Archive for the ‘google’ category
Recent Google AdWords Improvements that Make Advertisers’ Lives Easier
At Work Media, what we do can be broadly classified as “Internet marketing,” and underneath the Internet marketing umbrella it breaks down into a few more specific areas such as search engine optimization (“SEO”), social media management, and paid search. Over on the SEO side, things are pretty chaotic these days. Google is whacking websites left and right, causing people in our line of work to scramble to make adjustments to how we do things to salvage our clients’ (and our own) rankings. However, while Google continues making it harder and harder to figure out how to get high organic search engine rankings, the company continues to make improvements to its paid search platform that make it easier and more efficient to manage paid search campaigns (you don’t think it could be that Google REALLY wants you to spend money with them to get your site to appear, do you?). Certain policies notwithstanding (a subject for another day), from a technological standpoint, the Google AdWords platform is more robust and powerful than ever. So let’s talk about some of the newer features that Google has implemented, or will soon be implementing, that make your life as an advertiser easier.
Improved exact and phrase match. Soon, Google will display your ad for an exact match or phrase match keyword even if there is a slight variation in the search query if it is clear that the person was searching for the same thing. These include misspellings, singular and plural forms, acronyms, stem variants and abbreviations. For example, if the keyword is “personal injury lawyer,” but the actual search query is “personel (note the misspelling) injury lawyer” or “personal injury lawyers (plural),” then it will display. Google was even considerate enough to program the system so that only exact, exact matches affect your keyword quality score.
Improved ad rotation. This is one of the things that has always bugged me about AdWords, and I am thrilled that Google has improved this. Google has always encouraged advertisers to use ad rotation that automatically displays the ads that have the highest click-through rates. But that mechanism always kicked in way too early. A like to see LOTS of data to know FOR SURE that one ad is a better performer than the other, yet Google would always start choking ads before they had been exposed to enough impressions. So now Google is about to unveil an improved ad rotation that first gives equal rotation to all ads for 30 days, and then begins making adjustments based on click-through rates. Major improvement.
Mobile app links in mobile ads. If you have a mobile app, you can link to it from ads that appear on mobile devices. This is a great opportunity to increase your prospective customers’ level of involvement with your company. If you can get them using your app, they could see your company name every day, or at least when the right occasion arises.
Smarter keyword research. The Google keyword tool will now automatically build out distinct sets of keywords to use as the foundation of ad groups based on the keywords returned from your query. While I would certainly look at the suggested ad groups with a critical eye, this is a way to quickly split out your keywords into appropriate ad groups, or just to get a campaign built out if you are short on time.
Google seems to be making changes to their AdWords platform at an increasingly rapid rate. The best way to keep up with new features is to check out the AdWords blog at http://adwords.blogspot.com/. Most of the newest changes coming out are very smart features designed to help you use the platform more effectively, so stay informed about what is possible and take advantage of any new feature that makes sense for your situation.
How to Become a Google Recognized Authority in Four Easy Steps
It is becoming increasingly more important for you to establish to Google that you are a real person creating legitimate content in order to get more leverage from the content that you create for your search engine marketing. There are a lot of little details for doing this, but what follows is a quick and dirty four step plan for becoming a Google authority.
1. First set up for yourself a high quality profile on Google +. Add a photo, and take advantage of any opportunity Google presents to give more information. And go ahead and follow some other people to start forming your circles.
2. Then create an account for yourself at www.ezinearticles.com, the top article directory. Go ahead and fill out all the information, including a photo. Add your Google + profile link to your Ezinearticles.com account by clicking the Social Media dropdown on the main menu and then selecting Google +.
3. Add your ezinearticles.com profile link to your Google + account. Click on Profile, then the Contributor to link. Add your Ezinearticles.com profile page link as a public link.
4. Begin publishing articles with your ezinearticles.com account. Place at most two keyword links to your website in the resource boxes for your articles.
This is a super simplification, but that’s it in a nutshell. You’re basically forming a chain that Google can follow to establish that you are a real person and a legitimate creator of content. If you do this over time, Google will consider you more of an authority, thus showing favoritism toward your published articles, and possibly increasing the likelihood of favoring your website in search rankings.
Google’s New Instant Search
You may have noticed something odd about Google all of a sudden – rather than waiting until you click the button, Google now starts returning search results while you are still typing out your query. This feature can be turned off, and it is too early to know if this will affect people’s search behavior. IF the feature remains and people use it, I think there are a couple of things you are going to need to keep in mind that relate directly to your site’s search engine optimization.
First, it is going to be more important than every to focus on higher volume keywords. Example: let’s say you have a store in Madison, Wisconsin that sells cheese and you are trying to decide between focusing on the keyword “Madison cheese shop” or “Madison cheese store.” Well, if Google is now displaying dynamic, predictive results, it is going to fill in the search based on which of “shop” or “store” is most widely used. So you will want to optimize for the higher traffic variation.
Another issue may be that the new predictive search will lesson the use of long-tail keywords. Since Google is supplying results while the person types, the searcher may see what he is looking for before he even finishes his query. So rather than finishing the keyword “Atlanta used car dealership,” he may stop at “Atlanta used car.” IF this is what actually ends up happening, then you may have to change the focus of your optimization to more broad keywords. It will be more competitive, but if search engine traffic is important to your business, then it will have to be done.
These are just a couple of examples. And none of this may even happen. It may very well be that people don’t like the feature, or that Google removes the feature, as it has a tendency to do. The main thing for the time being is to watch your stats so you are aware if your traffic changes for the worse because of the change to Google.
Google Search Options You Should Try Out
There are many things about Google that I dislike. I dislike many of the things about the Google AdWords program, such as the change recently preventing advertisers from split-testing different domain names in their ads within an ad group. I dislike the way Google constantly throws out new technology, and then provides little in the way of support for it (for example, sometimes Blogger will publish to an external web server, and sometimes it won’t, yet Google has shown very little interest in dealing with the problem or providing any guidance).
But the fact is, despite the many things I dislike about Google, I pound on the Google search ,engine non-stop. It is a fantastic research tool. There are a couple of Google search options that I recently started using that aid in the research process. If you write articles or use Google as a marketing tool (and you probably wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t), then you should try these out.
To start, do any search in Google. The search I am using as an example while I type this out is “law firm internet marketing.” Hey, there’s my law firm internet marketing site at number six, and the Amazon.com page for our book on the subject at number nine. Neat. Anyway, now click the Show options link next to the plus sign at the top left above where the search results start.
Now you should see lots of links along the left-hand side of the screen. Some of them let you focus in on specific types of search results, such as images or blogs or whatever. But the two that I want to discuss here are Related searches and Wonder wheel.
Clicking the Related searches link shows a number of other searches that are, obviously, related to your first search. I think it is safe to assume that these are search queries that people have actually used because some of them are way too specific to just be synonyms or whatever. Clicking on one of those related search query links brings up a new page of search results, just as if you had types that keyword into the search box. Doing this process repeatedly will expose you to all kinds of search terms that you may not have thought of that might be applicable to your business. If you are purely engaging in the process for research purposes, it may lead you to some web sites or resources you would not have found by using your own search terms.
The Wonder wheel option is similar to related terms but more dynamic. Clicking that option displays a circle (or “wheel”) with your keyword in the middle and spokes coming out that point at related search terms. Clicking on one of the outside search terms draws another wheel with the second search term with a long spoke that connects to the first wheel, as well as its own set of spokes pointing to a new set of keywords. Really, this tool does the same thing that the Related searches link does, but it presents the information in a “mind mapping” kind of way and lets you see the path you followed to arrive at a search term.
Gain an edge on your competition by putting these tools to use today in your research and online marketing activities.
Google Shakeup: Just Stick to the Basics
Google has been doing some things lately with its index that have caused quite a bit of shuffling of rankings. However, what we are finding is that, in general, in a few days things get restored to something like what they were before. So if you have high rankings that have suddenly disappeared, chances are pretty good you will get them back in a few days. The main thing is: stay calm!
We have been checking a lot of our clients’ rankings in the beta version of the new Google algorithm which is to be released in the near future. We are actually seeing improvements for many of our rankings with the new release. This validates our theory that, if you stick to the basics and work it, you will be fine.
So…what does that mean exactly?
First off, make sure the copy of your web site (including page titles and headers) is optimized for specific keywords, and not all on the same page. Spread your keywords out!
Make sure you have a keyword-rich internal linking structure. For example, if you are a law firm and your number one keyword is “Huntsville injury lawyer,” then you should have lots of links throughout your site pointing back to your home page that incorporate that keyword.
Next, make sure you systematically build up a heavy catalog of external links to your site. And spread it out. If you do reciprocal linking, that is fine, but that should not be your only linking strategy. Submit articles to article directories. Add your site to general directories. Look for lots of places for your links, and add new links regularly.
Also, we have seen some evidence that Google may now be giving preference to sites that have been updated recently. So if you don’t do a blog, set one up! Stream or publish it to your blog and update it regularly. Pepper your blog with keywords, links to your own content, as well as useful content from other web sites.
In other words…if you want to maintain or improve your search engine rankings, stick to the basics! It would also be an excellent idea to mix in some social media marketing, but that is another discussion.
Google’s New Automatic Matching Feature: Good for Google, Good for the Advertiser?
Google has a new AdWords feature that is available as a beta trial to certain advertisers. It will probably be rolled out to all users within the next few weeks. The feature is called automatic matching.
Automatic matching is intended to help you capture relevant traffic that you may have missed based on your campaign keyword lists. When it is activated, Google analyzes your account and begins showing your ads for search queries that you have not specified as keywords.
The feature is not supposed to effect any of your existing keywords. In other words, keywords you have set up in your account should not get robbed of traffic in order for the system to automatically display your ads for other keywords. The point is to display your ads for alternate keywords whenever you have budget left over.
This is obviously a good thing for Google because it keeps your ads online for more keywords, which means more clicks and more revenue for them.
But is it good for advertisers?
Maybe, maybe not. You don’t really want to relinquish control of your account to Google. That’s asking for disaster. BUT…if you have budget left over every month and would rather have your ads running than not max out your budget, then this is a way to make that happen.
If you have the feature available, and you are currently not spending all of your budget, then you may want to give it a try. BUT…
Watch your numbers, especially your cost per conversion. If your cost per conversion rises to an unacceptable level because of extra money being consumed by automatic matching ads, then you should turn the feature off immediately.
Here are a couple of web pages that contain good information about pay per click placement:
http://www.zimbio.com/placing-ppc-ads/articles/2/Pay+per+Click+Placement+Control+Yes+Follow
Useful New Google AdWords Features
Google has a couple of new features that you should check out. The first is a new keyword research tool that analyzes a supplied web site URL and seed keyword to show keywords that might be relevant for promoting that site (that are not already being used), along with traffic and bid data for each keyword. The main caveat is that you must be an existing advertiser. It’s a great way to instantly generate a list of new keywords for a particular landing page along with the data you need to make decisions regarding what keywords to use and how much to bid. It’s a great tool for advertisers, and certainly a great tool for Google since it will encourage bidding on more keywords.
The URL to try it out is: http://google.com/sktool/.
Another new feature is that Google has increased the number of unique results returned for a query report. These are reports that show you the actual search terms that are triggering your Google AdWords ads. Historically, the reports have always featured line items labeled “Other queries” that contained a large portion of the total queries. Now, there should be fewer results included in the Other queries line and more unique keyword results. This increases the knowledge that advertisers have about their Google accounts, improving their ability to make adjustments based on performance data.
Google is constantly releasing new features. The better you understand these features, the better you will be able to manage your account and maximize your AdWords performance.
Here are a couple more links to pages devoted to the topic of law firm Internet marketing:
http://lawyerwebsitemarketing.wetpaint.com/
New Google Analytics Feature
Google has added a new feature to Google Analytics that is pretty cool. When you log in now, it will show you a summary of performance data, including the percentage increase or decrease in traffic for the last month, for each site you are tracking. This gives you a quick and dirty thumbnail of how your sites are performing without manually digging into each one. Yahoo! is releasing its own free analytics product, so Google will probably be ratcheting up the features in Google Analytics to keep up. This is a very good thing for the consumer.
Here are a couple more good sites that deal with marketing law firm web sites:
http://knol.google.com/k/jerry-work/-/vq7k1h2e94bz/6
If you’re in Nashville, come and see us tonight (Thursday) at the Chamber of Commerce After Hours networking event at the convention center downtown.
Is Google Saying Links Are Not Important?
Do links still work? Google publishes a Webmaster Guidelines document intended to give web site owners clues as to what they should do to rank well in its search engine. There has been some commotion in the online marketing industry about the removal of some copy that suggested submitting your web site to directories like Yahoo! and DMOZ. So…is this a sign that
links are no longer important?
Absolutely not. I think it is more a continuation of Google’s attempt to eliminate paid links as a way of improving rankings.
For instance, Google is fully aware that Yahoo! charges a fee for inclusion in its directory. So how is this different from buying a link on any other web site?
What this means for you is that you just need to continue seeking links from lots of different locations. Add your web pages to social bookmarking sites. Set up pages on social networking sites. Post responses on blogs (preferably blogs that allow “dofollow” links. Keep writing and distributing articles. These are all still effective techniques for generating lots of links that do not fall into the category of paid links.
As for straight-up paid links, I still think the technique is valid, but it should be used in moderation. If you are going to buy links, buy a small package of links from very high quality sites. Avoid the temptation to buy thousands of low cost links on low quality sites.
Today’s Squidoo lens is about running ads on MSN. MSN definitely has its own quirks, so this Squidoo lens discusses some of the things you need to watch out for, and features a number of videos on the subject of pay per click marketing.