post.

My first thoughts are:

I’ll remain from Missouri on their first listed change. We’ll see.

The ‘inactive for search’ change will help most people, but especially advertisers with smaller budgets that have unique products and search terms. While the search volume may be low on some terms, the return is not necessarily so.

Replacing ‘minimum bids’ with ‘First page bid estimates’ more clearly reflects the metric, and is an improvement. Though, as most often the case, Google is encouraging higher bids with this. That is not necessarily bad, just shouldn’t be constued as an altruistic change.

Bottom-line is that almost everyone can benefit from a Google Adwords campaign, and this makes Adwords a little better.

Google – Get Local, Get Traffic Quickly

If you are using Google Maps Local Business Center, you can stop reading. If you are not using Google Maps Local, and your potential customer’s search terms include the name of the city, town, villiage, state, or geographical description of where your business is located, keep reading.

Often, searchers narrow their search results by adding one or more location-specific terms to their search. For example, the search term, “auto dealer lancaster wi” yields the following.

SERP for auto dealer lancaster wi

Who benefits? You get more visibility. The user gets more relevant results with less work. Win, win! Obviously, if you are in a rural area, there normally will be less competition. Consequently, rural business will generally have even better visibility. Even if you don’t get the click that time, it is still branding, branding, branding.

The position of where Google displays the map and listings varies from query to query. Sometimes, you’ll find it directly below one or more “Sponsored Links.” Other times there may be two or three organic listings above it. Or, there may be a video link above or below the Local business results.

So, how do you get listed? It is easy. You may already be listed. Google pulls your address and other information from public data. If you search for your business, and click on the “Directions and More” link. (see example above), you find more info and you will notice an “Edit” link. In the bubble on the map, you will see “Are you the owner?” and a “Claim your business” link.  You’ll need a Google Account, which many of you have. If you don’t have one, you can sign up and follow the instructions here. Note: The street address you enter will be shown in the Google Maps search results.

So, why should you use Google Maps Local?

  1. It gets results.
  2. It is free.
  3. It is easy to use.
  4. Oh, yes. It just plain gets results.

The bottom line is, you get a highly-visible link that most users will notice and click on before they click on Adword advertisements or organic listings.

Bonus Thought: You can safely bet that Google will continue to very aggressively push Google Maps and related advertising in the mobile hand-device market.

Don’t wait. Get Local, and Get Traffic Quickly!

I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed

How many of these emails have your received, with promises of #1 rankings, yada, yada, yada? Surprisingly, even Google gets them.

In Google’s Webmaster Help Center, they say, “Amazingly, we get these spam emails too.”

“Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories…”

We get them, and frequently some of our clients forward them to us, asking what we think of the offers, and why don’t we, “offer the same guarantees.” We don’t because no one can do so honestly. But, don’t take it from me. I am happy to concur with, and tell you, what Google writes about them.

Google says you should, “reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for ‘burn fat at night’ diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.”

Those of you who have the need or desire to peruse Google’s Webmaster Help Center, likely know all of this. For rest of you, here is a list of the headings in one article.

  • Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue.
  • No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
  • Be careful if a company is secretive or won’t clearly explain what they intend to do.
  • You should never have to link to an SEO.
  • Some SEOs may try to sell you the ability to type keywords directly into the browser address bar.
  • Choose wisely.

The bottom-line is, people or companies you can trust don’t send out unsolicited email promising the Holy Grail.

As Google says, “chose wisely.” The fact that you are reading this means you have chosen, or are close to choosing, wisely.

Thanks for your time!


Read more on Google’s Webmaster Help Center.

Don’t bet your job that someone read your email.

Can you count on your email getting delivered or read? Don’t bet your job on it.

What should you do if you send an important email, and you have not received a reply within a reasonable amount of time? First, check your “Sent” or “Out Box” folder to make sure your email actually got sent. If it did, send a follow up. If you still get no reply, pick up the phone and call your intended recipient. Don’t apply pressure, just ask if they received your email. If they answer affirmatively, just say, thanks and that you wanted to be sure they received it.

There are many reasons an email may not get delivered or opened. Did you send to the correct email address? (You would be surprised at the number of emails sent to the wrong person.) Previously, we talked about spam filters and anti-spam programs. Another reason could also be the size of the attachment you sent. Many users have mail boxes that are relatively small. Five and ten MB mailboxes are not uncommon, so very large attachments (or multiple attachments) can render your email undeliverable. Even larger mailboxes fill up quickly, especially for someone who doesn’t check mail frequently (or leaves their mail on the server for a long time). Think before you hit the send button.

Emails do get lost in the etherland. In general, there is no guaranteed delivery. For those of you who really need a guarantee, there are some paid services that guarantee delivery.

In short:

  • Don’t assume someone read your email.
  • Check your out box to see if your email was sent.
  • Check your recipient address for accuracy.
  • Check the file size of your attachment if you have one.
  • Think before you hit the send button.
  • Follow up with another email or call.

As I said, don’t bet your job that someone read your email.

Landing pages – not just for Pay-Per-Click

So, what is a “Landing Page,” and when and why do you need them? Well, practically all of your pages are, or should be, landing pages. Those of you with PPC campaigns should already understand the importance of landing pages. All of your pages that have been indexed by Google and other search engines are defacto landing pages for search terms that are on your pages.

PPC landing pages should be about a specific topic, product, item or event you want to promote or sell. Putting multiple topics, products, items or events on a page will most assuredly not serve you well for PPC landing pages. Nor will they serve you well in organic (so-called free) search results. Your content should be page-specific to compete well (obviously, there are many other factors as well) in organic search results. Talking about more than one thing on a page dilutes the value as far as search engines are concerned.

The point is you should pay careful attention to creating any of your pages. Always follow Google’s guidelines for creating content. The essence of their most important guidelines is as follows:

  • Write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.
  • Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your page actually includes those words within it.
  • Make pages for visitors, not for search engines. (A useful test is to ask, “Does this help my visitors? Would I do this if search engines did not exist?”)

Treat all your pages as potential landing pages, and you won’t have to write one specifically for your next Google Adwords campaign. Just choose one that already exists on your site.

Good landing pages will help you meet your objectives and exceed your goals.