Google

Keywords, Ad Copy, Landing Pages – Triumvirate

Talking about Pay-Per-Click, Google AdWords mostly, search results and landing pages is pretty much a daily thing around our office. Accordingly, it makes sense to talk about it here.

Recently I had the opportunity, thanks to Andy Lewis, to be a part of a Webinar for “The National e-Commerce Extension Initiative” named “Maximizing Your Pay-Per-Click Campaign.”  We concentrated on Google AdWords. Why? It is my humble opinion that for most, a limited advertising budget is a reality. Google is the 500-pound Gorilla, and if you are going to feed web advertising money to anyone, it should be Google with over 72% of U.S. searches reported for February, 2009 according to Hitwise.

Last week I met with several representatives of one our largest clients, and discussed mostly AdWords and Analytics for the better part of the afternoon. In both cases we talked about Keywords, Ad Copy, Landing Pages at length. Why? Having high placements in Google AdWords or Google organic search results is directly related to those three powerful terms. They rule this world as surely as many of the Triumvirates of history.

The importance of Keywords, Ad Copy, Landing Pages, is a simple concept, while not difficult, that is complex in implementation when done correctly. The good news is, you don’t have to spend in inordinate amount of time working on your AdWords campaigns to get some immediate results. Very simply, just make sure your keywords are in your ad copy and on your landing pages (prominently). If you do that, you will see your Click-Through-Rate, aka CTR, improve as well as your placement.

If you, or your search professional, spend the time on your landing pages to write keyword-relevant “Titles,” meta “Descriptions,” Headings, and content including the keywords that potential visitors would using when searching for your product, service, or information, and you write quality ads, as well as conducting ad-variant testing, you will be rewarded with increased, targeted, self-qualified traffic. Serious keyword research, a knowledge of how Google likes your pages coded, and knowing how to write and place that code is part of what will take your AdWords campaign to another level. Of course a thorough knowledge of AdWords and your analytics program is necessary as well if you want optimum results. To that end, unless you have a lot of spare time, working with a search professional who has experience and successes on their resume is essential.

One of the cool benefits, is that, the time you, or your search professional, spend on your “landing pages” will eventually manifest itself as higher rankings in Google’s search result pages, aka SERPs. Google sells relevance. Make sure your site search strategy, both PPC and organic, includes relevant keywords, ad copy, and landing pages.

Keywords, Ad Copy, Landing Pages – The Triumvirate!

SearchWiki – Google lets you change search results

For better or worse, on November 20th, Google rolled out their new SearchWiki feature. Before you will see the feature, and can use it, you’ll need a Google Account, and have to be logged in.

Google says, “With just a single click you can move the results (you’ll see an arrow and an ‘X’ to the right of each result) you like to the top or add a new site. You can also write notes attached to a particular site and remove results that you don’t feel belong. These modifications will be shown to you every time you do the same search in the future. SearchWiki is available to signed-in Google users. We store your changes in your Google Account. If you are wondering if you are signed in, you can always check by noting if your username appears in the upper right-hand side of the page.”

Google also says, “The changes you make only affect your own searches.” But is that really true? I can’t help but wonder about a few aspects of this new “feature.”

  1. How many users have, will have, or ever know what a Google Account is?
  2. User comments – “the wisdom of the masses” or “the madness of crowds” or perhaps a place of disgruntled people or unethical marketers.  It seems more people voice their complaints than their satisfaction. Oh, by the way, your Google nickname is displayed to everyone along with your comment. (Using links at the bottom of the search results page (SERP), you may edit/delete your comments, and view comments from others.)
  3. One can only speculate on whether or not Google will consider the “popularity” of sites that have been moved to the top by many users, when Google serves search results to those without Google Accounts.
  4. Bosses could be fooled by in-house webmasters, and unscrupulous search engine optimization (SEO) firms could show prospects whatever rankings they wished (good or bad), by saying, “here is a screenshot of Google search results for this morning.”
  5. Add an URL – Will Google track (I believe the answer is yes) and use that information for general search results? We can only speculate about the latter. Speaking of adding an URL, wouldn’t you just bookmark it instead of adding it to search results?

The release of SearchWiki also makes me start to wonder how much Google is in tune with their average user as opposed to those in Silicon Valley.

Time and users will tell, but I can’t help but think Google would have better spent the time and money on their “Proposal for reducing U.S. dependence on fossil fuels.

Until next time…

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.