Posts

Posted on

AdWords Exact Match and Phrase Match Changes Coming in May

AdWords announced this past week that in mid May they will be changing the way they use exact match and phrase match keywords for ad delivery. In the very near future, AdWords will imitate adCenter in using plurals and misspellings of words you have set with these selected match types in addition to the specific words and phrases.

Google has stated that:

“Starting in mid-May, phrase and exact match keywords will match close variants, including misspellings, singular/plural forms, stemmings, accents and abbreviations. Based on our research and testing, we believe these changes will be broadly beneficial for users and advertisers.”

You can read the full article and see some examples of this new behavior on the AdWords blog.

As Google feels that they can identify the intent of a search from the query and search history, it makes sense to deliver ads to users when their is small variation and even though the specific keywords may not be in an advertisers keyword list. I consider this enhancement good news, and one of the things I particularly liked about Microsoft adCenter which supplies the pay per click ads for Bing and Yahoo.

 

Posted on

Helping Your Blog Writer Do A Better Job

Blogging is a core business for my firm, McCord Web Services. I have found that website owners that take a little bit of time to help our writer get their footing, help us to do a better job delivering what they need for organic search placement and development of web authority.

Here are a few tips to help your blog writer when you start blogging.

  • Make sure to let your writer know your audience – age, gender, typical demographics.
  • Supply a short list of about ten keyword phrases that you think people will use to find you.
  • Offer a short selection of links of blog sites that you like for style and content.
  • Let them know which two or three blogs you read in your own industry.
  • Be patient, it will typically take four to eight blog posts for the writer to hit a stride in writing for you.
  • Make sure to read your own blog and help the writer to understand what you like so that they can do more of that particular topic or style of blog post.
  • As you browse the web send them links of content that you think would make a great background for a blog post. This actually helps them to know what you like.

The more initial interaction you have with your blog writer the better and more effective the blog posts will be for your personal business needs. That doesn’t mean that you need to do these steps beyond the initial break in period, but for the first week to two weeks your input will be hugely helpful and will shape the future of your blog post content.

If you are looking for quality blog writers for your own blog, I invite you to review our services.

Posted on

Are You Focused On Building Your Mobile Empire?

Everything I have been reading lately is really pushing the growth trend of mobile and I have to say I think that the growth and opportunities for doing business and connecting with others via mobile phones and tablets is a sector to really watch. I think that for pay per click programs there are some real growth opportunities for advertisers to move into mobile before the cost per click goes up to the level of desktops. I think that more casual surfing will be done with tablets, but I don’t think that laptops will ever go away – at least not yet.

As for me, I love being untethered to my desk, with full email access on my smartphone. Not only do I do email, but I use my smartphone for a mobile hotspot to power my tablet and laptop. I use my smartphone’s navigation tools and do review deals and discounts to decide if I will visit a new store for the first time. I consider having the information at my fingertips wildly freeing. But my usage only reflects about 40% of the US market at this time. That means there is about 60% more of the population who will, in the near future, be using new smartphones to connect the way I am now. That means astronomical growth and market positioning for those businesses who embrace this new way to connect with customers or at least to give additional options to connect now.

For many the first step into the mobile market it to advertise there, and that’s a great start. AdWords allows you to target smartphones with full Internet browsers and tablets separately from desktops. What I’ve found is that for high cost keywords the mobile and tablet click prices are cheaper, they do have less impression activity, but they do still generate conversions.

Think about what you should be doing in regards to positioning your own business to take advantage of this new trend in mobile and you may just find yourself riding a new crest of traffic and sales that takes your business to the next level.

Posted on

Can You Still Place Organically In Your Industry?

This is the million dollar question isn’t it? In today’s search arena can you and should you even work to improve organic placement or should you instead just concentrate on pay per click advertising. Personally, I think that the answer straddles both sides. This is what I recommend for organic placement and good website visibility.

Do Everything Right Consistently

  • That means improve the quality of your content on your website. Write with your reader in mind.
  • Make sure you are blogging under your own domain so you get the spider benefits.
  • Look to add new articles, white papers, and thoughtful insights regularly to your website pages.
  • Syndicate some of your content on article syndication sites.
  • Do a monthly e-newsletter and archive it back on your website.
  • Get going with social media and try to become an active part of a community.

Invest in Pay Per Click Advertising

  • Put money into Google AdWords. Don’t break the bank, but make sure you have a presence and are using it to your advantage.
  • Make sure you are using conversion tracking and have phone calling enabled with your programs.

You’ve just got to cover your bases in this changing world of search engines. You simply can’t go wrong with these approaches, they are simply sure to pay off in the long run in regards to organic placement, link building, and website visibility.