Google Improves Control of PPC Exposure With Modified Broad Match

by Mike Fleming

If you manage a PPC account, you know that for several years now
AdWords has had three match types: exact, phrase, and broad.  You also
know what they mean and how your keywords are matched to search
queries.  Up until a couple of years ago, broad match meant that the
keywords in your phrase were matched to queries that had all of your words in any order.

Then, broad match became “expanded broad match” where Google’s
algorithm was given free reign to decide if search queries were a close
enough match in search intent to show your ad.  Many of the results were
not even close.  Your keyword could be business cards and your ad would show on state ids and business plans.

The overwhelming advantage of broad match of course is that you get
more impressions, clicks and conversions; although you most likely would
have a lower conversion rate that will make you pay more for each
conversion.  So for some it works and for some not so much.  The major
disadvantage is that you have to spend time going through your search
queries very often to weed out those that are not applicable to your
business because you paid for clicks state ids and business plans.

But now, Google has given us another option that offers more
flexibility in balancing the tension between traffic and relevance; the
old broad match and expanded broad match.  It’s called modified broad match.  This option has greater reach than phrase match, but is more controlled than broad match. 

How? With this match type, if you put a plus (+) sign in front of a word in your phrase, AdWords will only match your keyword to search queries that contain that word exactly or contain a close variation of the word.

Google defines a close variation as “misspellings, singular/plural,
abbreviations/acronyms, stemming (like “floor” and “flooring”) and
synonyms.  They say related searches like “flowers” and “tulips” are not
considered close variations.

So basically they are allowing advertisers to choose between the old
broad match, newer broad match, or a combination of the two.  You can
choose to “bring in the reins” so to speak on broad match and decide
which words in keyword phrases are necessary in the search query for
their ad to be triggered.  So, you could do this:

business +cards

This means card will not be matched with id or plan
but only cards exactly or close variations of it (card, etc.).  Now,
this still means that you could get matched to id card; so if you want
to further filter your possible matches, you could go with:

+business +cards

This functions like the old school broad match.  Now business will always mean business and cards will always mean cards.

This really takes the realistic number of possible match types up to 6 or 7.  Here’s a really cool graph that shows the match types, their relative reach and an initial bidding strategy for each.

If you would like to test these match types out, choose a couple ad
groups where you are struggling, copy them and use the new ad groups to
replace your broad match keywords with modified broad match.   Modify
your broad match keywords and set their bids between the your broad
match and phrase match keywords.  Then, after enough data has collected
you can analyze search queries and conversions of each ad group to see
the results and adjust using your reports.

Be sure and visit our small business news site.

OAuth for PHP Twitter Apps, Part I

Twitter recently turned off basic HTTP authentication for its API. This means that Twitter app developers now need to use OAuth to access Twitter. In this first tutorial of a two-part series, Raj shows you how to authorize your PHP app to post automated tweets to a specified account.

Google Dangles Carrots in Front of Small Biz Owners

Google made two announcements this week that, while not being targeted toward small business owners (yet?), essentially serve as a dangling carrot for future local search visibility. One is about better visibility on Google Maps; the other is about expanding the availability of product inventory listings in Google’s search results. So, whether you’re a service-based or a product-based small business, these are future opportunities worth watching.

Business Logos on Google Maps

Google calls this “sponsored map icons.” Businesses can pay to have their logo show up on Google Maps, replacing Google’s generic gray graphics. There’s no doubt it stands out amongst the otherwise bland colors, but that may not be the case when a lot of businesses are putting their logos on the map.

For now, this is only available to a limited set of U.S. companies “with multiple locations and a well-known brand.” But it doesn’t seem too much of a stretch to see this expanding into something that any local advertiser can do. AdWords users who target locally have already been able to show an icon when their ad appears on the map. Today, if you’re using Google Tags, the yellow icon shows next to your red map marker … so you have to assume Google can and will make Sponsored Map Icons more widely available. And that could be a good thing for local businesses with a recognizable identity/logo.

Product Inventory in Search Results

Google’s been doing this on a limited basis for a few months now, but just this week expanded it for wider adoption. In Google’s search results, the red map marker shows up with an “In stock nearby” message.

In order to take part in this, there are some technical/feed-related guidelines that have to be met. There’s help documentation you can read, and an interest form if you want to apply to get involved.

Two interesting announcements this week, signs of things to come, I believe.

This is a post from Matt McGee’s blog, Small Business Search Marketing.

Google Dangles Carrots in Front of Small Biz Owners

Related posts:

1. Google’s “Local Business Ads”
2. Google Maps Adds User-Generated Content
3. Google Maps has a new Onebox Display

Do Keywords In Your Domain Matter?

by Sage Lewis

This is a question I get asked all the time. Get the final answer right here.

Inspired from this article at Search Engine Roundtable

Be sure and visit our small business news site.

Don’t Let Good Content Die – 4 Ways to Keep It Alive

by Stoney deGeyter

Much like life, websites have to adapt over time. When they don’t, they risk becoming stagnant, outdated, stale, and boring. As times change, so should your content. Content that was once relevant becomes irrelevant or in need of an update, old products get dumped in favor of new products, and data becomes outdated and needs to be replaced.

There are any number of reasons why content needs to be changed, freshened up, or removed altogether. But rarely, if ever, do you want to throw the baby out with the bath water. Something can usually be salvaged. Previously valuable content can be made valuable again. Here are four ways you can keep good content alive, even when it’s old.

Keep content up to date

Keeping your content up-to-date may sound like a simple task; but, the larger the site, the more difficult it is. Sites with hundreds or thousands of pages often have a lot of little hidden gems that can easily become stale or irrelevant. Over time, you see products and services change. A simple reference to an old pricing structure or outdated way of doing things can really throw a wrench in the works for the reader. Conflicts and contradictions breed mistrust.

Failing to find and correct these nuggets will send your readers a message that perhaps you are stale and irrelevant as well. So, spending time on a regular basis, perhaps yearly, reviewing all your editorial content and brushing it up to keep it current is an important item to put on your task list.

Redirect deleted pages

Pages on websites often get moved or deleted over time. Perhaps you are restructuring your information architecture, removing services that you no longer offer, or deleting tutorials that have become obsolete. Just because this content is considered old, doesn’t mean that it can’t still work for you.

Simply adding “301 redirects” or a building a custom “404″ page can capture that traffic and send them to other areas of your site. This allows them to stick around long enough to see if you still have something that will meet their needs, even though you no longer have exactly what they want.

Adding redirects allows you to keep visitors on your site if they have arrived, say, from a bookmarked page or an old page in the search results. Instead of losing those visitors, this gives you the opportunity to keep them engaged with your site, with the possibility of attracting them to your other excellent content.

Repurpose old content

Blogs are a great place to re-purpose old content and provide an updated spin on it. If you’re running out of ideas for what to publish on your blog, you can go back several years in your archive and find old topics and discussions for which you can provide a new take.

Blog back history can give you a wealth of topics that you can pull from to create fresh, new content for your readers.

Another way to re-purpose old content is by removing excessive content from your site and moving it over to your blog. This can be necessary after years of site content build-up. This happens when you keep adding content to your site and it becomes so bloated that your readers end up spending too much time working through your site instead of being moved through the conversion process.

A couple months back, I worked on the Information Architecture for a client, and they had this very problem. We were able to take dozens of pages of content and move it off of their main site onto their blog. The content was good, but it was excessive. This hindered the conversion process, making the site both convoluted and confusing at the same time. By moving this stuff to the blog, the main site was better able to do the job of selling and the blog became the avenue of informing readers.

Link to historical pages

Content, especially blog content, often gets buried after months and years of time passing. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the content isn’t valuable or even needs to be re-written.

What you can do is write new content that links to this valuable content that was written long ago. You’re giving your readers something fresh, while linking to something historical, that you can use to make your point or provide more detailed information for the reader to peruse at their leisure.

Take advantage of any area of content that allows you to link to another page that provides more information. The web isn’t a brochure, it’s more like a choose-your-own-adventure novel. That historical content can be a goldmine of information, provided you’re giving your new readers a way to access it.

Good content never has to die. If you’re treating it right, it never will. New people are coming to your site every day. These people have not had the benefit of reading all your past or historical stuff. No need to let it go to waste. Instead, keep it alive… and keep it working for you.

This post was inspired from The Princess Bride themed presentation I gave in early 2010 at SEMpdx’s Searchfest titled Inconceivable Content: The Dread Pirate Robert’s Guide to Creating Swashbuckling Content, Pillaging the Search Engines, and Commandeering a Treasure Trove of Conversions. If you enjoyed this post you also might enjoy other posts inspired from the same. Search for “inconceivable content” on this blog to find them all.

Be sure and visit our small business news site.

August ’10: Best Search/Marketing Posts

Here’s my roundup of the best search/marketing posts I found and read during August. If you’re new to this blog, this is a monthly feature that began way back in 2007. You can find earlier “Best Of”s for each month in the Link Roundups category archive. I never include my own posts in these end-of-month recaps.

Local Search

• Shagun Vatsa/Powered by Search: Canadian SEO IYP Rankings Report 2010
• Andrew Shotland/SEL: 10 Great Local Search Tools That Don’t Exist Yet
• Miriam Ellis/SEO Igloo: Are These Reviews Authentic? You Be The Judge.
• Scott Clark/buzzmaven: 15 Tips for Responding to Google Place Page Reviews

Small Business

• Andrew Shotland/Local SEO Guide: Are New SMBs Creating Facebook Pages Before Google Place Pages?

SEO

• Vanessa Fox/Nine by Blue: Bad SEO Advice

Link Building

• David Sottimano/Distilled: Free Directory Submission: What to Avoid, Tips & Tricks
• Paddy Moogan/SEOmoz: Market Research for Link Building – Who You Can Get Links From
• Garrett French/Ontolo: 44 Local Link Building Queries for Citation Prospecting and Opportunity Analysis

Blogging

• David Harry/Fire Horse Trail: Google Blog Search; under the hood
• Justin Kownacki: What I’ve Learned From Blogging Weekly Instead of Daily

Social Media

• Ann Smarty/Blueglass: How to Update Your Facebook Page: Vary, Schedule and Automate
• Amy Porterfield/Social Media Examiner: 7 Facebook Marketing Tips From World’s Top Pros
• Taylor Pratt/SEJ: Facebook Marketing: There’s More to it Than Just Your Fan Count
• Michael Vreeken/Speckyboy: 40 Highly Effective FaceBook Business Pages
• Angie Nikoleychuk/Site Reference: 885 Social Sites, SEO & Marketing: Fine Tuning Your Marketing Strategy

Analytics

• Brendan Regan/FutureNow: Analytics How-To: Segment for Sticky Content

Copywriting

• Karon Thackston/Marketing Words: 5 Common Mistakes That Will Kill Your Web Copy
• Karon Thackston/Marketing Words: The Seven-Step Process for Writing Enticing Product Descriptions

Online Marketing/General

• Brian Clark/Copyblogger: The Three Key Elements of Irresistible Email Subject Lines
• Glen Allsopp/ViperChill: Living Self-Employed Online: The Manual They Forgot to Give You
• Kim Krause-Berg/SEL: How To Rescue Poorly Converting Web Sites
• Sam Rosen/Copyblogger: 60 Ways to Increase Your Influence Online

This is a post from Matt McGee’s blog, Small Business Search Marketing.

August ’10: Best Search/Marketing Posts

Related posts:

1. August ’09: Best Search/Marketing Posts
2. August ’07: Best Search/Marketing Posts
3. August ’08: Best Search/Marketing Posts

Your LIVE Top 10!

Hello Stompers!
It’s my favorite time of the year. It doesn’t matter what the weather is doing, or what holiday is coming up–my favorite time of year is determined by when our StomperNet LIVE events are being held! (I’m not kidding.) They are so much unbelievable fun that as soon as one is over, I start [...]

This Week In StomperNet — "Conversion Starts HERE!" — Aug. 30, 2010

Hello Stompers!
Welcome to ‘This Week In StomperNet’…”Conversion Starts NOW!”
It’s Monday, August 30th, the final week of our month-long focus on testing and tracking, your “Online TNT!” And what better time to begin than NOW to get better conversion?! TODAY is the day to turn those conversion techniques we’ve learned into measurable, dollar-generating results that you [...]

Search Results in Real-Time – The PPC Effect

The trend of the moment in Search is speed. Projects like Google Caffeine are designed to make the web a faster place. A byproduct of a speedier search is the generation of the immediate, real-time result – being able to see Search working for you as you type. Google has adapted this concept into a new live update metric that revises search results as keywords are entered into a search box. I’ve watched the update do its thing on YouTube. You should look for it. It’s pretty trippy.

Search professionals that struggle with motion sickness may have to brace themselves before utilizing the new feature. The page changes with each character entered into the search box. The innovation has some Pay-Per-Click (PPC) search experts concerned fearing fickle potential customers may shift their click focus in mid-search decreasing click-throughs. This would be true if PPC campaign success was dependent on a fly-by-night consumer. People intent on looking for a particular product will conduct a search for that product and click accordingly. For example, if a user is searching for jeans, the user is unlikely to be swayed from PPC jean ads in favor of ads for JetBlue simply because they both begin with JE.

Though a web page may be faster and more real-time based, that doesn’t mean a serious, relevant user will fail to convert. If anything, Google’s new live update feature will ensure PPC campaigns are effectively leveraging the right audience.

WordPress in the Cloud with Amazon EC2 and the Microsoft Web Platform

Thanks to some machine images provided by Microsoft and preloaded with the Web Platform Installer, firing up an EC2 instance running WordPress on a Windows server has never been easier. Bill walks us through it, step by step.