Make Mine Instant!

So Google announced yesterday the launch of a service they are dubbing “search faster than the speed of type”! Calling itself Google Instant, it has had Twitter and the blogosphere flooded with people from the search industry fretting about how this innovation could affect their campaigns.

If you haven’t tried it yet, Google Instant automatically populates the results page (known in the industry as SERPs) whilst you type. No longer do you have to press the Enter key on your keyboard, or the ‘I’m feeling lucky’ button to see the results of what you’re searching for. Google themselves estimate that Instant will save users anything up to 5 seconds per search. This may not sound like a lot, but these seconds all add up when you consider how many searches we conduct through the search engine each day.

But let’s face it; Google has done this for several reasons. Firstly, it’s innovative, and part of Google’s brand is based on their innovative and intuitive products. Automatic search suggestion as you type has long been with the three main search engines, but none of them have hitherto showed a full search result based on the first letter typed into the search box!

Secondly, it’s a time saving tool which will lure users back to the Google home page. Google search has been increasingly appearing on different corners of the web for a while (perhaps more prominently, in the right hand corner of our web browsers), and these handy shortcuts have steered people away from using the Google homepage as their search starting point.

This tool is highly dynamic and potentially game changing for those who work in search or even advertise on Google. It means that some Pay Per Click (PPC) adverts may only appear for a split second on the results page, as Google changes the visible results according to what the user is typing. This could affect PPC and SEO campaigns in three main ways. Firstly, it could mean lower Click Through Rates (CTR) on Google Adwords. For SEO, It could also mean increase the importance to rank high on short tail organic keywords. Finally, it could also further decline the importance of misspellings as Instant automatically corrects

At present, Instant is only available to users logged into a Google Account, who are located in certain countries, and who are searching from the Google home page. And because of its current level of restricted access it is hard to see Instant changing anything from an SEO and PPC perspective in the immediate future. But as with all things that Google does, the proof is in the pudding. Time will tell as to how this ground breaking change to Google’s core product will affect those who advertise with it, and wish to rank high in its search results.

Hello there, it’s been a while, huh? Apologies – from now on this *will* once again become a regular feature. Here’s what’s been going on this week:

SEO

Rand Fishkin explains how search engines judge the value of a link - essential reading.

Social Media

Over at 10e20 Rebecca Kelley teaches Social Media - McHammer style, 2 legit 2 quit - marvellous.

PPC

Chelsea Blacker shares an adwords tip – including your keywords in display URL subdomains - definitely worth a test, methinks. 

Usability

Tom Critchlow has penned an excellent post on improving conversion rates, and deserves a link for the title alone

Aaannnd Finally, Friday’s Saturday’s Funny

Courtesy of xkcd:

Image credit Flawka

What am I blethering on about? Negative keywords.

So, what are negative keywords?

According to Google:

“Negative keywords are a core component of a successful keyword list. Adding a negative keyword to your ad group or campaign means that your ads won’t show for search queries containing that term. By filtering out unwanted impressions, negative keywords can help you reach the most appropriate prospects, reduce your cost-per-click (CPC), and increase your ROI.”

Still not sure? Let’s imagine that you sell iPods. Therefore, you’re bidding on terms like iPod, the various models and colours and so on. However, you don’t give them away for free. By including ‘free’ as negative match, you’re ads will not show for searches such as ‘free iPod’.

Sounds sensible, right? And yet, I see many campaigns with either no negative keywords at all, or a woefully inadequate list.

The good news is, that sometimes – you can get away with it. Google applies a relevancy algorithm to every keyword in your campaign, which it compares to the keyword entered by the searcher.

Over time, Google will recognise that certain search terms do not illicit clicks and so over time, you will automatically stop appearing for these search terms. This does take time though, and in the meantime your campaigns will suffer.

However of course, this assumes that you don’t get clicks. If you get clicks your ads will continue to show, and you’ll be wasting money. Bad times.

So, I’m guessing you’re now sold on the need to include negative keywords – but how do you go about it?

Adding Negatives

You can add negative keywords either at a campaign or an adgroup level. Using the new interface, simply click on the campaign you want to add negatives to, then click on the keywords tab. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you’ll see a link for negative keywords. Here you can elect to add them either at the campaign, or ad group level.

As with the keywords you bid on you can elect to add them as negative broad, negative phrase or negative exact match:

Negative Broad – this will prevent your ads from showing if the keyword (or words) you select appear anywhere in the search query

e.g. If you negative broad match Van, your ads will not appear for any search queries which include the word van

Negative Phrase – this will prevent your ads from showing if the phrase you selected appears in the order you’ve entered it anywhere in the search query

e.g. If you negative phrase match van insurance, your ads will not appear for the search query ‘van insurance’ but will appear for search queries such as ‘insurance for van’

Negative Exact – this will only prevent your ads from showing for the precise phrase which you have selected.

e.g. If you negative exact match van insurance your ads will not appear for the search query ‘van insurance’ but will appear for search queries such as ‘insurance for van’ and ‘van insurance quote’

How to find negative keywords to add to your campaigns

Most you’ll be able to figure out all by yourself

The key question to ask yourself is what don’t you do? Think about products and services which are related to your sector, but you do not offer.

Also think about how you sell – for example if you don’t give things away free – you’ll need to add ‘free’ as negative match. Likewise if you don’t lease or hire you’ll need to add those. Conversely if you only lease or hire you’ll need to include ‘buy’ as negative match.

Other negatives worth considering include:

Job Seekers – consider including: career, careers, jobs, job, etc

Courses/Qualifications – classes, courses, qualifications etc

DIY – DIY, how to, etc

Repair – repair, repairs etc

Second Hand / Antiques - second hand, antique, antiques, etc

Software – software, freeware, downloads

Google’s keyword tool is also a great source, as it demonstrates the sort of searches which Google deem relevant to your selected keywords. Simply copy a representative chunk of your keywords into the keyword suggestion tool. Then go through the list of suggestions generated by the tool and include any irrelevant ones as negatives.

Likewise the search query report will tell you which search queries have elicited clicks. To run the report:

1. Click on the ‘reporting tab and select ‘reports’.
2. Click on create new report.
3. Select ‘Search Query Report’
4. Select adgroup from the drop down menu (for some reason this defaults to ad, but in my view the report’s much easier to use if it’s filtered by adgroup)
5. Select an appropriate length of time e.g. one month.
6. Hit ‘create report’ and Bob’s your Mother’s Brother

Most of the search queries will be relevant (hopefully!), but add any irrelevant ones as negatives.

I hope you’ve found this useful – if you’ve any tips of your own you’d care to share, please do so in the comments.

Image credit Fuyoh

Happy, er Monday! Please find to follow my belated round up of the top articles in search last week.

SEO

Danny Dover has written an excellent guide to moving domains - definitely bookmark -worthy!

Social Media

Over at Search Engine Land Ciaran Norris highlights the spate of brands using social media as a band aid and urges companies to stop saying sorry and start getting really social.

PPC

Always wondered why Adwords conversion tracking doesn’t match up to the conversion tracking in Analytics? Matthew from Receptional does a top notch job of explaining the discrepancy.

George Michie talks about his research collaborationwith direct mail practitioners in an attempt to ascertain whether or not key learnings from the traditional catalogue shopping industry can be similarly applied to PPC campaigns.

Aaaannnnd Finally, Friday’s Funny

Got some time to kill?  Waste a few minutes clicking on this Pringles Banner ad (don’t worry, you’ll not be taken anywhere dodgy) – it’s a really rather mavellous way to waste some time – hat tip to Ciaran for this one.

Image credit Yogma.

Happy Friday! As usual, please find to follow my picks of the top articles in search this week.

News

You can’t fail to have heard about the Microsoft – Yahoo deal which was struck on 29th July which will see Microsoft’s ‘Bing’ power Yahoo’s searches. Will it threaten Google’s dominance? In the UK it’s unlikely to, but it may mean that some advertisers elect trial advertising on Yahoo/Bing – time will tell.

SEO

Over at SEOmoz Rand’s written a fantastic summary on the implications of the Microsoft-Yahoo deal for SEO.

Meanwhile, a month on since Google’s ‘Vince’ Update, Richard from SEOgadget takes a gander at the results for the search term ‘car insurance’ – and asks brand or no brand?

Social Media

Matt Churchill talks about ‘Auntie’ getting all social media savvy with the launch of Shownar; a great post about how the BBC have been embracing social media.

Lisa Barone asks if Social Media is Becoming a Weapon - and how you might try to handle an attack on your brand. As usual, it’s facinating reading – and the comments are well worth a read too.

PPC

Thinking about outsourcing your PPC activity to an agency? Over at PPCHero Amber’s written a great post on the 10 questions you should ask when looking for a new agency.

Media

Matthew Robson caused a stir when he wrote a memo for Morgan Stanley on How Teenagers Consume Media, interesting reading, but I much preferred Dan Wilson’s response: How 31 Year Olds Consume Media :)

 Aaaannnnd Finally, Friday’s Funny

 Simon’s Cat

Image credit Unhindered by Talent