Search Marketing Man

Negative Keywords in Yahoo - What, Where & How

2010-01-10T16:32:00.015Z

Negative keywords are known as Excluded Words in Yahoo's Search Marketing platform (YSM). See how to use Excluded Words to best effect with this What, Where and How guide.

What match types?

Unlike AdWords negative keywords, which can be assigned a Broad match, Phrase match or even Exact match, Excluded Words cannot be assigned a specific match type. In practice, Yahoo appears to interpret negative keywords using its Standard Match setting. Standard Match expands on keywords to capture singular and plural variations, as well as common misspellings. If you were to add 'free ticket' as an Excluded Word, Yahoo would automatically prevent your ad from showing for any queries that contain either 'free ticket' or 'free tickets'. While than can save time, it does prevent you from excluding only singular or plural variations on your keywords.

Where?

You can add Excluded Words only at the account level (under the Administration tab) and the ad group level (from the Ad Group settings page, under Tactic Settings) - however, Yahoo will not allow advertisers to set negative keywords at the campaign-level. Excluded Words set at the account level work across all campaigns and ad groups. Excluded Words set at the ad group level work hand-in-hand with account Excluded Words

How many?

You can add up to 250 Excluded Words both at the account and ad group levels. In practice, a Yahoo ad group can hold up to 500 negative keywords. This is significantly more than adCenter, yet below AdWords limits.

Negative Keywords in adCenter - What, Where & How

2010-01-10T16:25:00.009Z

adCenter allows advertisers to add negative keywords at the campaign, ad group and even keyword level. Check this What, Where and How guide to negative keywords in Microsoft adCenter, and see how they compare to AdWords.

Search Query	Ad showed?
free tickets	No
free tickets online	No
find free tickets	No
tickets free delivery	Yes
free theatre tickets	Yes
free theatre seats	Yes
cheap theatre tickets	Yes

What match types?

Negative keywords cannot be assigned a match type in adCenter. In practice, negative keywords in adCenter work in the same way as Phrase-matched negative keywords in AdWords, preventing your ads from showing whenever that term appears in the search query.

The table to the right shows whether or not your ad would be displayed if your negative keyword were 'free tickets'.

Where?

You can add negative keywords at the campaign, ad group and even keyword level. However, unlike AdWords, adCenter negative keywords are mutually exclusive. Adding negative keywords at any one level will disable those set in higher levels.

Campaign-level negatives apply to all keywords in your campaign, unless you apply negative keywords at the ad group or keyword level.
Negative keywords at the ad group level replace any campaign negative keywords.
Negative keywords at the keyword level disable any negatives set at the campaign-level and adgroup-level.

How many?

Each negative keyword can contain up to 100 characters. The entire negative keywords list, including commas, can contain up to 1024 characters. Given that the average length of an English word is five characters, adCenter allows on average up to 170 negative words (including commas).

Negative Keywords in AdWords - What, Where & How?

2010-01-10T16:19:00.005Z

Getting your keyword negatives right can make all the difference between successful and failed paid search campaigns. Check this What, Where and How guide to negative keywords in Google AdWords.

What match types?

AdWords offers three match types for your negative keywords: Broad, Phrase and Exact match. Sounds familiar? Think again. There are subtle differences between matching options for negative keywords, and matching options for all other keywords.

Broad match prevents your ad from showing when a search contains your negative keyword. If your ad targets 'cheap theatre tickets', you may want to use 'free ticket' as a Broad-matched negative keyword. Searches containing the words 'free' and 'ticket' would no longer trigger your ad. You should also add 'free tickets' to your list of negative keywords, as AdWords will not expand a Broad-matched negative keywords through plurals, synonyms or related words.
Phrase match is helpful when word-order matters. In our last example, setting 'free ticket' as a Broad-matched negative keyword could prevent your ad from showing on relevant searches such as 'theatre ticket with free delivery'. Adding 'free ticket' as a Phrase-matched negative may have been a wiser choice, in this instance. When choosing negative keywords, it is helpful to review traffic logs and your AdWords Search Query reports to get a feel for actual search patterns.
Exact match prevents your ad from showing when a search contains only your negative keyword. However, your ad will show for all other variations on your negative keyword. If your keyword is 'avatar' as a Broad Match, and you add 'avatar' as an Exact Match negative keyword, your ad will show on all 'avatar' related searches, such as 'avatar dvds' or 'avatar review'. This is a powerful way to carve out traffic. Neither Bing nor Yahoo allow such minutia.

Where?

You can add negative keywords both at the campaign and ad group level, with campaign negatives effective across all associated ad groups. Negative keywords added at the ad group level work hand-in-hand with campaign negatives. Together, they can work wonders.

How many?

AdWords does not set a fixed cap on the number of negative keywords you can use. However, overall keyword count restrictions do apply at the ad group and account levels across negative and positive keywords alike. Advertisers may add up to 2,000 keywords per ad group, and about 50,000 keywords per account. If you were to add 10 keywords to an ad group, the same ad group could hold up to 1,990 negative keywords. In practise, we would not expect these limits ever to be an issue.

YouTube Keyword Research: 3 Essential Tools for Video SEO

2009-12-21T01:04:00.003Z

With 20 hours of video content uploaded to YouTube every minute*, it's just got harder to connect with your target audience. YouTube has introduced a raft of tools that provide more insight into what viewers are searching on. Use these 3 essential tools to perform keyword research ahead of a paid search or video SEO campaign on YouTube.

YouTube Keyword Tool

The YouTube Keyword Tool is a powerful resource. It allows you to generate new keyword ideas in much the same way as the AdWords Keyword Tool. Simply enter descriptive words or phrases, or point the Keyword Tool to an existing YouTube video for keyword ideas. The tool returns keywords related to the ones you entered, together with monthly search volumes for the language and country of your choice. You can switch between match types to see how search volumes change with broad, phrase, exact and negative match types. You can access the YouTube Keyword Tool even without a YouTube account.

Why use it at all? While YouTube is the second largest search destination on the Web, ahead of Bing and Yahoo!, the searches performed are different from that performed on traditional search engines. Users are searching for video content, often with specific search interests. YouTube itself recommends that you "choose your keywords accordingly: names (celebrities), titles (movies, shows), quotes, actions/verbs, objects in the video (cars, etc.), emotions (funny, hilarious, etc.) etc."

How to use it? The Keyword Tool returns valuable information about keyword search volumes. Use this intelligence to structure your ad groups around popular keyword variations. It can also provide ideas for negative keywords at the campaign or ad group level. Build on keyword search volumes to forecast costs and size your campaign's budget.

YouTube Suggest

YouTube Suggest is an interface enhancement to the YouTube search box. As you type, YouTube Suggest returns searches similar to the one you're typing, in the same way as Google Suggest. Start to type 'madonna' and YouTube will return search suggestions, such as 'madonna celebration', 'madonna hung up' and more.

Why use it at all? YouTube Suggest is a powerful way to research long tail search queries. Where the Keyword Tool returns 'Not Enough Data' for words with low monthly search volumes, YouTube Suggest will show are far richer set of options. Use it to expand on the Keyword Tool for long tail keyword research.

How to use it? Use relevant keyword suggestions in your video title, description and/or tags to get your content out to as many searchers as possible. You could also use it to generate ideas for new video content.

Keyword research with YouTube Insight

The Discover tab shows how viewers discovered your content. For each video, YouTube shows the source of views, identifying clicks from the 'Related Videos' box, a YouTube search, a Google Search and up to 5 other sources.

Click the 'YouTube Search' section for the list of phrases viewers searched for on YouTube to find your video.
Click the 'Google Search' section for the search queries that lead users from Google search to your video.

* YouTube, Zoinks! 20 Hours of Video Uploaded Every Minute!, May 20th 2009

Top 6 AdWords Ad Writing Tips

2009-12-20T16:16:00.024Z

Give your Click-through-rate a lift with these top 6 tried and tested AdWords writing tips. Test these in your own ad groups and find the ones that work best for you.

Have a strong call-to-action Book Flights Book your flights with Opodo and save money on your holiday today! www.opodo.co.uk/late_deals Always add a call to action to your headline or ad text. The call to action should encourage visitors to click through and complete a conversion action on your site. Powerful generic calls to action include 'Buy', 'Book' and 'Save'. However, you should ultimately experiment with ones better suited to your industry.	Highlight special offers Discount Dell Laptops Save up to £234 on Laptops with Intel® Technology. Ends 22.12.09 www.Dell.com/uk Everyone likes a bargain. Special offers, exclusive deals and price promotions are fantastic attention-grabbers. Limited time offers could also work well. Experiment with offers either in your headline or prominent places in your ad text - towards the front and end of your copy.
Mention big brands New Windows® 7 Laptops Sony's VAIO laptops now feature the latest version of Windows® 7. www.Sony.co.uk/VAIO Adding a strong brand to your ad copy could lift your Click-through-rate. Symbols of authority such as ©, ® and ™ also help convey trust and authority. Please check the AdWords trademark policy for your region before adding brand names to your ad copy.	Use price points Australia Flights inc Tax Sydney from £564, Perth from £499 Melbourne from £555. Book now! www.DialAFlight.com If you operate in a price-driven industry, adding prices to your ad copy could lift your Click-through-rate. For larger ticket items, price points help pre-qualify clicks, ultimately delivering more targetted traffic. AdWords advertising policies require that prices shown in your ad be displayed on your website within 1-2 clicks of your ad's landing page.
Capitalisation Women's Evening Dresses Top Brand Dresses at Low Prices. Free Returns. Buy Online Now! www.very.co.uk Use capitalisation to make your ad stand out and focus attention on words that convert (such as Key Selling Points and calls to action). Please note that AdWords guidelines only allow advertisers to capitalise the first letter of each word.	Dynamic keyword insertion (DKI) disney world florida tickets Prices Slashed For 2010. Book Now. We Will Match Any Cheaper Price. www.Example.com DKI ensures that sections of your ad text (the headline, the copy and even the display URL) match a user's search. However, your landing page should also deliver on your ad's copy it you are to keep bounce rates down. Note: it is best to avoid DKI if your ad group has misspellings.

Have a strong call-to-action

Book Flights

Book your flights with Opodo and
save money on your holiday today!

www.opodo.co.uk/late_deals

Always add a call to action to your headline or ad text. The call to action should encourage visitors to click through and complete a conversion action on your site. Powerful generic calls to action include 'Buy', 'Book' and 'Save'. However, you should ultimately experiment with ones better suited to your industry.

Highlight special offers

Discount Dell Laptops

Save up to £234 on Laptops with
Intel® Technology. Ends 22.12.09

www.Dell.com/uk

Everyone likes a bargain. Special offers, exclusive deals and price promotions are fantastic attention-grabbers. Limited time offers could also work well. Experiment with offers either in your headline or prominent places in your ad text - towards the front and end of your copy.

Mention big brands

New Windows® 7 Laptops

Sony's VAIO laptops now feature
the latest version of Windows® 7.

www.Sony.co.uk/VAIO

Adding a strong brand to your ad copy could lift your Click-through-rate. Symbols of authority such as ©, ® and ™ also help convey trust and authority. Please check the AdWords trademark policy for your region before adding brand names to your ad copy.

Use price points

Australia Flights inc Tax

Sydney from £564, Perth from £499
Melbourne from £555. Book now!

www.DialAFlight.com

If you operate in a price-driven industry, adding prices to your ad copy could lift your Click-through-rate. For larger ticket items, price points help pre-qualify clicks, ultimately delivering more targetted traffic. AdWords advertising policies require that prices shown in your ad be displayed on your website within 1-2 clicks of your ad's landing page.

Capitalisation

Women's Evening Dresses

Top Brand Dresses at Low Prices.
Free Returns. Buy Online Now!

www.very.co.uk

Use capitalisation to make your ad stand out and focus attention on words that convert (such as Key Selling Points and calls to action). Please note that AdWords guidelines only allow advertisers to capitalise the first letter of each word.

Dynamic keyword insertion (DKI)

disney world florida tickets

Prices Slashed For 2010. Book Now.
We Will Match Any Cheaper Price.

www.Example.com

DKI ensures that sections of your ad text (the headline, the copy and even the display URL) match a user's search. However, your landing page should also deliver on your ad's copy it you are to keep bounce rates down. Note: it is best to avoid DKI if your ad group has misspellings.

However, writing effective copy is about more than boosting your Click-through-rate. While effective ad text should draw attention, it should also set realistic expectations and prompt people to take a conversion action on your landing page.

Google ads gone wrong

2009-12-20T16:08:00.007Z

6 Google ads gone unintentionally wrong. Search marketers: beware when keyword matching options and Dynamic Keyword Insertion get out of control.

It only took a few minutes to find these. Send us any other funny Google ads you may have come across!

YouTube: a leading search destination ahead of Bing and Yahoo!

2009-12-19T09:57:00.011Z

Everyone knows that YouTube dominates the online video market like no other. However, it’s a little known fact that it also commands a large share of all online searches, ahead of Yahoo! and Bing.

An analysis of top properties where search activity is observed reveals that YouTube is the second most popular search destination in the U.S. after Google.com. YouTube experienced 3.9 billion* search queries in November 2009, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.6 billion queries and Microsoft Sites with 1.5 billion searches.

This alone suggests YouTube is a player you should build into your search engine marketing strategy. YouTube now offers a wealth of advertising formats, from Promoted Videos displayed on search results pages, to ads shown in, on and around video content. And with more analytical tools available than ever before, from keyword research to viewer insights, you can optimize your video marketing for conversions and ROI.

Source: comScore qSearch, Expanded Search Query Report, November 2009

* comScore qSearch figures aggregate YouTube search queries with that conducted on other Google properties which are not on the core Google domain. When we enquired about YouTube standalone search volumes, comScore confirmed that YouTube accounts for almost all search queries in the ‘YouTube & All Other Google Sites’ bucket.

Ad Text A/B Tests: How long should you run them?

2009-12-17T15:59:00.005Z

When A/B testing ad text variations, it can tempting to leap to conclusions too soon before your ads have built up enough impressions. So how many impressions should you wait for before drawing a line under a test?

I suggest running two identical ad text variations in one of your ad groups to find out for yourself. While you would expect identical ads to experience the same Click-through-rate, this rarely is the case when impression levels are low. However, Click-through-rates will converge towards the same underlying value over time. The more impressions you have, the smaller the margin of error.

Monitor your ad text variations on a regular basis to see how their performance metrics change. Once Click-through-rates for your identical ad text variations are close enough, make a note of the number of impressions you had to wait for. Use this number as your baseline impression target when running future ad text tests.

The screenshot below shows performance metrics for two identical ad text variations. Click-through-rates are very different (at 0.65% and 0.52%) even after 3,403 impressions. In this example, we would need to run the test a little longer until Click-through-rates have converged within 0.05% of one another.

Please note that our client’s name has been masked in the screenshot for confidentiality.

Boost your CTR with trademark & copyright symbols

2009-12-04T12:55:00.007Z

Copyright and Trademark symbols are important communicators. Use them in your ad text to protect brand identity and increase authority. They are also known to capture people's attention and increase click through rates.

Adding copyright and trademark symbols can be tricky if you're unfamiliar with keyboard shortcuts. Use the following shortcuts to create symbols in your favorite text editor, the AdWords Editor or straight into the AdWords web interface.

Shortcuts for Windows users:

Copyright symbol: type ALT 0169. Press the ALT key down and type 0169 on your numeric keypad.
Trademark symbol: type ALT 0153. Press the ALT key down and type 0153 on your numeric keypad. The trademark symbol should appear superscripted.
Registered trademark: type ALT 0174. Press the ALT key down and type 0174 on your numeric keypad. The circled R registered trademark symbols ® can appear either on the baseline or be superscripted.

Shortcuts for Mac users:

Copyright symbol: use Option-G.
Trademark symbol: use Option-2
Registered trademark: use Option-R

Please remember to check the AdWords trademark policy for your region before adding brand names to your ad copy. And if you're confused about what these symbols mean, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has a helpful guide on the subject.

Google Adwords Pending Review

2009-12-02T23:24:00.006Z

Contrary to popular belief, an ad with a "pending review" status WILL run on Google search results pages. However, it won't appear on Google’s search partners or Content Network placements until it has been approved.

Google's approach is less strict than that implemented by Bing or Yahoo:

Microsoft adCenter: your ads will not appear until they have been reviewed and approved.
Yahoo Search Marketing: your ads will not appear until they have been reviewed for compliance with YSM editorial guidelines. They will be tagged as "Editorial Pending" until they have been reviewed.

Is your page load time driving visitors away?

2009-11-30T23:39:00.010Z

Visitors to your Web site vote with their mouse. Is your site too slow to load? Is your design awkward for smaller browsers? Your visitors will be out before you know it. See how Google Analytics can help.

Why this matters? Matt Cutts from Google hinted that Google is considering a new ranking factor in its algorithm. The new ranking factor has to do with how fast a site or page load, with faster loading sites given a ranking boost. Google currently draws on over 200 criteria to order search results. Check page load times today to future-proof your SERP positions.

Step 1: Hone in on 'new visitors'

First, sign in to your Google Analytics account and select a Website profile. From your dashboard, unfold the ‘Advanced Segments’ tab in the top right section of your screen and click the ‘New Visitors’ segment. Unselect the ‘All Visits’ checkbox if it your default selection.

Segments let you group certain types of visits together and filter the data shown in your reports. Selecting the ‘New Visitors’ segment allows you to hone in on visits and browsing habits from new visitors alone. Focusing on first-time visitors to your Web site helps you get a feel for their initial reaction - first impressions matter.

Step 2: Is your site too slow to load?

Google Analytics shows browsing habits by network connection speed. Get a feel for how connection speeds impact the bounce rate, page views and average time spent on site. Click the ‘Visitors’ tab on the left hand side, and run the ‘Connection Speeds’ report to access summary statistics by connection speed.

You want to compare the bounce rate, page views and time spent on site against site-wide averages. Site-wide averages for visits from new visitors are shown in bold immediately above the table. You could also click the ‘Comparison’ tab above the table to run comparisons in bar-charts. If users on slow connection speeds experience higher bounce rates, or browse fewer pages, your site may be too slow to load.

Step 3: Check document size

The Firefox Developer Add-on comes with a useful tool that returns the size of a Web page. Simply point your browser to the page you want to assess, and click the ‘View Document Size’ option in the Developer Add-on to return page size. The tool does a fantastic job at breaking page size down across documents, images, objects, scripts and style sheets, which makes it easy to spot what is slowing down page load times.

How Google Suggest changed the way we search

2009-11-29T23:37:00.116Z

Seven months into the international roll out of Google Suggest, we look at how it has changed the way people search, drawing on search trends in the mobile broadband and car insurance space.

Key takeaways

Google Suggest has had a profound impact on search patterns, drawing people away from narrow keywords towards longer tail versions. We look into search trends across two product verticals (mobile broadband and car insurance) in the months leading up to, and following the launch of Google Suggest on Google.co.uk, on March 31st 2009.

Narrow keyword searches are down. Google Suggest triggered a noticeable drop in short-tail searches, accelerating the trend towards longer tail keyword variations. Search trends across mobile broadband and car insurance reveal a sudden and sustained drop in narrow searches from March 31st 2009 onwards, in what had previously been stable search verticals. Searches on 'car insurance' as an exact match fell from 24% of all 'car insurance' searches in March to 21% in the following month and just 16% by October-end.
The very long tail is up. Search volumes for the 5 most popular keywords within each of our verticals are down as people search across deeper and more diffuse phrases. By October-end, the five most popular search terms in the 'car insurance' space captured 28% of searches, down from 35% in March. Search patterns in the 'mobile broadband' space experienced similar trends, with the top 5 keywords drawing 24% of searches, down from 29% over the same time frame.
Some longer tail variations more popular than others. The second and third most popular longer tail variations often enjoyed the largest increase in search volumes. In the mobile broadband space, 'mobile broadband pay as you go' and 'mobile broadband coverage' experienced sharp rises in search volumes at the expense of 'mobile broadband' exact match. Similarly, 'car insurance quotes' rose sharply at the expense of 'car insurance' exact match. It's no surprise that popular longer tail variations are up: they typically feature highest within the Google Suggest box.
Keyword prominence matters. Search phrases front-loaded with the target keywords have grown in popularity as Google Suggest builds longer tail variations around the root. This trend is evident in the 'mobile broadband' space, with 'mobile broadband pay as you go' growing its share of 'mobile broadband' searches at the expense of 'pay as you go mobile broadband', from 1.7% to 2.8% since the launch of Google Suggest. Similar dynamics are at play in the 'car insurance' space, with 'cheap car insurance' losing ground to 'car insurance quotes'.

Case Study #1: Mobile broadband search trends

Mobile broadband still is a product in many people's minds. Exact match searches on 'mobile broadband' have and still do dominated searches within this vertical. They accounted for 22% of searches in March, and remain the most popular search term to this day, with 16% of searches in October 2009.

The launch of Google Suggest accelerated the move away from exact match searches, with variations on 'pay as you go' plans and 'coverage' gaining in popularity. Data from Hitwise UK also points to deeper longer tail variations beyond the Top 5 being on the rise.

Case Study #2: Car insurance search trends

Car insurance is a product most people are familiar with. Search trends in this space have traditionally been stable, with limited variations in generic search phrases. Our 'Top 5 Searches' chart illustrates how stable search volumes were in the months prior to the launch of Google Suggest in the UK.

Google Suggest has triggered a dramatic fall in exact match searches on 'car insurance', from 24% of all searches in this vertical in March, to just 16% by October end. 'Car insurance quotes'. 'Car insurance quotes' benefited the most from the change in search patterns, rising into second place over the period.

A few words about this study

News stories, advertising campaigns and changes in seasons influence search volumes and search trends in one way or another. The launch of Google Suggest is another important contributing factor.

Advertising campaigns. Our analysis focuses on generic search phrases alone. Brand phrases were hidden to remove the impact of advertising campaigns on search activity.
Seasonality. The product verticals showcased in this report were chosen because they are relatively free from seasonal factors. Google Insights indicates that searches in the 'mobile broadband' space have grown over the years as consumer awareness has risen, showing no noticeable year-on-year pattern. While 'car insurance' searches traditionally experience a trough in Winter and a peak in the Summer time, they are flat the remainder of the year.

Source: Statistics sourced from Hitwise UK

Multivariate testing and SEO

2009-11-29T19:54:00.014Z

At first sight, multivariate testing appears to contravene Google’s webmaster guidelines. Check our search engine optimization tips first before running multivariate tests.

What Googlebot sees

Google’s webmaster guidelines advise against cloaking. Cloaking is the practice of presenting a version of a Web page to search engines that is different from that presented to all other users. Serving different content depending on the user agent may cause your site to be perceived as deceptive and removed from the Google index.

However, multivariate testing in Website Optimizer does just that. Website Optimizer replaces your Web page’s original content with variations to users who have JavaScript enabled in their browser. Googlebot can only execute a limited number of JavaScript calls and is not at present able to handle multivariate tests. Unethical webmasters could be tempted to stuff their original content with keywords and spammy links for Googlebot, and show only clean content variations to ordinary visitors to their Web site. Click the screenshots to see this in action:

What Googlebot sees:	What your users see:

Google guidelines for multivariate testing

Google has confirmed that it doesn’t view the ethical use of multivariate testing tools such as Website Optimizer as cloaking. However, it suggests you implement the following guidelines to be sure that your experiments don't come across as cloaking:

Keep your variations true to the ‘spirit’ of your original page.
Continue showing your original page to a non-trivial percentage of users, when running an experiment.
End your experiment when sufficient data has been collected, and update your original page soon afterwards to reflect your winning combination.

A/B testing and SEO

2009-11-29T19:46:00.008Z

An A/B experiment allows you to test the performance of entirely different versions of a page. If content variations are light, your site could experience duplicate content issues.

Rather than run the risk of experiencing duplicate content issues when running A/B experiments, you may wish to implement one of the following:

Guide Googlebot to your preferred version. Use canonicalization to support your original landing page. Specify your original page as the canonical URL in the <head> section of all page variations. Your 'link' tag should read as: <link rel="canonical" href="[original page URL goes here]">
Block variations with a noindex meta tag. Add the 'noindex' value to your 'robots' meta tag to prevent a page from being indexed. Your meta tag should read as: <meta name="robots" content="noindex" />
Hide page variations from robots. To prevent search engines from indexing your content, add the following code to your robots.txt file:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /page-variation.html

When Google finds duplicate content, it will choose only one page to show – this could make the position of your original page more volatile on search engine results pages, as Google switches between your original page and the newer variation.

And in the rare cases where Google believes that duplicate content is being shown to manipulate rankings or deceive users, it may penalise your site’s ranking or remove it from the Google index altogether.

10 Essential Landing Page Optimization Tips

2009-11-29T00:22:00.017Z

Landing pages can make or break your online marketing campaigns. Maximize conversion rates with our guide to 10 tried-and-tested landing page optimization tips:

1. Front-load your content. Pull important content as high as possible above the fold. Start your headings and paragraphs with the key selling points and other important information. Write in order of diminishing importance, with supporting arguments, examples and detailed product features lower down the page. Front-loading makes it easier for people to scan your text and still come away with your argument.

2. Highlight buying criteria. Use larger font sizes, styles or colour to highlight important buying criteria. It should come as no surprise that Amazon, Walmart and other online retailers highlight prices, savings and product availability in larger fonts. However, larger fonts, capitalisation and bright colours will only draw user attention when used in moderation.

3. Calls to action. Make your calls to action prominent with larger fonts and button sizes. Style them in complementary colours to the ones used on your landing page to help your calls to action stand out in a harmonious way. Place your buttons above the fold where they are immediately within sight. Check your landing page in different browsers to get a feel for where the fold lies.

4. Text links. Links also act as natural calls to action, prompting users to click-through to the next page. When using text links, keep them underlined. Avoid using purple as the colour is traditionally associated with visited links.

5. Narrow choices down. When confronted with too many choices, people tend to make none at all. Consumer research has revealed that providing too many choices causes fatigue and decision paralysis. Consider testing landing pages with fewer product alternatives, and conversion funnels with fewer steps. Match.com provides new members with just one call-to-action featured prominently above the fold: a 'Continue' button.

6. Benefits and features. Use bulleted lists or check marks to convey product benefits and features. Lists also are an excellent way to break up text and optimise your page for skimming and scanning.

7. Make comparisons. Use tables to compare options and alternatives. Table templates come into two styles – ‘vertical tables’ list options one below the other, while ‘horizontal tables’ show options in columns side by side. Vertical tables work well when you need to rank a large number of options, such as results on a price comparison site. Horizontal tables work well for comparisons across a smaller set of options, such as package alternatives on a merchant website.

8. Headings. Use headings to group related sections together and facilitate scanning. Standards compliant headings such as H1 and H2 tags can also help search engines process your pages.

9. Write shorter copy. Studies have shown than people scan Web pages rather than read them word by word. Write for online, not for print: make your landing pages easy to skim and scan with shorter copy, linking to additional content if necessary. Optimal copy length varies with the nature of the content and your conversion goal.

10. Use blank space effectively. Blank space helps structure a page and break content into sections. Use headings, paragraphs, lists and tables to break content into smaller units. However, large amounts of blank space can waste precious screen real estate and give users the impression that your page has ended before it really has.

Test, test and test again. Use tools such as Google Website Optimizer to test variations and see which ones work best for your business. Small changes in button text, font colour and sizes could improve conversion rates above and beyond expectations.

Landing Page Optimization - Buyers Buy Benefits

2009-11-28T20:07:00.020Z

It’s a golden rule of business that "buyers buy benefits". However, landing pages often place too much emphasis on product features over benefits. Optimize your pages for style and substance.

Why benefits matter

Communicate on benefits to create an emotional connection with buyers and help trigger buying decisions. Benefits will also support your asking price if they create value in the minds of prospective buyers. And until you create value, any price you ask will be too high.

It’s what you say, AND how you say it

Feature benefits prominently. Visitors to your website typically will be looking to solve a problem or fulfil a need. Help them answer the question: ‘What’s in it for me?’ by featuring customer benefits prominently on your landing pages. Front-load your heading-tags and page copy with benefits and other key selling points to ensure they get maximum attention. Both Venus and Mercedes Benz place customer benefits in prominent places (surrounded in red boxes in our screen captures).
Link features and benefits together. Effective benefit selling doesn’t mean you should avoid mentioning product features. In fact, listing selected features can help support benefits and advantages, and substantiate your claims in the minds of prospective buyers. The Venus Embrace landing page ties features and associated advantages together in short matter-of-fact statements (features and advantages are surrounded in green and blue boxes respectively in our screen captures).
Optimize your pages for skimming and scanning. Check marks and bullets are good at conveying both product features and benefits. Front-load your bullets with action verbs and adjectives for maximum impact. Keep your writing style short and snappy and avoid full-length sentences where possible.

Know your FABs: Features, Advantages & Benefits

Marketing literature distinguishes between product features, advantages and customer benefits:

Features state product characteristics.
Advantages expand on what a feature does.
Benefits express how your product or service will meet the needs of prospective buyers. Unlike features and advantages, benefits are customer-centric. You will find that buying motivators often relate to one or more of the following: saving money, making money, saving time, satisfying an ego or experiencing pleasure.

In the third part of this series, we'll look at how you can make buying criteria more prominent on landing pages Follow me on twitter

Landing Page Optimization: Above the fold vs Below the fold

2009-11-24T00:02:00.090Z

The best landing pages turn prospects into customers. Poor landing pages see them click away. Our five-part series covers best practises in landing page design, drawing on case studies from a broad set of industries. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to landing page optimisation – let these examples inspire you.

First, set yourself a conversion goal. Consider what action you want users to take from your landing page. Conversion actions could be anything from signing up to a newsletter, booking an appointment or buying online. Structure your page in a way that drives prospects towards your conversion goal, using both above the fold and below the fold page sections to maximum effect.

Showcase your conversion goal high “above the fold”

The real estate that tops your landing page is your most important asset. In today’s world of short attention spans and compulsive clicking, you need to convey your key selling points and calls-to-action loud and clear. Bring content that converts as high as possible above the fold to ensure it gets maximum attention.

All too often, page headers are cluttered with corporate logos, advertising banners and navigation elements. You should consider downsizing your headers, or removing them altogether, unless they also work towards your conversion goal. Clumsy page headers can push valuable content below the fold and create opportunities for clicks away from your conversion goal. Match.com, Yahoo Personals and many others have optimised their landing page towards their primary conversion goal - in their case, driving new member registrations.

Eye tracking studies have revealed that users tend to read web content in an F-shaped pattern, starting from the upper left corner before working their way down a page, from left to right. If your page is crowded, make sure the content that matters sits in the upper left section of your screen, where users will look to first. This is one of the reasons why airlines, travel sites and Expedia.com often place their booking tools towards the left of the screen.

Getting a feel for what lies above and below the fold can be challenging because screens and browsers come in different sizes. However, workarounds exists. Find out how to test your landing pages in different browsers sizes.

Maximise conversions “below the fold”

Content below the fold offers more opportunities to maximise conversions - use page copy to expand on key selling points, up-sell and cross-sell. Don't be shy about repeating your call-to-action or providing alternative hooks.

Out of sight, out of mind. This is also true about calls-to-action. Structure your page in a way that keeps your call-to-action front of mind. This is especially important if your page spans several screens. Consider repeating your call-to-action at the bottom of the page, or even within page copy. If you're confident with CSS, why not style a div that moves down the page as the user scrolls - beware of compatibility issues with older browsers.
Provide alternative hooks. The higher you set your conversion goal, the fewer conversions you will receive. Ask yourself how many times you buy online from merchants you have only visited once – most people will visit several times, compare prices and options before buying. This is especially true for big-ticket items. Try lowering the commitment level you ask for, offering newsletter subscriptions or reminder features in addition to your preferred conversion goal. Make the most of every interaction you have with first-time visitors to create a lasting connection. Below the fold is a good place to add alternative calls-to-action without distracting users from your preferred conversion goal.
Cross-sell and up-sell. Showcase related products or higher value products. This is especially important if you operate in a single-purchase business, or whenever purchases are few and far apart. Seize the opportunity of a sale to maximise average order size. Amazon was one of the very first online retailers to suggest related purchases on product pages, and many others have followed since.

How to test your landing pages for different browser sizes

2009-11-23T21:09:00.005Z

You could be in for a nasty surprise if content that matters is pushed out-of-sight, below the fold or to the very far right. Test your landing pages with different browser resolutions to see how they will appear to users on different screen sizes.

Resizing your browser manually to 800x600 or 1024x768 can be a nightmare. The Firefox Web Developer add-on makes it easy to resize your browser screen automatically to whatever dimensions you choose.

Install Google Analytics on your website to get a feel for your visitors’ screen resolutions and browser capabilities. Google Analytics can fill you in on browser versions, screen colours and much more.

If you cannot install Google Analytics, visit w3schools.com for browser display statistics on its website.

Google double indents give brands triple listings

2009-11-23T14:21:00.004Z

In recent months, Google has started giving brands triple listings on search results pages. Branded search queries can now return up to 2 related pages below the very first search result. This is good news for brands and authority websites, and bad news for affiliates and others targeting positions on branded terms.

A search on Google.co.uk for ‘ford cars’ returns the following triple listings. Jenningsforddirect.co.uk, as used car dealer, now appears lower down the SERP:

However, a search on Google.com for ‘ford cards’ returns a classic indent – perhaps an indication that triple indents have not been generalised for all brand searches.

This change follows on from Google’s “Vince update”, implemented earlier in the year. The Vince change helped brands and authority websites rank higher for searches on short-tail generic keywords. With triple listings, Google appears to be helping brands reclaim SERP real estate for brand searches.

How to split test your ads in AdWords

2009-11-22T01:21:00.029Z

Split testing your ads is one of the easiest ways to improve the performance of your campaigns. Find out how to A/B test your ad text in less than 2 minutes.

1. Adjust your campaign settings

First click the ‘Settings’ tab from your AdWords campaign. Scroll down the page till your reach the ‘Ad rotation’ option under the ‘Advanced Settings’ heading. Your ad rotation selection determines how AdWords will serve your ads within each of your ad groups.

Set ‘Ad rotation’ to ‘Rotate’ to show ads within each of your ad groups more evenly. This will give any new ads you create the same chance of appearing in the ad auction as your existing ads. If you leave ‘Ad Rotation’ on Optimise, the default setting, AdWords will show ads with higher Click Through Rates and Quality Scores more often than other ads in each of your ad groups. This can work wonders when your campaign is optimised, but will prevent you from running effective A/B tests on your ads.

2. Select an ad group

Next, click the ‘Ad Groups’ tab and select an ad group to create your ad in. Whenever possible, choose an ad group already receiving a large number of impressions. This will help you draw conclusions faster.

3. Test at least two variations

You can test any number of variations on your ad to see which one performs best for your business. You should test at least 2 variations of your ad text and no more than 4 - the more variations you test, the longer you will have to wait before drawing conclusions. Test only for small differences in your ad headline, ad text or display URL. Keep your variations focussed on one element at a time.

4. Monitor your ad variations

Check your ad variations on a regular basis to see which one works best for your business.

First focus your attention on the Click Through Rate (CTR). A high CTR means your ad is good at driving users through to your landing page. A strong CTR will also improve your Quality Score, and help bring your bids down over time.
If you have setup Conversion Tracking, you should also monitor Conversion Rates. A high Conversion Rate indicates that your landing page is delivering on your ad’s promise. This should ultimately be your measure of success.

Click the screenshot below for a working example (the advertiser's name has been hidden). The only variation is in the ad headline. The first ad mentions a price point, while the second refers only to 'Latest Deals'. The second variation has out-performed the first on both grounds, with a higher CTR and Conversion Rate:

5. Choose your winning ad

I often get asked how many clicks to wait before ending a split test. The rule is that your tests will always be more reliable the longer you let them run.

When comparing ads on the basis of the Click Through Rate, I generally build up at least 500 impressions before coming to a conclusion. However, my preference is for several thousand impressions where possible.
When comparing ads on the basis of Conversion Rates, I focus my attention on the number of clicks each ad has received. If generally feel comfortable drawing conclusions once a page has received over 250 clicks. However, you may not necessarily need to wait for as many clicks if the difference in performance is large enough early on.

Once you've chosen your winning ad, think about another test you could run against it. Test, test and test!

Australia search engine rankings

2009-11-21T20:19:00.008Z

Google is the dominant player in the Aussie search space, with 89.1 percent of searches in November 2009. Yahoo Sites and Bing are in second and third position, with 4.9 percent and 4.7 percent of searches respectively.

Source: Hitwise Australia, based on the volume of searches for the four weeks ending 14/11/2009.

U.S. search engine rankings in October 2009

2009-11-21T15:06:00.032Z

Google Sites led the U.S. core search market* in October with 65.4 percent of searches conducted, up from 64.9 percent in September. Yahoo! Sites were the second most popular search destinations (18.0 percent), followed by Microsoft Sites (9.9 percent). The Ask Network captured 3.9 percent of the search market, followed by AOL LLC with 2.9 percent.

Since the start of the year, both Google and Microsoft have grown at the expense of Yahoo!. The launch of Bing in early June** helped reverse the slide in Microsoft's fortunes, and lift its market share from 8.0 percent in May to 9.9 percent in October. In contrast, Yahoo! has lost ground without interruption, in spite of a homepage re-design. Yahoo! accounted for 18.0 percent of searches in October, down from 21.0 percent in January.

In recent weeks, Google and Microsoft have cranked up their search products, expanding into social media. Microsoft announced last October that Bing search results would soon pull in real-time posts from Facebook and Twitter. Bing's partnership with Twitter is live in beta at www.bing.com/twitter. Google has launched Social Search to help you find relevant public content from your friends and contacts. Social Search is now available to test as an experiment in Google Labs at www.google.com/experimental/. Rivalry between Google and Bing could see Yahoo!'s market share fall further.

Statistics sourced from: comScore qSearch

* Core searches are based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers.

** Bing launched on June 3rd but was available to some users a few days earlier.

Google market share in the U.S., China, Russia and India

2009-11-19T21:24:00.050Z

In most markets, Google takes the lion’s share of search activity, but in a few, it struggles against dominant local players. This post pulls together the most recent search intelligence across the world's largest search markets.

U.S. Search Engine Report

Google Sites led the U.S. core search market in October 2009 with 65.4 percent of searches conducted, up from 64.9 percent in September. Yahoo! Sites were the second most popular search destinations (18.0 percent), followed by Microsoft Sites (9.9 percent). The Ask Network captured 3.9 percent of the search market, followed by AOL LLC with 2.9 percent. Source: comScore qSearch.

India Search Engine Report

Google also leads the search market in India. comScore data reveals that Google Sites accounted for 88.4 percent of all searches conducted in July 2009. Google also enjoys a commanding share of time spent online in the country, in social networking with Orkut (68.2 percent), maps with Google Maps (63.9 percent) and multimedia with YouTube. Source: comScore qSearch.

China Search Engine Report

However, Google still plays second fiddle in China, the world's largest market by Internet users. Domestic search engine Baidu.com is the dominant player, drawing 64% of searches in August 2009. Google Sites are far behind, with 14 percent of searches. Source: Source: comScore qSearch.

China has more Internet users than the entire population of the United States. According to new research by the China Internet Network Information Center, there were 338 million Internet users in China by end of June 2009, far ahead of the US population, put at 307 million by the US Census Bureau. The gap is set to widen as Internet penetration rises. Internet penetration in China remains relatively low, at 25.5%, compared to the US, where a recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project put the figure at over 70%. Visit the Guardian.co.uk for more information.

Russia Search Engine Report

Yandex enjoys an iron grip over the Russia search space. It powered 71 percent of searches in September 2009, both through its portal and Mail.ru, the largest webmail service in Russia. Google is a distant second, with 24 percent of searches. In recent months, Yandex and Google have grown their market share at the expense of Rambler. In much the same way as Google, Yandex has branched out into related areas - news indexation, mapping services, comparison shopping and weather forecasts. It also offers fully fledged PPC and contextual advertising solutions. Visit Yandex.Direct to advertise online. English-speaking account managers can assist with campaign setup. Search statistics were sourced from Liveinternet.ru

Time-saving AdWords Keyboard Shortcuts

2009-11-18T13:42:00.003Z

Keep your hands on your keyword and off your mouse with AdWords keyword shortcuts. Check our tried and tested time-saving AdWords shortcuts:

Navigate your account

g then o: Go to All Online Campaigns
g then k: Go to Keywords tab
g then n: Go to Networks tab
g then a: Go to Ads tab
g then s: Go to Settings tab

Select and update ad groups and keywords

j: Go to next row (or the first row if none is selected)
k: Go to previous row (or the first row if none is selected)
x: Select or unselect the current row (press Shift + x for multiple rows)
e: Edit
p: Pause
n: Enable
d: Delete
l: Download

Edit ad groups and keywords in table

e: Make selected rows editable in table
Ctrl + Arrows: Move between editable fields
Ctrl + s: Save changes and escape edit mode
Esc: Cancel edit mode without saving

Edit ad groups and keywords in Google Spreadsheets

Arrows: Move between cells
Ctrl + z: Cancel
F2: Edit in cell

Click here for more Google Spreadsheet keyboard shortcuts. However, all may not work in AdWords’ implementation of Google Spreadsheets.

What are keyword matching options?

2009-11-15T12:11:00.004Z

Understand how keyword matching options can help broaden or narrow your keyword-reach and ultimatelty shape the scope of your advertising campaigns.

AdWords lets you create ads and choose one or more keywords to bid on. Your ad will appear to people searching on the keyword you have chosen and potentially many other variations too, depending on the keyword matching options you have set. AdWords allows you to choose one from four match types when adding keywords to your advertising campaign:

Exact match: [keyword]
Phrase match: "keyword"
Broad match: keyword
Negative keywords: -keyword

Exact match

Exact match is perhaps the most intuitive keyword matching option. Your ad will only be eligible to appear for searches that are strictly identical to your keyword. To set a keyword to an exact match, surround your keyword with opening and closing square brackets when adding it to your ad group. When editing an existing keyword, you can also choose the 'Exact match' option from the drop down menu in the AdWords' interface.

The following illustrates searches that will trigger your ad if you bid on 'xmas gift' on an exact match:

Keyword	Ad eligible to appear	Ad not eligible to appear
[xmas gift]	xmas gift	xmas gifts buy xmas gift xmas gift ideas xmas cheap gift gift ideas for xmas christmas gift xmas shopping christmas shopping

Phrase match

Phrase match allows your ad to appear for any search that contains your keyword. Phrase match extends exact match because your ad will also be eligible to appear whenever words are used before and/or after your keyword. Phrase match can also accomodate plurals, if your keyword's plural is in the conventional form. Simply add quotation marks around your keyword to set it to phrase match.

The following illustrates searches that will trigger your ad if you bid on 'xmas gift' as a phrase match:

Keyword	Ad eligible to appear	Ad not eligible to appear
"xmas gift"	xmas gift xmas gifts buy xmas gift xmas gift ideas	xmas cheap gift gift ideas for xmas christmas gift xmas shopping christmas shopping

Broad match

With broad match, Google will run your ad on large number of keyword variations, even if they do not appear in your keyword list. Broad match keyword variations include singular and plural forms for nouns, variations in tenses for verbs, keyword inversions and additions for phrases, common misspellings and synonyms. As broad match is the default setting in AdWords, you only need to enter your keyword as-is, without additional signs or symbols.

The following illustrates searches that will trigger your ad if you broad match on 'xmas gift':

Keyword	Ad eligible to appear	Ad not eligible to appear
xmas gift	xmas gift xmas gifts buy xmas gift xmas gift ideas xmas cheap gift gift ideas for xmas christmas gift xmas shopping christmas shopping	Your ads will be eligible to appear whenever Google believes a search is relevant, even for searches that contain none of your target keywords. Google uses word associations and synonyms to identify searches it feels are relevant. I strongly encourage you to run a Search Query Performance Report on a regular basis to monitor how this is working for your account. Synonyms and other variations absent from your keyword list will appear under the 'Expanded match' heading - you may be surprised by what you see.

Negative keywords

Negative keywords work in reverse to keywords you actively bid on. Add a negative keyword to your campaign or ad group to prevent your ad from showing whenever a search query contains that term. Use negative keywords to block unrelated or poorly converting impressions, and hone in on searches that work best for your business. Negative keywords can work wonders if your campaign is built around broad match and phrase match words.

You can add negative keywords both at the campaign and ad group level, with campaign negatives effective across all associated ad groups. You can add a negative in the same way as you would add another other keyword. Simply add a minus sign immediately before the term: -keyword

Matching options on the Content Network

Google works very differently on the Content Network than it does on the Search Network. On the Search Network, AdWords will look at each of your keywords individually and acknowledge their match type. On the Content Network, a collection of hundreds of thousands of websites showing Google Ads, AdWords considers all the keywords in your ad group as a unit. It will deduce an overall theme for your ad group from your keyword list, and show your ad on pages with matching content. This means that broad, phrase and exact match types are not taken into account for campaigns targeting only the Content Network. Whenever possible, try to keep your campaigns targeting the Search and Content networks distinct.