Month: January 2013

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Can You Ever Wean Yourself Off From Google AdWords?

I had a business client just ask me the other day “when will my SEO kick in from my newly designed website so I can wean myself off Google AdWords?” First, we did not design the site just to clarify. Second, we had not been performing any type of web visibility services for this client. My first question to him was “where did the content come for all of your 2,000 store products?” To that he stated that he had copied and pasted the content into his own store shopping cart from his manufacturers’ information.

To dig deeper, he and I selected one page on his site and ran the product content through Copyscape Premium. This online tool showed us that 46 other websites had this same exact content or very, very close variations of it. Sadly, I told him that until his content was unique he would never be able to move his business off Google AdWords.

In today’s business climate on Google.com, unique content and a unique position in your marketplace is key to being a candidate for work to improve organic search placement. If your content on your store is not unique, there is absolutely no reason to pay a blog writer or an SEO firm to improve position without first correcting the issue that is the biggest obstacle to success – duplicate content.

It sounds so easy just write your own content for each product, but from experience I know that wordsmithing a page to have it pass as unique and using a tool like Copyscape Premium to verify its uniqueness is a time consuming process, but the rewards are huge. This particular client was spending $50,000 per year on AdWords to drive business to his website. An investment in quality unique content may be an investment in the future.

If you are in a similar situation, it’s time to take a hard look at your own website and KNOW where your content came from before you purchase any website visibility improvement services.

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Google AdWords Express Explained

Here’s the low down on Google AdWords Express and the types of businesses that should consider using it instead of the regular version of AdWords.

Here’s a synopsis of what you get with AdWords Express:

  • Show your ads in a 15 mile radius.
  • One ad only
  • No keywords or keyword management
  • No bidding, Google sets the prices
  • Get Blue Balloon next to your listing in Google Places/Maps

Although AdWords Express is not the right place for every one, it can be a great place for locally selling businesses.

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Using the Google Tag Manager

If you are managing a large website make sure to check out this new tool from Google.

I am using the Tag Manager on my own website and some of the sites of my clients. I have found it easy to use and allows for the ability to grow as Google changes. I really like the ability to add new code without having to wait for a third party webmaster to get around to scheduling time for the code addition.

The only area of difficulty that I have seen from using Tag Manager, is the confusion some webmasters have on the publishing function. Some will set up the tags properly but forget to publish the Tag Container to the site again.

Make sure to watch the video as it will take you through setting up AdWords conversion tracking as well as Google Analytics code installation. With remarketing becoming popular for many AdWords accounts, having the Tag Manager in place on the website allows you the account manager to set up remarketing by just updating the container from within the Tag Manager control panel.

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New Features For Google AdWords to Check Out

AdWords has introduced some great new features that you may have missed in 2012 and has new ones are already planned for 2013. Here are my top picks of great new features and those I am eagerly anticipating.

1. Google Tag Manager
This feature, although not just for AdWords managers, is a new way to add code including AdWords conversion tracking to your website. Instead of adding code to all your pages or to your headers and footers, you add a script just after the <body> tag and then customize what causes your code to fire and on what pages of your site from within the Tag Manager control panel. This is a huge improvement for management of large websites.

2. Ability to Set AdWords Ads to Rotate
If you have loved doing A/B testing of ad text in AdWords, then you will love that you can now again decide to rotate ads evenly overriding the default optimize setting. Although I don’t use this feature for every account, in some cases this is a must especially when you are in the conversion discovery mode.

3. Sitelinks Galore
Now you can enter in up to 10 sitelinks for your Google AdWords campaigns. I highly recommend making sure that you are using this new feature. Previously, we could only add four links, but now can add up to 10. Make your ads stand out by providing instant access to deep inside your site where meaningful.

4. Search Remarketing
This is a new feature planned for 2013 and so is not available in your account yet as 1-3 are. I am excited about this new feature and will make sure to let you know when it is available. I am not sure how Google will handle search remarketing, but with the success of Display Remarketing, I just know this one will be a must use in each account.