Social Web Tips

Here are today’s notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily:
Mary Jo Foley: Windows 7 to scale to 256 processors

Add Windows Mobile 6.5 to the Microsoft roadmap
John Carroll: Windows 7 - user interface is king

Adam O’Donnell: Happy 20th birthday, internet worm!

Ryan Naraine: Opera sings the security blues
Adobe nukes […]

by Diana Adams

If you read my last post where I asked “Can You Make Sense Of Match Types,” you learned about the four different match types: Broad match, “Phrase match”, [Exact match] and -Negative match. We discussed how knowing the match types is only one part of using them.

You have control over those four match types and how they influence your ad spend. Broad match has the highest impression rate and lowest click through rate, and leaves you open to irrelevant clicks (remember my example of bidding on the term plastic card and having my ad display for the term toy cars?) so you really want to use match types like “phrase match”, [exact match] and -negative keywords. That being the case it’s important that you know where to go to set the match type, and how to tell Google that you want to use a match type other than broad match.

Where you go to enter and set your keywords depends on how much time you want to waste spend. I find that using the AdWords Editor is the fastest way to move, but let’s assume you don’t know how to use that, and we can save the Editor for a yet another post. There are a couple of different methods to use, let’s look at Quick add and Keyword tool, since they’re both listed at the top of your keyword list in each ad group.

Quick add

Click Quick add and there ya go, you’ve got the text box in which you’re going to type in your keywords. There’s even a list of suggested keyword ideas off to the right of the text box now.

Type your term in like this, to tell Google what match type you want:

• Broad Match simply type the term (or combination of words)
• “Phrase Match” type quotes at the beginning and end of any term (or combination of words)
• [Exact Match] type a square bracket at the beginning and end of any term (or combination of words)

Build your list. Click save. Viola! You now have keywords with various match types.

Keyword tool
Click Keyword tool and it brings up a completely new window where you can work with all together new words (Descriptive words or phrases), Website content, or Existing keywords. Each method is pretty self explanatory once you’re there. Select the method you prefer, then click the Get keyword ideas button.

Google will build a list that displays the keywords it finds relevant to what you entered. The initial list is broad matched, but you can select the match type of your choice, by clicking the drop down triangle. Add the words to your list by clicking the “Add” link on the right of the term. When you’re done building your list, click the Save to Ad Group button and you’re golden.

This illustration should give you somewhat of an idea as to what you’re going to find:

Negative match

I’ve mentioned previously that negative keywords really deserve their own post, but because they’re so integral into your campaign development, I’m going to keep talking about them as we keep moving forward. Keywords, be they broad, phrase or exact match, are all set at the individual ad group level. Negative keywords can be entered at the ad group level also, but they can be entered at the campaign level too which is a big time saver.

There are a couple of different directions you can go about getting to the ‘campaign negatives’ view. Either from the Tools menu (on the Campaign Management navigation) or from the top of each campaign you’ll find a text link 44 campaign negative keyword(s): Edit . Use either method, and you’ll find a window where you can manually type in the negatives

When manually entering your negatives, remember they don’t have to be broad match, they can be “phrase match” and [exact match] also:

• -Negative Broad Match type a minus symbol before the term (or combination of words)
• -”Negative Phrase Match” type a minus symbol before the term and quotes at the beginning and end of any term (or combination of words)
• -[Negative Exact Match] type a minus symbol before the term and square bracket at the beginning and end of any term (or combination of words)

I hope that this brief guide helps you set your match types. Managing your keyword match types is going to be an ongoing task. You may find that a long tail broad match term has a very low click through rate, and shorter tail broad match terms get clicked so often that they’re costing an arm and a leg (and NOT giving you a positive ROI. When that’s happening, jump in and start saving yourself the money. Use match types. Use negative keywords. And don’t have a “set it and forget it” mentality about your PPC accounts. Pay attention, keep your hands in there and always be making changes.

Check out our small business news site.

by Diana Adams

If you read my last post where I asked “Can You Make Sense Of Match Types,” you learned about the four different match types: Broad match, “Phrase match”, [Exact match] and -Negative match. We discussed how knowing the match types is only one part of using them.

You have control over those four match types and how they influence your ad spend. Broad match has the highest impression rate and lowest click through rate, and leaves you open to irrelevant clicks (remember my example of bidding on the term plastic card and having my ad display for the term toy cars?) so you really want to use match types like “phrase match”, [exact match] and -negative keywords. That being the case it’s important that you know where to go to set the match type, and how to tell Google that you want to use a match type other than broad match.

Where you go to enter and set your keywords depends on how much time you want to waste spend. I find that using the AdWords Editor is the fastest way to move, but let’s assume you don’t know how to use that, and we can save the Editor for a yet another post. There are a couple of different methods to use, let’s look at Quick add and Keyword tool, since they’re both listed at the top of your keyword list in each ad group.

Quick add

Click Quick add and there ya go, you’ve got the text box in which you’re going to type in your keywords. There’s even a list of suggested keyword ideas off to the right of the text box now.

Type your term in like this, to tell Google what match type you want:

• Broad Match simply type the term (or combination of words)
• “Phrase Match” type quotes at the beginning and end of any term (or combination of words)
• [Exact Match] type a square bracket at the beginning and end of any term (or combination of words)

Build your list. Click save. Viola! You now have keywords with various match types.

Keyword tool
Click Keyword tool and it brings up a completely new window where you can work with all together new words (Descriptive words or phrases), Website content, or Existing keywords. Each method is pretty self explanatory once you’re there. Select the method you prefer, then click the Get keyword ideas button.

Google will build a list that displays the keywords it finds relevant to what you entered. The initial list is broad matched, but you can select the match type of your choice, by clicking the drop down triangle. Add the words to your list by clicking the “Add” link on the right of the term. When you’re done building your list, click the Save to Ad Group button and you’re golden.

This illustration should give you somewhat of an idea as to what you’re going to find:

Negative match

I’ve mentioned previously that negative keywords really deserve their own post, but because they’re so integral into your campaign development, I’m going to keep talking about them as we keep moving forward. Keywords, be they broad, phrase or exact match, are all set at the individual ad group level. Negative keywords can be entered at the ad group level also, but they can be entered at the campaign level too which is a big time saver.

There are a couple of different directions you can go about getting to the ‘campaign negatives’ view. Either from the Tools menu (on the Campaign Management navigation) or from the top of each campaign you’ll find a text link 44 campaign negative keyword(s): Edit . Use either method, and you’ll find a window where you can manually type in the negatives

When manually entering your negatives, remember they don’t have to be broad match, they can be “phrase match” and [exact match] also:

• -Negative Broad Match type a minus symbol before the term (or combination of words)
• -”Negative Phrase Match” type a minus symbol before the term and quotes at the beginning and end of any term (or combination of words)
• -[Negative Exact Match] type a minus symbol before the term and square bracket at the beginning and end of any term (or combination of words)

I hope that this brief guide helps you set your match types. Managing your keyword match types is going to be an ongoing task. You may find that a long tail broad match term has a very low click through rate, and shorter tail broad match terms get clicked so often that they’re costing an arm and a leg (and NOT giving you a positive ROI. When that’s happening, jump in and start saving yourself the money. Use match types. Use negative keywords. And don’t have a “set it and forget it” mentality about your PPC accounts. Pay attention, keep your hands in there and always be making changes.

Check out our small business news site.

A rejection of a patent application by a U.S. appeals court today is expected to send shockwaves through some industries, notably the software industry, as it will likely put an end to the patenting of “business methods” considered to be more entrepreneurial than innovative. Meanwhile, some say the ruling is a victory for innovation and […]

by Mack Collier

I’m noticing recently that a lot of business/company blogs are very
stale and boring.  Here’s some simple ways you can add flair and
personality to your blog.

Add a Flickr Badge: Have pics on Flickr?  Then why not display them on your blog?  A Flickr badge serves up your pics on your blog, and is a great way to make your blog more visually interesting.  For example, I attended a conference last week and took a few pictures, which are now rotating on my blog’s Flickr badge.  If anyone reads my blog and sees a pic of them showing up on the badge, they’d think that was pretty cool, wouldn’t they?

Add a picture of yourself:  Yes I know that many of you think this doesn’t matter.  Trust me, it does.  Put up a picture so that we can see what the REAL person that writes this blog looks like!

Add the perfect picture to your post using Flickr:  One of the biggest complaints I hear from bloggers is that they can’t find the right picture for their blog post.  Just search here, and you can find all the Flickr images that are free to post on your blog.  Just make sure that you add a link to the person’s Flickr profile to give them credit for the image!

Show off your blog’s readers:  A great way to do this is with a MyBlogLog widget.  This shows you the pictures of the readers that are visiting your blog!  I love this because it makes the blog more interesting for your readers, because we all like seeing our picture on another blog, right?

Add a poll to your blog:  Another way to make your blog more interesting and visually appealing, is to add a poll!  This is a great way to get your readers involved, and it can help you tailor your blog’s content, based on the feedback you get from your readers!  Vizu is a site that lets you add free polls to your blog.

So start thinking about ways that you can spice up your blog, and add some personality!  Or are you using some other ways to make your blog more exciting?  Share your tips in the comments!  

Check out our small business news site.

At the Green Legal Strategy panel in San Francisco, John Hailey, Cisco’s senior manager of sustainable development, shows off the company’s “Environmental Data” tool available for free on the company’s Web site. He says Cisco is committed to reducing its own footprint by 25 percent by 2012, taking into account growth, which may mean up […]

by Jennifer Laycock

I’ve been watching with interest as some of my blogging buddies posted their reactions to the blogger outreach campaign Edelman is running for Pepsi. The crew behind the outreach program picked twenty five social media and marketer influencers and sent them a preview of the new Pepsi cans. They also opened up a room in Friendfeed to foster discussion about the brand changes.

I chatted with Mack while his deliveries were arriving and was interested to see what was going to come of all this. Since then, I’ve had the chance to read recaps by bloggers like Mack, Chris Brogan, Peter Shankman and Valeria Maltoni and commentary from folks like Beth Harte.

My Thoughts

My first thought was “my, oh my, do I not like that design.” To me, it seems so stream lined and clean it looks…cheap. It also immediately made me think of the Obama. (Which then tempted me into going into photoshop to replace the Pepsi logo with the Obama logo and to try to figure out what the new Pepsi font was so I could replace “Pepsi” with “Obama.” Luckily I ran out of time, so you only get my version of the can with the Obama logo and the Pepsi text intact.)

My second thought was “seriously, why do companies want to overhaul their logos all the time?” Now I understand giving a slight overhaul to a logo that’s become dated. I’ve watched KFC and Pizza Hut and a few other chain restaurants make minor adjustments in the last few years that brought the image up to date while still retaining the original feel. This Pepsi change though…I don’t like it and I tend to agree with Seth Godin’s take on the subject.

My third thought was to wonder how long it will take before companies stop focusing on marketing bloggers and start focusing on their customers. A thought echoed by many of the other people blogging about this topic.

Target Your Evangelists

One thing Mack Collier and Beth Harte had in common with their commentary was the need for these companies to focus on their evangelists. Sure, sending stuff to the top marketing bloggers is a great way to get our industry buzzing, but there’s no guarantee that buzz is going to trickle down to your passionate customers. In fact, there’s a good chance it will backfire on you as they realize you see them (your biggest fans) as less important than the marketers you’re hoping to impress.

Far better to find the people who are already absolute nuts about your products and who are out there telling the world about how great you are.

On that front, there’s some good advice for companies like Pepsi.

Mack writes:

I get totally wanting to reach out to bloggers to encourage them to write about your social media initiatives. But your online evangelists already have a built-in incentive to talk about you. They WANT to. And the size of their readership really doesn’t matter, their wanting to promote you is what counts.

Beth Harte even offers up a nice ten step list of how she would have approached things. (Hint, the list is VERY heavy on engaging, gathering feedback from and rewarding existing Evangelists.)

If you’re a company watching all this unfold or looking back at similar campaigns from companies like Nikon and Stormhoek, keep in mind that blog pitches are maturing. While you may generate a lot of links and buzz from approaching the digetari or marketing bloggers…you’ll probably get more bang for your buck (and have an easier time getting coverage) if you focus on reaching out to the people who either already love your brand or who are representative of your target audience.

Check out our small business news site.

updated: Sun Microsystems reported a loss for the first quarter of its fiscal 2009 year of $1.677 billion, or $2.24 per share, on revenue for $2.99 billion, down from $3.219 billion for the first quarter of 2008. (statement) The loss was largely attributed to the write off of a $1.445 billion non-cash […]

by Stoney deGeyter

This is part 10 of a 12 part series on keyword research. This series will guide you through four distinct phase of the keyword research process, providing you step by step guidelines to help you gather, sort and organize your keywords into an effective marketing campaign.

Analyzing Phrases for Quality

As we began Phase III of our keyword research process we discussed several different aspects of analyzing phrases. This helped us better understand the value of each phrase and the pros and cons that each bring to the table. Each of these much be considered and weighed carefully when determining if a keyword is valuable or not.

All of the above noted elements are pretty cut-and-dry and fairly easy to analyze. But in addition to those there are also some more vague elements that must be duly considered as well. These additional elements are far more subjective and require a good deal of thought and analysis.

What’s the customer looking for?

The most important aspect of analyzing and eliminating keywords is to fully understand what the customer is looking for. We often see keywords through our own lens of understanding. You think about things a certain way because you are educated and trained that way. But the customer may not be educated in the same way, or at all, in terms of industry related jargon. So you have to step outside of your own thought processes and learn to look through the lens of searchers who think differently from the way you do.

One question you have to ask is, what does the searcher really mean when they type in a specific query? Often times the query itself isn’t clear at all and what you are thinking they mean may not be what they are thinking. Ranking for these types of unclear terms is pretty valueless. Few searchers will even click on the site if they scan the results and don’t see what they are looking for.

The searchers intent can also be different from the results produced. In these cases the search engines are determining the intent of the search and produce the results by their best algorithmic estimation. Again, if the searcher sees somethign different in the SERPs from what they wanted they’ll go back and perform a new search.

In these cases, how do you get into the mind of the searcher? You can’t always, but what you can do is scan through the search results for any given query. If the results are a match for what you offer then great, you’ve got yourself a worthwhile phrase. On the other hand, if the results are all for something completely different, then likely the searcher isn’t looking for what you thought they were looking for.

Other times you just might to have to think through logically. If the searcher is looking for “wet t-shirts” you can be pretty sure they are not looking to buy a t-shirt that’s waterproof. That’s an extreme example but you get the point.

Future and seasonal trends

Trends can play a significant factor in determining the value any particular keyword. Several years ago I was doing keyword research for a client in the wedding planning business. This was just as the movie “The Wedding Planner” was hitting theaters which caused searches for “wedding planner” to be skewed much higher than normal.

Understanding current trends such as this can ensure you don’t make an error in your keyword targeting. For this client “wedding planner” was still relevant despite the higher than normal search volume, but if the trends were not considered the client might assume this was the absolute best keyword to target over others such as “wedding planning”.

As the above case proves, search volumes can often be over inflated, or even under inflated at different times. This is especially true with seasonal based products. Performing your keyword research at the right time of year is important, but it’s also important that you understand the ebb and flow in overall search volume.

It’s also a good idea to keep an eye on potential future trends. Some valuable queries may not be searched at all today, but can become extremely relevant and highly trafficked at some point in the near future. Getting a jump on any such terms can be a great investment in future returns. Also keep in mind that today’s popular terms can fade and will be searched less and less over time. There is nothing you can do to avoid that when it happens, other than just be ready for that possibility.

What’s missing in SERPs

Another way to determine what keywords might be good to target for optimization are areas in the search results that there is little or no competition. Search for your keywords looking for any gaps that are not being filled. Search volume for such phrases may be low, but if competition is low then you increase your chances of getting clicked. That, and if that term does become hot, you’ve laid claim to the top spot and it’ll be much harder to push you out.

When performing these searches you can also get a good feel for the competition. Sometimes a good keyword will produce a lot of results, but the competition itself is easily displaceable. Size up the competition to see where you might be able to easily overcome them in the results.

Return on investment

The most critical thing to look at regarding keywords and phrases is whether or not the keyword will produce a return on investment for you. And this is where all of the elements noted here and in the previous posts must all be weighted together, adding in the factor of time. Knowing how much time and effort will it take to get any particular keyword to rank can be vitally important to understanding if that effort is worth the return that particular keyword will provide.

Putting all other factors aside, we have found that phrases that are two to four words provide the best return on investment. This allows each search term to be both descriptive yet specific, both of which are key. If such a term is typed into the search engine and your site appears, the searcher knows you have precisely what they are looking for.

The image below gives you a general rule of thumb of where your ROI is in keyword phrases. You can see that as more traffic is delivered, the conversion rated decrease and as the keywords that bring in less traffic produce higher conversion rates. And there in the middle are your three- and four-word phrases that generally produce the best return on investment.

Don’t rely on your own analysis

When analyzing keywords another big help can be seeking out the opinions and thoughts of others. Again, this goes back to not looking solely through our own lens but allowing ourselves to look through the lens of others. And there is no better way to do that than to actually get the input from others.

When seeking outside opinion, here are a few people that you can seek out:

• Colleagues
• Assistants
• Managers
• Outside experts
• Clients

If you perform SEO for someone other than yourself, your client can be one of your best resources. Go to them at all stages of the keyword research process to get their insights and opinions. Otherwise, seek out other qualified and even unqualified individuals as they all have a unique perspective to share that can be valuable in learning more about your audience.

Missed one of the steps in this series? Click here to go back to the introduction and follow the links at the bottom.

Check out our small business news site.