Read on to learn what to consider when choosing keywords.

Wondering how to choose your website keywords?

Did you know the advent of Hummingbird, Google’s newest algorithm overhaul, has changed the face of SEO? Before Google released it, keyword stuffing was still a popular technique. A lot’s changed since then.

Google has been working to combat black hat techniques, rolling out 500 to 600 algorithm updates a year. Most of those updates are small tweaks, but a few, like RankBrain, will change the landscape for years to come. With it, Google began AI to their algorithm recipe.

How does this affect you?

In all sorts of ways. The primary being your approach to keywords needs to change. With Hummingbird, Google now understands the context of keywords and links. They even understand topics.

When you’re ready to learn the modern approach to keyword research, read on.

Finding a Niche Topic

If your old approach began with you heading to Google Keyword Planner (GKP), throw it out. GKP focuses all its efforts on a single keyword, and build out from there. We’re going to expand your horizons.

Let’s say, you own an online business which sells primarily hiking boots. You head on over to GKP to see if you can find any ideas for target keywords. When you get there, you plug in the word hiking boots and come up with the following:

• Girls’ hiking boots
• Men’s hiking boots
• Brown hiking boots size 11
• Waterproof hiking boots
• And so on

Notice how each of the above builds upon the core keyword “hiking boot?” That’s the way GKP functions. But you don’t have to be limited by that narrow-minded thinking.

Yes, you’re building content to get more customers, but that’s a process. Marketing is a process. The buyer’s journey is a process.

A large part of that requires building trust. You want potential customers to read one article. Then you want them to come back and read another and another.

That’s the way you build brand recognition. It’s also the way you build trust and set yourself as an authority in your field. When you do that, customers will be flocking to you.

The best way to do that is to think non-linearly. This is where we lowly humans have the advantage over our silicon counterparts. Take a look at the list of keywords we came up with when we saw hiking boots:

• Mountain climbing
• Camping Trips
• Athletes foot
• Hiking backpacks
• And so on

We can still take these and plug these into GKP to come up with a variety of longer keywords. Even though these keywords are only indirectly related to the wares you sell, they’re directly relevant to the needs of your audience. That’s why they’ll read them.

The more you understand your audience, the better you’ll be discovering appropriate topics and keywords. Think beyond what you sell. Think about what your potential customers want.

Research Tools for Website Keywords

Please don’t think we’re suggesting you avoid using the fantastic tools that are available. No. Take advantage of those powerful resources, but don’t rely on them alone. First, take a look at the big picture.

Who is your audience? Narrow that down with laser precision. The more you know about them, the easier it’ll be to build content they actually want.

That builds trust and authority, as well as leads to higher conversions. In turn, you receive a bigger paycheck. Everyone wins.

Are there holes in your competitors’ content? If you don’t know what kind of content your competitors are dishing out, it’s time to learn. With services like those offered by Semrush, you can see the type of content your competitors are pushing out.

Then you can cheat. Look for areas they haven’t covered but are still relevant to your subject. You can also pick a few of their most popular posts and steal their core keywords.

After you’ve done that, it’s time to skip over and utilize some of those keyword research tools. Here’s our list of favorites:

• Google Trends
• Moz Keyword Explorer
• Microsoft Bing Ads Intelligence
• Google Adwords Keyword Planner Tool
• Wordtracker’s Free Basic Keyword Demand
• For a few more keyword research tools, view here.

With these tools, you can discover longer keyword phrases like those listed for GKP in the previous section. You can also discover a variety of metrics:

• Average monthly searches
• Amount of competition
• Number of clicks
• Number of Impressions
• Average cost per click
• And so on

This information is essential. But these tools shouldn’t be used until the middle of your keyword planning process. If you also plan to use Adwords for your advertising campaign, we’ll walk you through the process in our Ultimate 2018 Google Adwords Guide.

Lesser Known Strategies

Here are a few strategies the pros use to help them through the process. Remember, the less linear your thinking, the more keywords and topics you’ll come up with.

Forums and boards

There’s no better place to start your audience research than the places they hang out. Forums and boards are where they go to complain, get advice, and share solutions. If you want to understand your audience read what they’re saying.

• Quora
• Reddit

They’ll tell you exactly what they want to read about. The above are two popular sites outside your typical social media channels.

Idea Generators

These sites are idea generators. Punch in your subject, and the site will return some inventive alternative topics and keywords.

• Answer The Public
• UberSuggest
• ScrapeBox
• Google Trends
• Keyword Tool

You can also use the following sites to discover related topics and keywords. In Wikipedia, type in the subject. Then look at the content listed by section.

Do any of the section headings offer new ideas? If not, head to the bottom of the page to the “External links” section. See any new ideas here?

• Wikipedia
• Google Search Results

For the Google Search Results, you’ll need to punch your query into Google. After you reach the search engine results page, scroll all the way to the bottom. What you’ll find is a section titled “Searches related to” your topic.

What’s Next?

Once you get the hang of this new approach to finding website keywords, you’ll never go back. Start with your audience and think non-linearly. It’ll revolutionize your process.

Did you find this article helpful? If so, take a moment to browse our library full of other great articles.

Thinking of trying out AdWords?

Take a look at some of these statistics:

• Businesses make $2 for every $1 they spend on AdWords
• Sponsored results receive 65% of all clicks
• Search ads increase brand awareness by 80%

The numbers support a positive return on your investment. Unfortunately, there’s a learning curve to online advertising.

You can always skip the Google AdWords guide and hire an adwords agency to do the tough part for you.

Or…

If you’re smart and driven, you can step-up and run your own campaign. To succeed, you’ll need to arm yourself with information.

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

By the time you finish this article, you’ll have all the facts you need to understand the scope of AdWords. Then you can evaluate how AdWords will best serve you.

Read on.

What is AdWords?

Google AdWords is a paid service which displays your ads online. The concept is simple. You create an ad, choose a target audience, and pick how many ads you want Google to run.

Google counts the number of ads that it’s run by calculating the number of times viewers have clicked on the ad.

By clicking on the ad, viewers are redirected to your site (or landing page, or affiliate page, etc.)

The ads are displayed on Google’s search-engine results-pages (SERPs), YouTube videos, and over two million websites and apps.

Google chooses the content most relevant to your audience and posts your ad there.

Search Ads

74% of all search engine traffic this last year belongs to Google. Three out of every four searches–that’s massive! Which is why we’re focusing our Google AdWords guide on this type of ad first.

When you create an AdWords campaign that focuses on “search ads,” this is where your ads show up. They land on the same page as the ranked search results.

When a person punches a query into Google’s search engine, Google returns a list of ranked search results.

For instance, punch in pet food store Dallas TX. Google will return something like 13 different natural search results and 3 ad results.

The ad results look almost exactly like the rest of the results on the page. The only visible difference is the word “Ad” which Google includes under your ad’s title.

When a viewer clicks on your ad’s title, they are redirected to your website (or any other URL you choose).

On some devices (like tablets and smartphones), viewers may find an option to call your business instead. In that case, they click on your number, and their device calls you.

Ads show up on the search results in 3 locations: the top of the page, the bottom of the page, the right side of the page. On mobile devices, the ads will only show up on the top of the page.

With search ads, you target specific keywords rather than a particular audience. When a viewer punches those keywords into their search parameters, Google includes your ad on the SERP.

The Process

• Create your search ad
• Choose your keywords
• Set your budget
• Let Google run your ad

Display Ads

If you want your ads to show up on websites and apps, this is the choice for you. If you choose this option, you may pick from four different display options:

Text

This is the same format used for “search ads.” The ad will look like a search result. It’ll include a headline, a couple of lines of text, and a URL.

Banner

These ads incorporate rich media or images. They’re more closely akin to what you might find on a billboard near the freeway. They offer a huge variety of layouts, animations, and interactive elements.

Gmail

These ads are custom. They land on people’s Gmail page. People can expand, save, or forward your ad in their inbox.

App

You can create an ad campaign targeting particular app categories. You can then get metrics on the performance of these ads.

The Process

• Pick your format
• Create your add
• Pick your target demographic
• Set your budget
• Let Google run your ad
• Review your ad metrics

Video Ads

These ads run on YouTube.

First, you create a video ad. Second, you create a YouTube account. Third, you upload your video ad. Fourth, you tell AdWords to start your campaign.

It’s that simple.

When visitors punch their searches into YouTube, your video will pop up next to related videos in their search results.

You can choose your audience based on gender, interests, location, age, etc.

Like “search ads” and “display ads,” you decide how much you want to spend. After AdWords reaches that click-through limit each month, it stops showing your ads.

YouTube has its own set of analytics tools to measure your metrics. Use the data you get from the metrics to refine your audience. You’ll pay less and sell more.

The Process

• Create a video
• Create a YouTube account
• Pick your target demographic
• Upload your video
• Set your budget
• Let Google run your campaign
• Review your ad metrics

Universal App Campaigns

If you’re trying to get your new app recognized, this is the ad for you. It works for both iOS and Android apps.

First, you need to finish your app and get it on the App Store or Play Store.

After that, you customize your ad using information pulled from one of the above stores. You can include things like video, images, and text.

Then you punch in your audience parameters.

Finally, you tell AdWords your budget, and let them fly.

Google will display your ad on Google Play, Google Search, Gmail, YouTube, and more.

The Process

• Make an app
• Upload it to App Store or Play Store
• Customize your ad
• Choose your target demographic
• Set your budget
• Let Google run your campaign
• Review your metrics

New AdWords (Beta)

This one’s new to the 2018 version of our Google AdWords guide.

Google is offering businesses a more refined approach to target their audience.

In this new version of their AdWords service, Google offers a variety of options when viewers click on your ad.

• Visit your website
• Show interest in your website
• Phone your business
• Go to your business
• Buy your website
• Install your mobile app
• Connect with your mobile app
• And more

They recognize that clicking on your website isn’t the end-all, be-all call-to-action that some businesses are looking for.

They also offer some compelling at-a-glance metrics. They’re user-friendly, yet powerful enough for master-level marketers.

This is the direction Google’s traveling, so jump on the bandwagon now. You’ll have a head-start on your competition.

After You Read Your Google AdWords Guide

Have you finished our Google AdWords guide already? Well, that was quick.

By now you should have a firm grasp on the scope of AdWords.

How does it fit into your marketing plan?

Before you make any final decision, read through our articles on ClickFunnels and other ways to expand your Ecommerce business. They’ll offer you new insights to strengthen your plan.

Get started now so that you can finish today.

And enjoy a brighter tomorrow.

The credit cards, according to Google, are going to be offered with a low, competitive interest rate and with no annual fee.  And according to Google, the cards (or the credit line) will only be good for use on buying Adwords ads.

According to Claire Johnson, vice president of global online sales at Google, “they are resource-constrained and they are often cash flow-strapped. Many of them are trying to grow a business without the kind of means that, say, your classic company has.”

Why this can be a bad idea for business owners

My initial thought on reading the news was, “hey, that’s pretty cool… a line of credit to pay for Google Adwords.”  But then I thought about it for a few minutes, and realized that more than likely, the credit line is going to be burned through quickly with very little return on the investment.

Now I’m not just being a naysayer here – I firmly believe that you have to spend money to make money.  But in most cases, at least in my experience, Adwords advertisers are mostly unaware of the complexities in optimizing campaigns which makes them very susceptible to burning through money quickly.

This is a bad idea for business owners because it’s a line of credit, which means it’s a debt that’s going to have to be paid back regardless of the return on investment.

Is Adwords itself a bad idea?

No!

All I’m saying is that a line of credit for Adwords pay per click makes me very nervous knowing how most advertisers are inexperienced with generating actual conversions through Adwords.

And what I see, ultimately, is a bunch of small business owners owing Google (or MasterCard) a lot of money for advertising revenue that didn’t convert into paying customers.

What do you think?

Is a credit card from Google, for Google Adwords spend, a bad idea or a good idea for business owners?

Would you take a credit card offer from Google?

If you build a campaign in the content network that is not loosely constructed and with no constraints, then I’d have to agree with that statement.

One thing people fail to realize with the Google Adwords content network is that keyword lists still play a big role in determining the targeted placement of your ads.

And there is a new tool out – actually its been out for a few months now – that helps you build keyword lists for your campaign running on the content network.

It’s called the Contextual Targeting Tool, and it allows you to enter keyword phrases that are relevant to your product or service, and then it will automatically generate a list of keywords that are relevant to what you typed and you can then ad those new keywords to your ad groups.

How do I use the contextual targeting tool (from Adwords help):

1. Go to the Opportunities tab.
2. In the “Tools” section, click the Contextual Targeting Tool link.
3. Type in words or a phrase that describes your product (for example, “yoga mats”). The tool shows a list of keywords grouped into thematically relevant ad groups. The keywords in each of these ad groups are the ideal set of keywords to describe the theme you’re trying to target.
4. Click the Expand button to see more related groups of keywords.

Why is this tool important?

The Contextual Targeting Tool is important because it will help you build a more targeted content network campaign.

The content network gets a bad rap because of the massive, un-targeted exposure that it can potentially generate for advertisers.

But with tools like this, and other refinement methods, the content network will help your ads get the absolute best exposure on other sites.

With a properly constructed Adwords campaign, your ads will be showing up on content that is directly related to your products and services.

This means, people are interested in the content they are reading will then see your relevant ads.  And this makes for a much higher quality connection to customers.

There’s the obvious, that Google dominates the search landscape.

But there’s another interesting take a way by looking at the chart below, and that is, why in the world has search growth seemed to stall?

And I mean, stall completely.

None of the major search engines – Google, Yahoo, or Bing – have seen any substantial growth in search share. And I find it interesting mostly because search has always been the predominant activity online.

And even though social networking is exploding, like Facebook, people are still wanting to search for things.  Google Adwords, after all, continues to see double digit gains in growth year over year.

Yet search as a whole seems to have stalled.

Perhaps this is an opportunity waiting to happen for someone.

Perhaps now is the time to introduce niche search engines, search engines that are designed for specific verticals like sports, news, entertainment, etc…

Just a thought!

Here’s the chart showing the growth of Google, Yahoo, and Bing over the past 12 months:

Check out the chart below:

It’s amazing to think how staggering the number of keywords are that ecommerce sites like Amazon must be spending money on.

For each product that Amazon sells, they more than likely run a keyword campaign.  If for nothing else, so that Amazon builds the brand name associated with those products.

Equally interesting is the wide range of industries that are represented. In just the top 3, you have ecommerce, financials, and telecommunications.  This puts Google in as very strong position for the long term knowing that the search ad industry is not dependent on any one single industry.

Radius marketing, although not a product or platform, is more of a strategy implemented through the use of existing marketing platforms like Google Adwords and Facebook pay per click.

Let’s look at Google Adwords for example.

Did you realize that with Google Adwords, your business could be running the following (equivalent) campaign:

Let’s say you are a dentist in Roswell, Georgia and you want to increase the number of teeth whitening procedures.  And from your client database or records, you already know the following:

1. Your most profitable teeth whitening clientel are women aged 21 – 45
2. Your most profitable customers all live within a 15 mile radius of your practice

So you would launch a Google Adwords campaign as follows, utilizing the radius marketing mindset:

You create three banner ads sized 728×90 (large rectangular), 300×250 (large square), and 160×600 (tall tower) – all of these are high quality image ads that will run throughout Google’s content network.

You then set a radius on your campaign of 15 miles – this way, your three high quality image ads do not show up anywhere outside of a 15 mile radius of your front door.

The types of sites your ads are showing up on now, again nothing exceeding 15 miles radius from your business, are sites like the local newspaper online edition, NYTimes.com, local blogs and other content sites that people frequent and who are all located within a 15 mile radius.

So we’ve got your campaign drilled down so that it’s marketing your dental practice, and more specifically teeth whitening, and your ads are not showing up outside of 15 mile radius from your door.

But we need to drill it down even further because we know also that women aged 21-45 are your most profitable teeth whitening clients.

So you drill down your campaign so that your ads are only presented to women ages 21-45 AND who are living within a 15 mile radius of your practice.

Now you’ve got a highly targeted marketing campaign unfolding and your are literally maximizing your ROI at a level that’s never before been possible.

This is what I mean by I radius marketing.

Radius Marketing if I can actually coin that term, is leveraging the current leading pay per click platforms like Google Adwords and Facebook, and creating campaigns that are highly targeted to your specific customer demographic.

And by using image ads, you eliminate the possibility of other competitors showing up on the same page as you because with Google Adwords, one image ad is all that shows in any given ad zone – so your ad shows competition free!

It’s a pretty sweet deal, and extremely effective at converting customers.

Great news for those who have been using Gmail’s phone calling capabilities; free calling has been extended through 2011.

I think Google has always intended for this service to be free, just like every other product they launch (Adwords being the only exception of course), but they make it seem like they are holding back on charging to just create a buzz.

And it’s working, because blogger’s like myself are now writing about it.

Calling in Gmail was launched in August of this year and was declared “free” for all of 2010.  And according to Gmail’s blog post, in case you haven’t tried it yet, dialing a phone number works just like a regular phone. Look for “Call phone” at the top of your Gmail chat list and dial a number or enter a contact’s name.

Google Places is something very few businesses either know about, or know how to utilize. The problem is mostly that local business owners are still in the “newspaper ad” mindset and fail to realize exactly how many people are surfing, browsing, and searching on the web.

C’mon folks… the internet is where your customers are – like it or not!

So for a local business, wouldn’t it make sense to leverage a platform that allowed you to reach new customers who were searching for what you offer, at the moment they are searching?  And to connect to new customers at the place they are already – which is online?

Sure, you can go the Google Adwords route to achieve basically the same thing. But with Adwords, you’ll need to have a monthly ad budget. With Google Places, everything is free!

What is Google Places?

Google Places is basically a platform that works in conjunction with Google Maps. You simply visit the Google Local Business center and then “claim” your business.

Then whenever someone is searching for your business, products, or services, your business listing will appear next to a Google Maps display.

What’s awesome, and powerful, about Google Places is that it allows you to easily connect to customers who are searching via their mobile phone (iPhone, iPad, Android smartphones, etc…).

Mobile search is one of the fastest growing areas of the internet, and you better believe that people are searching for what you offer from their iPhones and Android smartphones. Google is making it even easier to search from mobile devices with their new Google voice activation apps.

So basically with a Google Places listing for your business, you can connect to new customers searching for what you offer, regardless of whether they are on their desktop computer, laptops, or mobile phones.

Who can use Google Places?

This is the easy part – does your business have a local address? If so, then you can (and should) create a Google Places local listing.

Learn more about Google Places for your business here.

And I’m always willing to help, so ask questions in the comments.

I just finished talking with a client about his Google Adwords campaign. Of course I can’t use specifics here, but let me just say that he was hemorraging money out without generating sales.

That’s a recipe for disaster for just about any business – except BP perhaps…

The main reason he was getting killed in his campaign was that the majority of his keyword phrases were broadphrase match.

Broadphrase matching in Google Adwords means you have phrases without any quotes (“your phrase”) or brackets ([your phrase]) around them – so your phrase would look like this:

your phrase

Notice the lack of quotes and brackets!

There was one phrase, let’s just use your phrase as the example, that cost him $198 so far this month.

The equivalent phrase in his ad group that had brackets around it, which was “your phrase” only cost him $18.

Huge difference between $198 and $18 – especially for one phrase in your Adwords campaign.

I recommended that he start out by deleting all of his broadphrase match keywords because:

1)  Broadphrase match is too broad – meaning your ads show up, and get clicked on, for almost any phrase variation that includes your keywords

2)  Because I would rather have to figure out how to reach higher quality customers by expanding my keyword list, then trying to figure out how to stop the bleeding of cash that is going to Google and not giving me any sales in return.

For most advertisers using Google Adwords, this is the smartest path to take and the one that saves you the most money while trying to figure out how to optimize your campaigns.

The alternative is to spend money faster than you can make it, and hopefully you’ll figure out Adwords before you’re broke.

I’d prefer the first method…

Google has changed the top sponsored results in the Google search results from a light yellow background to a purple background.

Here’s what I’m talking about – notice the purple background in the top sponsored results in Google search:

Why the change?

Google has officially stated that the change is due to the changing dynamics of their search results. No longer do you get just simple text based results ranking from 1 – 10.

Here’s Google’s official response:

Starting today and ramping up to 100% globally by the end of this week, we’ll be changing the background color for ads that appear above the search results on Google.com as well as our local domains. The ads, which currently have a pale yellow background, will change to have a pale purple background. This change is part of the ‘look and feel’ update to our color palette and logo that we made back in May of this year to keep the Google results page looking fresh and modern. This is purely an aesthetic change to our ads and won’t have any impact on the way we target or serve advertisements on Google.com.

It wasn’t much more than a few years ago when Google search results had a blue background.

Then the change went from blue to yellow, and now from yellow to purple.

Here’s the evolution of the background color of Google’s search results:

And then of course you can see the purple background from Google search results at the top.

So what do you think about the change in Google search result’s background color?

Do you like, or naw…?

sources: Search Engine Land, RimmKaufman

Hold onto your mouse, and make sure your keyboard is stable!

Yahoo announced today that it will use Google technology to power its Yahoo Japan search engine and ad delivery system.

This was attempted before in the US until the government squashed Yahoo’s efforts because of fears over a search monopoly.

But regulators in Japan do not share the same fear factor.

According to HuffPost, the decision by Yahoo Japan, which is largely independent from its California namesake, will mean that the bulk of Internet searches done in Japan will use Google’s search engine, though both companies said enough independence would be maintained to keep the market competitive.

Yahoo is making every effort to find a way to recover in the hyper competitive search market.

I guess Yahoo’s perspective is, if you can’t beat em’, then join em’!

Actually, this is probably a smart move by Yahoo because of their new commitment to focusing on high quality news and content delivery – which Yahoo excels at doing.

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares are up +3.51 (0.72%) at 491.81 on the news of the Yahoo Japan deal.

Google has just launched a new conversion tracking tool for the Google Adwords platform called The Search Funnel Report.

The Search Funnel represents the path (clicks and impressions) that a future visitor has taken prior to visiting your site and becoming a successful sales conversion.  Google is now giving Adwords’ advertisers the ability to analyze both direct, and indirect, search patterns (behaviors) that a customer has followed prior to visiting your site and converting.

The Google Adwords Search Funnel works in conjunction with advertisers who are already implementing conversion tracking or already linked to an active Google Analytics account.

Understanding Customer Behavior

The Search Funnel is such a great feature for online advertisers who use Google Adwords.  Being able to analyze visitor’s searching habits that lead to a successful conversion on your site is critical because you are now able to see what lead that conversion to your site initially, what brought them back, and ultimately what keyword phrase led to a successful conversion.

Here’s an example that Google provided in their announcement:

Direct Relief has an AdWords Grants account. They are generating donations through their gift catalog that will provide humanitarian assistance around the world.

1. A user searches on “charity greeting cards”. They see Direct Relief’s ad and click on it. A click is registered in Direct Relief’s AdWords account.
2. Two days later, the same user searches for “unique mother’s day gift ideas” and see another ad by Direct Relief but do not click on the ad. An impression is registered in Direct Relief’s AdWords account.
3. Finally, four days later, the same user searches one more time but this time for “Direct Relief”, sees their ad, clicks on it, visits the site and makes a purchase from their gift catalog. A conversion is registered.

Here’s a quick video from Google on The Search Funnel for Google Adwords:

Looking for some great tips on how to control your Google Adwords cost? Here’s a video showing you 3 tips to control Google Adwords cost.

Inside Adwords released a 2 minute video showing you 3 tips on how to control, and reduce, your Google Adwords click budget. When it comes to Google Adwords, the name of the game is controlling your cost while simultaneously increasing click thru rates, ad ranking positions, and of course your ROI (return of investment). Although it’s easy for me to write these out, Google Adwords advertisers mostly struggle with getting costs under control and improving their Adwords campaign performance.

Every tool and tip that you can get will contribute to you having a more successful Google Adwords campaign. And today, Google released a great 2 minute video showing 3 tips to control your Google Adwords costs:

The Google Adwords management dashboard is now available via select mobile devices.

Have you ever wanted to manage your Google Adwords campaign from your mobile phone? The concept of accessing Google Adwords while you are on the go is something advertisers have been clamoring for aggressively.

Well now, as of Yesterday, Google will start rolling out the Google Adwords management dashboard for mobile devices.

Google announced Adwords for mobile yesterday via the Inside Adwords blog.

Adwords for mobile is currently available for for the iPhone, Android and Palm devices.

Sorry Blackberry owners, you’ll have to wait awhile (again…) for RIM to jump on board with this new application.

Although you won’t be able to don’t intense Adwords management like creating a new campaign or adding / deleting keywords, Adwords mobile gives you a great resource for managing your campaigns on the go.

Here’s more from Inside Adwords:

AdWords for mobile works best when you customize your experience. Before using the mobile website, you should log in from your desktop computer and choose the parts of your account that you want to monitor closely.

Set up custom alerts for key account events (like when your campaign reaches 90% of your daily budget, or when your traffic drops substantially compared to the previous week), and saved filters to flag your most important keywords and campaigns.

You’ll then see these filters and alerts on your AdWords for mobile home screen.

The concept of Adwords for mobile is to give you, the advertiser, access to the most important information in your account.  The focus of Adwords for mobile is to let you view core basic data and make basic edits to your Google Adwords campaigns and keywords.

This post comes from my Google Adwords consulting blog at

If you are inexperienced with Google Adwords, the learning curve can be a very expensive one. Basically, Google Adwords, like any other college education, can cost a lot of money.

However, there are simple strategies that you can use to help shorten your “training curve” if you will, and put your Adwords campaign into a profitable position sooner, rather than later. And this can be done using what I call the Google Adwords keyword elimination strategy!

Beginner Google Adwords Keyword Mistakes

Most new Google Adwords advertisers will build hundreds of keyword phrases into their campaign. Google loves when you do this because the more keyword phrases you specify, the more exposure and clicks Google can get paid for.

The downside here is that Google doesn’t really care, so to speak, if your business is actually generating revenue from your clicks. From Google’s perspective, your list of keywords must be relevant or else why would you put them into your campaign?

Google doesn’t account for the fact that you might be inexperienced, or just have no clue as to what you’re doing. So the campaign launches, and you could very quickly spend an awful lot of money – all of which never turns into a phone call or a sale.

Keyword Elimination Strategy with Google Adwords

One method that has always worked well for both myself, and my clients, is what I’ve come to call the “keyword elimination strategy”.

The keyword elimination strategy works like this:

Let’s say you have 50 keyword phrases running in your Google Adwords campaign, and yet you haven’t gotten a single phone call from a prospect. This means that over the past week, although your campaign has been generating clicks and Google’s been taking your money, your phone just isn’t ringing.

Now granted, there could be some issues with your website or landing page, but 9 out of 10 times, the problem is actually associated with your keyword phrases.

So what we need to do is start eliminating keyword phrases!

Go to your keyword list and sort the list by the most clicks – from most to least – for the entire week.

Again, you know you haven’t received a single phone call from Google Adwords.

Now starting with the keyword phrase that has generated the most clicks, start analyzing each keyword phrase that has received the clicks. Go through each one and ask yourself:

does this keyword phrase represent my most profitable prospect or target audience?
are there possible phrase variations associated with these keyword phrases that I’m not thinking about, but that other people could be using and in turn, causing my ads to be clicked by non-targeted prospects?
As you go through each of your keyword phrases, start eliminating the ones that could potentially be either causing your campaign to lose money, or keyword phrases that could potentially be searched by non-targeted customers.

Repeat this process over time, and each time you make changes (eliminate) keyword phrases, you will be turning your Google Adwords campaign into a higher quality campaign that generates higher quality clicks and exposure to your target audience.

Google Adwords is a highly effective form of advertising for both small local clients, and even international corporations.

One of the elements of Google Adwords that makes it so effective is the fact that you can measure, and analyze, just about every detail imaginable.  Conversion tracking is one of the tools that allows you to track the performance of your Google Adwords campaign, and analyze the key factors as what is, and what isn’t, working for your campaign.

When it comes to Google Adwords conversion tracking, there is certainly a wrong way, and a right way, to go about setting it up and analyzing the data.  The most important thing for you to do, when setting up your conversion tracking, is to put some deep thought and insight into what defines a true conversion in your site.

Defining What True Conversion Means On Your Site

How do you define true conversion for your website, you might ask?  The answer is quite simple!  Look at your website – are you selling product, or are you capturing leads?  Are you trying to get your phone to ring, or are you channeling your traffic to another page within your website.  All of these could be defined individually as a successful conversion, depending on your business, and what action you wanted a visitor to take.

So identify that one page within your website, the one page that if someone lands on it, you can definitively say “that would be a true conversion”.  That one page, whatever it may be, needs to be the page that you place your Google Adwords conversion tracking code on.

Once your Google Adwords conversion tracking is in place, and it’s installed on your most optimal page within your website, you can then go about your business of tracking and analyzing what’s going on with your Google Adwords campaign.  This analysis will be 100% more productive, because with conversion code placed on your most optimal page, you can track not only Google Adwords traffic, but also traffic from all other resources on the web as well.  You’ll also be able to tell where traffic is coming from – whether it’s from Google search, your Adwords campaign, or some other source.  You will also be able to determine what keyword phrases people are using in Google to find your page or your website.  All of this data comes together to deliver you highly insightful feedback on the overall performance of your website with Google Adwords.

One of the key benefits of Local Ad Extensions is the ability to present your local business address to people who are searching on Google.com, Google Maps, and on mobile devices.  If someone is searching for your business with a geographic keyword phrase, or if they are on a mobile device in the same geographic area as your business, your Adwords text ad can display with your business address (read “Understanding Local Ad Extensions for more info“).

How To Get Free Advertising with Google Adwords

With Local Ad Extensions, the pricing structure is the same as all other Google Adwords pricing settings established in your account – with one exception!

If someone is searching on Google Maps and sees your ad, and then click to extend your local address, you are not charged for that click or ad display.

This means, you are given free advertising exposure to that local customer who just searched for your type of business, and was shown your address (your Local Ad Extension) on Google Maps.

Local Ad Extensions and Google Maps might be only one component of your Adwords campaign, but if you’re a local business, then you might want to consider setting up Local Ad Extensions – your customers will then be able to search on Google Maps, and view your business address, all for free!

You will only be charged for the click if that person actually clicks thru to your website or landing page.

In my view, the Google Adwords content network provides amazing opportunities to connect to new clients and leads.  However, you have to know how to optimize the content network for maximum effectiveness.

Google has just released a new Google Adwords Content Network Optimization video that highlights some of the basics in creating an effective content network campaign (see video below).

Here are 2 things to remember with the Google Adwords Content Network:

1)  Build One Campaign For The Content Network

With Google Adwords, it’s all about measuring results.  If you build an Adwords campaign that is running both on the content network and on the search network, it will be very difficult for you – if not impossible – to effectively measure the results of what’s working in your campaign.

That’s why I highly recommend you build a separate campaign for each!

So build one Adwords campaign for your content network ads, and one Adwords campaign for your search network ads.  Now you’ll be able to track more efficiently what’s working, and more importantly, what’s not working, in order to maximize your budget.

2)  Use Geographic Targeting Effectively

The content network is going to show your ads across a wide range of authoritative websites that have content related to your ads.  So you want your ads to be as targeted as possible.

If you’re a bike shop owner in Atlanta, Georgia, it would not make any sense to run your Adwords campaign throughout the United States.

So when creating your Adwords content network campaign, make sure you effectively target your campaign to your specific geographic location.

Here’s the new content network video from Google Adwords:

I would say that well over 80% of Adwords advertisers find it to be “too expensive” because their campaigns are not set up properly, and are running very inefficiently.

And it’s because of this inefficiencies that new Adwords advertisers are prone to that I recommend, when just starting and learning the system, you build one campaign per keyword phrase – or at the very least, one root keyword phrase.

Building One Adwords Campaign per Keyword Phrase

A root keyword phrase would be defined as a root phrase with supporting words built around it.

For example, let’s say you own a bicycle shop.  It wouldn’t be wise to build an Adwords campaign and use the word “bikes for sale” in your campaigns.  The word is too undefined, and to open to errors of searching and meaning – and all of that means money flowing out of your pocket.

Instead, look at the types of bikes you sell, the models, names, etc… and then target root keyword phrases such as “diamond back mountain bike”, or “schwinn racing bikes”.

And for each of these keyword phrases, I’m suggesting that you’d be wise in building one campaign each for them.

This is especially important if you are wanting to use conversion tracking, which I also highly recommend.  Using Google Adwords conversion tracking will allow you to target and identify which campaigns are generating the highest return on your investment in Adwords.

This “conversion tracking” allows you to allocate more of a budget to what’s working well for you, and turning down your budgets on campaigns that are not working and converting.

One Google Adwords campaign per keyword phrase – focus on that, get it right and get it converting for you, and then expand to other campaigns and keywords.

The more you follow this process and system, the more experienced you’ll become and the effective you will be at expanding on your keyword phrases.

For those who are just getting started with Google Adwords, you might be please to know that there is now a new “Content Network Getting Started Guide” available.

Although this guide is directly more toward the content network, it is a valuable resource because the content network can, if used properly, connect you to high quality customers very quickly.

The Content Network Getting Started Guide is a resource that is made up of a series of videos, tutorials, and discussions about using Google’s content network.  You will also find a Seminars For Success schedule where you can sign up for live Google Adwords seminars.

And that’s exactly what Google is introducing with their new feature called “Click To Call” for Google Adwords advertisers.

Google made the announcement to AdWords advertisers this week that it would display their business phone numbers in ads that show up on some smartphones—and then charge advertisers when users click on the number in order to call them.

SearchEngineLand—which first reported the news—says that Google will charge advertisers the same amount for a call as for a visit to their site (advertisers can opt-out).

On most smartphones, phone numbers typically can be touched (or “clicked”) to initiate a telephone call. This “click to call” scenario already exists for Google organic local listings on smartphones. What Google is saying, simply, is that it will allow phone numbers to display in ads and will charge advertisers when calls are initiated accordingly.

This is a version, effectively, of “pay-per-phone call” but the cost per call is the same as a click — a bargain (generally speaking) for the advertisers to receive a “warm lead.”

Do you see any that you’re struggling with?  You can view the original list here, plus Google has provided valuable link resources to solve a lot of these issues.

Here’s the list:

• Why can’t see my ad when I search for it on Google?
• Why isn’t my ad getting impressions?
• How can I see the Quality Score for my keyword?
• I need to contact support. What should I do?
• Google keeps declining all of my credit cards. What should I do?
• What is the difference between the Search Network and the Content Network?
• Why did my Quality Score suddenly drop to 1/10?
• How long does it take for my ads to be reviewed?
• What should I do if I think my ad has been incorrectly disapproved?
• What should I do if I see an ad that is violating AdWords policy?

Search Engine Land

This raises an interesting question – what is the relationship this represents between Google and Apple.  Obviously, the standard map on the iPhone is an Apple app.  However, with Google sponsored links showing up on the map, there certainly has to be some sort of agreement happening behind the scenes.

The Next Web has speculated that Google is actually spamming the iPhone Map.  I find this highly unlikely because of Apple’s control over the technology and app management of the iPhone.

A much more likely scenario would be an ad revenue sharing agreement.  Apple allows Google to display sponsored links on the iPhone Map App – and Apple in turn gets a cut in the ad revenue.

This scenario sounds like a great business deal arrangement for both Google and Apple.

WordPress SEO Tips Part III – Be Keyword Concious

Some of the best advice that can be given to journalists, writers, bloggers, and businesses who want to get more traffic and exposure on the web it this – BE KEYWORD CONCIOUS! And more specifically, be keyword conscious when you’re writing for the web.

And so it is with a WordPress blog.  Obviously, if you have a blog, you’re wanting to produce content around a specific topic.  But not only that, you’re probably wanting to build an audience, attract a lot of visitors, and more than likely generate revenue somehow from the traffic that does come to your site.

However, you’re just not sure how to attract the right audience and increase the amount of visitors to your site.  That’s where writing content and being keyword conscious comes into the picture.

So How Does It All Work!

Being keyword conscious means that when you write a new blog posting in your WordPress blog, you ensure that you’re including keyword phrases that people are actually searching for, and that directly relate to what you offer.

Here are some examples of the keyword conscious strategies:

*  Conduct keyword research

*  Include keyword phrases in blog title

*  Include keyword phrases throughout the content of your article

*  Link out to related articles and sources that are relevant to your article

All of the above are important, but I put “conduct keyword research” first because it will tell you what keyword phrases to include in your titles and articles.

My all time, top 2 favorite sources for conducting keyword research are the following:

1) Google Wonder Wheel:  This hidden gem within the Google search “options” allows you to do some deep exploration of keywords, concepts, and topics.  The Google Wonder Wheel is a powerful option for those who are stuck and can’t find something to blog about, or who need to explore the long tail of keyword phrases.  Google Wonder Wheel is also a powerful tool for deep conceptual research of topics.  Learn how to use it here.

2) Google Adwords Keyword Tool:  This is another powerful tool by Google, and just like the Wonder Wheel, it’s 100% free.  The Adwords Keyword Tool allows you to quickly research your keyword phrases, and allows you to see what phrases are the most competitive ones within your market.  And as you identify the most competitive keyword phrases, you are able to see those that are less competitive, and hold a lot of potential for you to gain a lot of traffic quickly.  Read more about it here.

Now that you have your tools for generating high quality keyword phrases, take those phrases and start building your WordPress content around it.  Use those phrases in your titles, throughout the posts, and in outbound links.

Another key place to use your keyword phrases is in the URL structure of the blog post.  So instead of having a URL for an article look like this: 

You want it to look like this: 

And as you get better at identifying your keyword phrases and integrating those phrases into your WordPress blog postings, you will begin to see a huge difference not only in the amount of traffic that is coming to your blog, but also in the quality of that traffic.

Because the more “keyword conscious” you become with your WordPress blog postings, the more of a return on your effort you will realize.

I’ve been working with Google Adwords for over 5 years, and have helped people literally all over the world.

And the common denominator with all of them is the problem with their credit card draining faster than their phone is ringing – period!

Today, that story continued with a call from an Adwords advertiser who just absolutely had it with Google Adwords.  After spending nearly $2000 a month for 3 straight months, he said he didn’t get a single call for his service.

I did look at his campaign, and certainly there were massive areas of inefficiencies that could have been fixed, but overall his Adwords campaign was set up just like anyone else with a novice understand of the system.

And that’s where I think Google Adwords has their hook in people.  It’s the fact that the average person – who happens to be Google’s most largest customer base – doesn’t understand how to build a high quality campaign.

This person that called me today, for example, was actually using different keyword phrase variations.  But ironically, only the keyword phrases that were broad matched were the ones getting the clicks – and a lot of them!

Anyway, Google Adwords seems to have more disgruntled – and outright pissed off customers – than they do customers who are experiencing a positive ROI (return on investment) with their Adwords spend.

For some reason a lot of my client work is involving the use of Google Adwords Keyword Tool.  And ironically, I’m using this tool for more than just Google Adwords campaigns – I’m showing clients how to use it for effective blogging as well.

So here are 2 key strategies for using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool:

1)  Targeting the long tail of relevant keyword phrases.

This strategy is quite simple actually and requires only a few steps.  First, enter your desired keyword phrase into the search box, include synonyms, and hit “Generate keyword ideas”.

Once your list is generated, click the column heading called “Global Monthly Search Volume” once, and it should sort from most to least search volume.

Scroll down toward the bottom of the list where the lower associated search volume is found.  As you scan these lower volume search phrases, find the ones that directly target your business, product, or service.

The lower volume search phrases are typically an extension of your main keyword phrase – in other words, they make up the “long tail keywords”.

These long tail keywords are usually highly targeted phrases that specifically relate to a niche in your market.

The benefit of the long tail is that they are used by what’s considered highly qualified prospects.

2)  Sort by “Advertiser Competition”

When you sort by “Advertiser Competition” you’ll sort the competitors that are paying for keywords from most competitive and least competitive.

These paying customers are the Google Adwords customers, and this strategy allows you to see what the market sees as the most profitable keyword phrases for targeting.

The beauty here is when you scroll down to the phrases that show comparatively low levels of competition.

These lower competitive phrases are where you can find huge opportunities for exposure.

Find keyword phrases that have lower levels of competition but higher levels of search volume.  These phrases are ones that people are searching a lot, but advertisers aren’t targeting.

And typically the reason they aren’t targeting these phrases is because they haven’t done the homework and don’t realize that there is an entire niche market waiting to be tapped into.

The Take A Way

Do your research with keyword tools to find phrases that are out of the massive mainstream flow and competitive environments.

Start blogging with these niche keyword phrases, or target your Google Adwords campaign with these phrases, and you’ll soon be tapping into a very profitable niche market that few competitors realize exist.

For more help, feel free to call me at 706-363-0335

Basically, the policy states exactly what the error message shows you if you violated the policy – “One Dispaly URL Domain Per Ad Group”.  Here’s what it looks like.

From Google’s announcement, here’s some examples of what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable:

The follow list of URl’s would be acceptable in a single ad group:

The following list of URL’s would not be acceptable in a single ad group:

• www.example.com
• www.example.widgets.com

In the first example – which are URL’s that would be acceptable – you notice that the root domain is “example.com”.  All other URL’s are either sub-directories or sub-domains of the root URL “example.com”.

In the second example – which are the URL’s that would not be acceptable – you notice that there are 2 different root domains “example.com” and “widgets.com”.  The “widgets.com” has a sub-domain of “example” for the root itself is “widgets.com” – a violation of the one display URL domain per ad group policy.

Recently I was working with a campaign that had this issue and the ads were all disapproved.  The main reason for the disapproval was the “One Display URL Domain Per Ad Group.”

Typically when you are have multiple ads throughout various ad groups, we are talking about quite a few changes are needed on a larger scale.  The tool I used to make my changes with the Google Adwords Editor.

The Google Adwords Editor will allow you to import all of your campaigns and work at any level necessary to implement the changes that are needed.

In this case, I needed to change the URL’s of over 200 ad groups.  Obviously the Adwords Editor tool was needed.

However, once I made all the changes, the ads were still sitting in “disapproved” status.  Typically, after changes are made, they will  move into a “pending review” status – waiting for Adwords team members to approve the changes.

But this wasn’t the case – so here’s what I did.

I created a new ad per ad group that was sitting stagnant.  The new ad I created was a duplicate of once that was already in that ad group.  But when I created the new ad, it immediately sent that ad group to “pending review” status.

So by creating the new ad – which was just a duplicate of an ad that already existed in the ad group – it forced it’s way onto the radar of the Adwords editors who then came in and reviewed all the changes that were made.

Let me know if you’ve experienced this same issue, and if so, what did you do to resolve the disapproved ads.

After reading through these 6 tactics, I realized that these are strategies that are applicable in any economic condition.  Advertisers spend a lot of money on Google Adwords, and as a consultant that helps people with their campaigns, I know that a lot of the money they spend goes toward wasted clicks.

These 6 tactics are great tips indeed, but please don’t consider these just for “tough times” – it would be wise to learn these strategies, master them, and continually optimize them both now and forever into the future.

Below are the 6 Top Tactics For Tough Times that Google outlined:

1. Focus your ads on low prices and savings.

Consumers care about prices more than ever, especially on day-to-day purchases. When someone searches on a particular product, you know they’re interested; by using your ad to tell them that you’ve got the highest quality and the best price, you’re more likely to earn their click. Update your ad text to focus on low prices, good values, and timely promotions.

To draw the attention of price-conscious shoppers, these ads use savings-related terms.

• Learn about writing targeted ad text
• Read a blog post about optimizing your ad text

2. Use value-related keywords.

It’s open season for bargain hunters. To reach these deal-conscious consumers, add appropriate price- and discount-related keywords. Try the AdWords Search-based Keyword Tool and Search Query Performance report to find and higher-performing keywords that people are actually searching on.

To attract more customers, value-related keywords have been added to the keyword list on the right.

• Learn about selecting keywords
• Check out the Search-based Keyword Tool
• Read a blog post about Search Query Performance reports
• Learn about the Keyword Tool

3. Make sure your ad groups are targeted and relevant.

Ads perform best when their ad text reflects the ad group’s keywords; this makes ads more relevant to their intended audience. Make sure that both the text and the keywords in each ad group focus on a specific topic or product. For instance, an ad group about “tennis sneakers” will generally perform better than a broader ad group about “sneakers.”

Splitting up the general ad group on the left into two, more specific ad groups will likely enhance its performance.

• Learn about organizing your ad groups for greatest impact
• Learn about building an effective keyword list

4. Don’t waste money on irrelevant clicks.

The wrong keywords can attract people who are looking for products you don’t offer. Use negative keywords to filter out traffic that’s not related to your offering. The Search Query Performance report can help you identify potential negative keywords by showing which queries have triggered your ads.

A search for “peanut butter allergy” isn’t relevant to the sale of peanut butter, so allergy should be added as a negative keyword.

• Learn how to choose the right negative keywords
• Learn how to add and edit negative keywords
• Watch a video about negative keywords

5. Make it easy for customers to buy.

Since people are spending more time comparing products and services online, make it easier for them to find what they’re looking for and buy from your site. Use the best Destination URL to send visitors directly to the page about the product or service promoted in your ad.

To be most effective, the Destination URL for this ad sends visitors to the page where Model XYZ123 camera can be found for $279.

• Learn about Destination URLs
• Read a blog post about Display vs. Destination URLs
• Learn about creating high-quality landing pages

6. Focus your money on your high-performers.

To get the most out of your campaigns, focus your time and resources on the keywords, ads, and ad groups that are driving the most value for your spend. To determine what’s performing best for you, consider Google’s free Conversion Tracking tool.

The overall budget of $100 was split evenly between the two campaigns. Google’s conversion tracking tool showed that the Used Books campaign was converting at a higher rate, so the budget was shifted towards that campaign, increasing the overall conversion rate in the account.

• Learn about conversion tracking
• Watch a video about conversion tracking

Here’s a quick “how to” for scheduling your Google Adwords campaign!

A lot of people ask me about scheduling their Adwords campaigns.  And not necessarily in an attempt to figure how to do it – but moreso they are wanting to know “if” they should schedule their campaigns, and “what’s the benefits” of doing it.

So before we get into the “how” let me quickly tell you, from my experience working with clients, why you should consider scheduling your Google Adwords campaign.

The #1 reason you should consider scheduling your Google Adwords campaign is, quite frankly, because Adwords is expensive.  And most people I work with don’t have unlimited resources to be throwing at Adwords.

So realizing, for example, that the majority of your customers are online during working / business hours (yes, while everyone’s at work, they are online), you can schedule your ads to run during those normal business hours and then turn them off at night.

Especially if you’re a B2B (business to business) type service, then the prime time for your ads to be running is during normal business hours.

Sure, there is the potential to connect to customers at night, but the variance is too high, and the risk too great to be wasting money on clicks that you aren’t 100% sure are coming from prospects.

If your Google Adwords campaign is running in a local market, and your business is local, then obviously you’d want to be scheduling your ads to run during your business hours.

These are just some thoughts to consider when thinking about scheduling your Google Adwords campaign.

Now here’s the “How To” for scheduling your Google Adwords campaign straight from the Adwords Help Resources:

1. Sign in to your AdWords account at https://ads.google.com/home/.
2. Click the name of the campaign you wish to edit on the “All Online Campaigns” page.
3. Select the “Settings” tab.
4. Under “Advanced settings,” click Edit next to “Ad schedule.”
5. In the ad scheduling window you’ll see the seven days of the week with 24 hourly blocks for each day. Green blocks indicate that your ad is scheduled to run during that hour. Gray blocks mean your ad will not run during that hour. Click a row to adjust the days and times. Click Add another time period to create multiple running time periods in a single day.
6. When you’re finished, click “Save.”
7. Repeat this process for any additional campaigns.

You may also wish to enable the bid adjustment mode of ad scheduling, which includes a bid multiplier you can use to bid more or less for your campaign during certain time periods. Learn about the advanced mode of ad scheduling.

Any questions at all, fell free to call me at 706-363-0335 – I’m always willing to help you out!