Author: Nancy McCord

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AdWords Keyword Discovery

Not every keyword you can dream up for your products is a good keyword to use in Google AdWords. When determining what keywords to use, I find it crucial to also think about the type of matching that should be used as well.

For some general keywords broad match should be considered off limits. A better use for some keyword phrases would be only phrase match or exact match. The default for AdWords is broad match. When you wrap your keyword phrase with ” it is called phrase match. When you wrap your keywords with [ it is called exact match. Google reviews your match type in determining how to show your keywords.

If you are getting many impressions but your click through rate is low, then you may need to carefully review what broad match keywords you are using and either pause them or show them instead as phrase match or exact match terms. Remember when it comes to broad match, Google adds other words in your phrase, before, after, in between, and even uses synonyms. In some cases your broad match term could be showing ads on search phrases that are not even remotely pertinent to your services.

I am not saying broad match keywords are not usable in a well structured AdWords campaign, but that thought should be given to the words before a match type is selected.

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Transition from Yahoo Ads to Bing Ads

If you have been advertising on Yahoo, now is the time to carefully review your Yahoo account. Specifically in regards to the character count in your ad text titles. The reason for this careful review is for you to be ready for account migration from the Yahoo PPC platform to MSN adCenter which is the platform for Bing.com ads.

Yahoo has allowed up to 40 characters in the title. Bing/Microsoft will only allow 25 characters including spaces. For accounts that have been migrated already and did not make the changes, adCenter simply drops the ads. I had one client do his own migration and no ad text imported which was a huge problem for a program of his size.

By the end of this month all ads served on Yahoo and Bing will be controlled from the Microsoft adCenter control panel. It is by far better for you to control what gets imported and prepare now than to have an import arbitrarily done for you.

Don’t wait, get started in preparing your account this week to prevent end of the month problems.

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More on the New Digg Site and Why You Need to Try It Too

I spoke briefly about the new Digg in last month’s newsletter and this month I want to pass on my candid comments after having really used the application.

First, I really like it. It was easy to update my profile and the application allowed me to feed my blog, post my website URL, link in Facebook and tie in Twitter. In other words, it allowed me to create a complete profile that showcases my outreach programs to allow followers to get a broader picture of my online interaction.

But what I am finding is that Digg is not just about letting people know about you, it is about finding out what other people are talking about in your industry too.

I use many tools to stay on top of what is going on in my industry – RSS feeds, watching forums, monitoring important blogs, and watching certain users on Twitter. What I have found from my use of Digg is that I can more quickly get the “pulse” of what is happening by watching the Digg counts on topics and articles. I can search by topic, industry, and even keyword and then see what articles have been “Dugg” by others; rising to importance. I can then choose to click-in to read the full article and even “Digg” it myself to post it to my own personal profile.

This ability to see what is happening quickly on a topic is incredibly valuable. I find one of the hardest things as a busy professional is to identify who to watch with the time I have. Although I watch some very specific people and authority sites, I am aware that I could be missing legitimate new voices that are emerging in my industry or with new thoughts or applications by not watching a greater variety of sites and people. Digg allows me to do just that; watch people and topics that I maybe was not aware of and should be watching on a regular basis.

Digg now allows you to follow these key new people, almost in a Twitter-like way, so that once you find them in a Digg or topic search, you can monitor their traffic, social bookmarks, blog posts, and tweets. In some ways I think that this instant ability to track trending information may be more important to me in the long run than monitoring blog posts of people in my own industry.

In this world of rapid fire information exchange, it is important to know what to watch, what is trending, and what other industry experts are talking about. If you are active in your industry, this is another really great tool to maintain your edge over your competition.

You don’t have to be an Internet Marketing professional to use Digg. Digg can be valuable for any industry professional. To set up your own account and try out Digg visit http://www.digg.com. Don’t forget to follow us when you do your set up, our Digg page is http://www.digg.com/mccordweb.

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Finally, We Launch Google Maps Placement Services

Google Maps is now Google Places!

I have done quite a bit of research and writing on the topic of how to improve your Google Maps, now known as Google Places, placement. For many businesses that sell locally, like lawyers and pest control service companies, placing well on Google Places can mean big business and terrific free exposure.

I am asked repeatedly if we offer services in this area, and have been performing services for a few select clients over the past year. However, we are now ready to roll out a program that may help to garner you the placement you want for your local selling business. Please be aware we don’t guarantee placement, but from our experience and understanding of what seems to work in Google Maps, many of our clients have had their listing become visible (when it was not previously) and some have nice improvement in their position.

We invite you to click in to read our full pricing and information on this new service. Set up is $240 and monthly updates are $40. Included in our set up is the purchase of 20 images to rotate in your Google Places account. Although this service may not be a good match for every business, if you sell locally, it is one you will want to review carefully.