danlondon's Gooruze Blog

Google Analytics Data Loss/Recovery

danlondon — Thu, 15 May 2008 09:51:00 -0700

Google had a data issue for Analytics users. "Almost: all of the data has been recovered. The e-commerce data seems to be the data with the biggest issues.

Google Analytics experienced a data processing error from April 30th to May 5th. Almost all of the data has been recovered and is currently being reprocessed. The recovered data will be reflected in your reports within a few days. Please note that a small percentage of data, particularly in the area of e-commerce reporting, was not recoverable from those dates.

Things to Do During AdWords Downtime this Weekend

danlondon — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:48:00 -0700

Time again for AdWords maintenance...Saturday 1-5 EST.

What can you do to pass the time?

- Play GTA IV for 5 hours.
- Keep hitting refresh hoping that they completed the maintenance sooner than they thought.
- Eat an entire pizza. Target vomit.
- See if MSN is still doing paid search.
- Go to the grocery store and open and smell the Gillette 3x Triple Protection System Wild Rain Antiperspirant Deodorant Clear Gel. Complain to other shoppers that it does not smell "wild" just "mildly rambunctious".
- Re-lace your sneakers.
- Do a Google Image Search and see if you can find a picture of Dallas Star Mike Modano with his mouth closed.
- Open up the AdWords Editor on Saturday morning. Download your account. Then Saturday afternoon fire it up and work on your account. Try some new ads. Do some landing page testing. Then simply post the changes at 6PM or so.

Have a great weekend!

Google Results Different in FireFox and Safari

danlondon — Mon, 12 May 2008 11:40:00 -0700

Today, Al from MaketingDon shot me a quick Twitter message asking for me to search for golf shoes in Google. I found them ranked at #5. He told me to open up Safari and do the same search. I was shocked when I found them ranked #3 for that term. This was just moments after my search in FireFox. His results had him at #4 in IE!

Take a look at the screenshots.

He even found that refreshing his results causes the rankings to move around.

Safari

FireFox

Very odd.

Al spent the day sending me IMs, "I'm #2. Now #5, Now #7." I haven't heard from him for a few hours, he is either off drinking or just hitting refresh over and over and over rocking gently in his chair.

Landing Page Quality Score: Load Time

danlondon — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:20:00 -0700

Google announced that landing page load time was going to play a role in the quality score formula a few months back. Today they announced that they have added information into your account to let you know the evaluations. The load times will beging effecting your account in mid-June.

Read the official notice here.

I am curious to see what happens when they turn this thing on...

AdWords Editor Languages

danlondon — Thu, 08 May 2008 08:18:00 -0700

A few people have asked me what languages are supported by the AdWords Editor...So, here you go...

AdWords Editor is available in the following languages:

* Chinese (Simplified, Traditional)
* Czech
* Danish
* Dutch
* English (Australia, U.K., U.S.)
* Finnish
* French
* German
* Hebrew
* Italian
* Japanese
* Korean
* Norwegian
* Polish
* Portuguese (Brazil, Portugal)
* Russian
* Spanish
* Swedish
* Turkish

I have not heard if other languages will be supported...but the list is covers most languages.

Yahoo SearchScan

danlondon — Wed, 07 May 2008 08:51:00 -0700

Yahoo! has made a move to provide protection to web searchers. They have introduced SearchScan (Beta) to “help protect you from viruses, spammy email, and potentially damaging software by identifying websites that may harm your computer.”

It is a great move to combat spammers who use manipulation of natural search results to conduct business.

YAHOO! Changes its Advertising Algorithm

danlondon — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:51:00 -0700

Direct from the YAHOO! Search Marketing BLOG:

Minimum Bids No Longer Fixed at $.10

How to manage your new Sponsored Search minimum bids

Starting today, minimum bids for some Sponsored Search keywords will no longer be fixed at $.10. Throughout the next week, you may start noticing new minimum bids on some of your keywords. Your new minimum bids can be lower or higher than $.10. Content Match minimum bids currently will remain at $.10. We’ll notify you in the account interface when the status of any of your keywords is affected.

How Your Bids Work

The new minimum bids are a little bit like auction house reserve prices, and can be based on multiple factors, such as your keyword quality and the keyword’s value—or how much we think that keyword is worth. Here’s a look at the two main factors:

Quality—High quality generally means that your ads are being clicked more often, relative to your competitors. We try to reward quality with higher rankings and lower costs, and now, potentially, with lower minimum bids.

Value—We look at a number of things to determine what a keyword is worth: for example, how many advertisers are bidding on your keyword, and what they’re willing to pay for it.

A keyword term becomes “active”— or eligible for display—when your bid is equal to or greater than your minimum bid. Keywords become inactive when your bid falls below your minimum. You will be notified in an alert on your Account Dashboard if the minimum bid for a keyword increases above your current bid, and you’ll have a grace period of up to several days to raise your bid to keep your keyword active.

I am curious to see how these changes impact my Yahoo! account. My CpC's are generally 20% higher than what I get in Google.

YellowPages Paid Search Explained

danlondon — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:49:00 -0700

As a small SEM company (www.boomCLICKS.com) I come across a number of potential clients who have been pitched by the YellowPages. The YellowPages offers clients a HUGE ad in the phone book and paid search clicks. The cost of the clicks is often $4 per click and does not send the Internet searcher to the client’s site, but to a YellowPages portal. This causes the searcher to have to make even more clicks to find out more about the business. The fewer clicks a potential customer has to make, the better chance of converting them into a paying customer.

Going back to the “portal” site that YellowPages is using….

The use the OnYPC Business Directory page to pull in the info for the paid search accounts.

An example of a client page

http://www.onypc.com/ask-gary-ky

then just take a look at the “main page” of the site

http://www.onypc.com

and you can see ALL of the keywords they are using for each client in the paid search campaigns….who needs SpyFu. ;-)

The use of this portal does not allow the clients to establish their brand at all. The urls used in the Google ads must use the onypc.com and not the url of the client.

Even the client website urls used on the portal pages are sent to localtraff.com and then redirected.

The amount of money that the YellowPages is changing their clients for paid search is very high.

Poor word selection, no link benefits, and an inflated cost.

If you are using YellowPages to manage your paid search...contact boomCLICKS.com for a free consultation and a special no-risk trial offer.

YAHOO! and Click Forensics Team Up

danlondon — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 06:00:00 -0700

Yahoo! and Click Forensics have done a deal....

From the article:

The enemy of your enemy is supposed to be your friend, right? Well, the biggest enemy of Yahoo!’s traffic quality team is click fraud, which is why we’ve just become friends with click-audit company Click Forensics.

We’ve teamed up with Click Forensics, a well-known click auditor that attempts to track click fraud numbers, including publishing quarterly discard rates. The obvious question is, why would we work with a company that has been a critic of search marketing? Because, frankly, we care so much about click quality that we’re willing to work with anybody who can help us—and our advertisers—drive a better return-on-investment.

Read more at the Yahoo! blog

3 Common Paid Search Ad Mistakes

danlondon — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:00:00 -0700

Having taken over quite a few paid search accounts that have been poorly run, I have noticed that quite a few have the same mistakes.

1. Your display URL does not have to match your destination URL

I have seen people use Http:// in their display URL. You don’t need that, or even www. If you have site with a long domain name, just drop the www. For example, Buy Sports Videogames uses BuySportsVideogames.com in their ads.

A special offer page can be promoted through the display URL. For example, Buy Sports Videogames offers Nintendo Wii consoles and use BuySportsVideogames.com/Wii. This allows me to get even more words in my ad bolded for certain searches.

2. This Mistake Features FREE SHIPPING

For highly competitive terms you need something to set you apart. If your site offers free shipping or a low price, state it in the ad. The more you can say in the ad that sets you apart from everyone else the better chance you have at converting. Even putting “in-stock” in the ads can help you sell hard to find products.

3. Use Keywords Insertion Properly

If you are using keyword insertion, be sure to use it properly. If your ad text needs to be capitalized, and you are using it within the brackets, you will need to follow the following steps to get it to show up properly.

I saw the NHL have an ad that was using keyword insertion that failed to follow these guidelines.

For more information and a FREE CONSULTATION please call me @ 919.647.4453

Special boomCLICKS offer

danlondon — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:45:00 -0700

Visit here and just add Intro30 at checkout!

3 Tips for Twitter That Even YOU can Use

danlondon — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:50:00 -0700

I started using Twitter all the time about a month ago and have found it to be a really useful tool. I can check out the latest posts by some of the top SEM bloggers, find out news as it happens, and even see what my own friends/colleagues are doing.

There are a few things that I wish some of the users would do to keep me from stop following them.

You Had a Muffin? I Don’t Care

I follow quite a few people who talk SEM all day. They Twitter quite a bit of valuable information. I hate when I get a number of Twits (Twitters?) saying that they are getting a cup of coffee, eating a yummy muffin or sitting on the runway. A Twitter saying LaGuardia has a security line 2 hours long = GOOD. A Twitter saying you just washed your hands at LaGuardia = BAD. I’m following you because you know SEM, not because I think you are cool.

Keep it Simple

Most of the Twitter users I follow are people who write quite a bit of content each day. When they use Twitter, they are pretty good at letting their followers know exactly what the link included is about. The text limit is pretty short, but long enough to give a quick synopsis.

Follow Random People

Look through who people are following. I try to pick 2 random people to follow each week. I have found out a few things that I never would have otherwise.

NCAA Basketball Predicted Using Google Trends

danlondon — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:19:00 -0700

Site and Category Exclusion

danlondon — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:14:00 -0700

I just took over the paid search account of a boomCLICKS.com client and have been looking at the data over the last few days and I realized one Google feature I look at often might not be well-known.

The site and category exclusion tool in your Google AdWords account allows you to have your ads NOT appear on sites/topics/page types for campaigns using content match. I found it very interesting. I would have expected the parked domains and and error pages to NOT convert and forums, video sharing sites, etc to convert. The data below shows (what i have not erased) that the error/domain parking pages sites convert....BETTER. The other forum, video, etc. sites had cost per conversions way higher than the client's targeted goals

AND

Very interesting to see that the error pages and domain parking pages are actually driving more sales than the other types of sites. Very interesting and just goes to show that search marketers can't rule out almost any site on the web without seeing data.

Google Presidential Battle

danlondon — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:35:00 -0700

Last Post.....SCRIBD VERSION

danlondon — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 06:55:00 -0700

5 Great Ways to Tune Your Paid Search Campaigns

danlondon — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 06:49:00 -0700

As one of the leading search engine marketers, I spend quite a bit of time experimenting with different tactics to get my campaigns running optimally. Here are a few great ways to get your campaigns running even better…and bringing in more money.

1. Make Sure Your Ad Directs Users to the Right Page

Nothing annoys me more than when I click on a paid search ad for a specific product and I am taken to a home page. This makes me do ANOTHER search on the website to find what I am looking for. Many Internet users will just hit the back button and click another ad. Make sure that your ad for Nike Sumo drivers direct users to the Nike Sumo drivers page on your website. The fewer clicks a customer needs to make on your site the better chance of conversion.

2. Make Sure Your Ad Tells Searchers EXACTLY What You Are Offering

Each click costs you money. Make sure that your ad gives as much information as possible so that an Internet searcher will not click on your ad and then realize that your site does not offer what they are looking for. If your site offers software downloads starting at $9.99, put that in your ad text. This will weed out the people looking for free downloads or who think $9.99 is too much to pay.

3. Think Outside the Box

Have a golf course as a client? Think about bidding on terms outside of the standard “golf course” terms. Try bidding on “golf club” and “golf shoe” keyword themes as well. This strategy allows you to reach a wider, yet relevant audience.

4. GeoTarget

GeoTargeting allows you to have your ads seen within a specific area. A local company doing landscaping should not have their ads seen by anyone outside of an area they are willing to service. The GeoTargeting feature allows for reduced ad cost and a higher conversion rate.

5. Time Your Ads

If you only do business online during certain days and hours, have your ads automatically turn on and off. Many companies that have phone centers that are staffed between certain hours really benefit from having ads seen during ONLY those hours. A user going to a website and seeing that the staff is unavailable, will just leave and go to another site. Don’t waste your ad spend during these times.

The 2008 US Presidential Election

danlondon — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 10:03:00 -0700

I did a search on Google for "president 2008" and got the following results:

I was curious to see:

1. who ranked the highest
2. who was running paid search

The top site (www.presidentpolls2008.com) is a site showing results of the primaries and is covered with Google AdSense Ads. It is followed by Wikipedia, a site that shows you who you should vote for based on questions (and is filled with Google AdSense ads) and then Ron Paul's site. Mitt Romney is the next candidate to rank followed by Hilary and then Christopher Walken. I agree we need more cowbell, but I don't think Walken is a viable candidate.

McCain is the only candidate running any paid search.

Where is Obama? For a candidate who (or has a staff that) uses LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook, etc to communicate and gain new voters, I am surprised they are not doing a proper paid search campaign (they are running ads for his name and variations) and are not doing SEO.

AdWords Editor Webinar March 20th

danlondon — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 06:59:00 -0700

Regular readers may have noticed that we've offered quite a number of webinars lately. If you've been waiting for an 'entry level' webinar to help you learn to manage your campaigns using AdWords Editor, we have excellent news for you.

On March 20th at 11-12pm PDT, Mollie Klurfeld, an AdWords Editor specialist, will be presenting a free "Introduction to AdWords Editor" webinar. The agenda includes demonstrations on how to use AdWords Editor to make the following bulk changes:

* Adding campaigns, ad groups, ad text, and keywords
* Editing ad texts and keywords
* Copying/moving ad groups and keywords
* Find/replace ad text, find duplicate keywords
* Advanced bid and URL changes

Following these demonstrations, you'll also have the opportunity to ask questions of our team of specialists.

Sign up Here

Google TV....

danlondon — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 08:14:00 -0700

Some accounts have been getting invites to take advantage of the new TV advertising program...

And the interface...

What kind of help will advertisers receive in creating a television ad? There are major quality requirements as I doubt the networks want to see a return to 1970's style ads.