Negative keywords are actually more positive than you realise

Just by its very nature and wording, negative keywords already sound a disadvantage to a business or a Google AdWords Campaign. Being the opposite of positive, that was more the interesting part of any school science lesson for me, labels the negative as being an excitement killer.

In terms of Google keywords, negative words should be a high priority when putting your campaign together. Particularly, if you are handling the PPC campaign in-house and not outsourcing to an agency.

Negative words are very powerful and under rated within any PPC campaign.  Positive words are in comparison very easy to collate as they are in direct relation to the campaign. A negative keyword is a word or a phrase that is used to prevent your advert showing when it is used with another word or phrase that is a part of your campaign. For example, you might be running a mobile phone website that sells mobile phones. Logically, mobiles, mobile phones and selling mobile phones might be possible positive keywords. Mobile homes, mobile hairdressing and mobile mechanic could be your negative words.

Whilst you want your ad to be as visible as possible, you also want it to be relevant to the search keywords. In some instances the negative words are more important than the positive. It is vital that any AdWords campaign has been analysed with keyword research to identity as many negative keywords as possible. If this analysis does not happen then the campaign will cost more to run and will dramatically affect any ROI or profits.

Your PPC Checklist

There are many key stages in a PPC campaign that need to be recognised. Whether you are a new PPC protagonist or an experienced specialist, the guidelines highlighted below will ensure that things are kept on track. There may be several ways in creating the campaign but the important aspect of this is that the end goal is always the same. The structured and disciplined campaign will show great results and positive ROI.

So, from research and recommendations a list for creating a PPC campaign is below:

The Market: Understanding the market would be first stage. Identifying the competition and what is going to make you stand out? What elements of your business will attract them to interact with your website and eventually buy?

The Keyword: Use the keyword tool and the AdWord facilities to make sure that keywords are accurate. Include the key promotional areas of your website or areas that you want to highlight, perhaps an elite product. Regularly review the keywords and research new phrases to uncover and expand the keywords.

Structure: Take the keywords and arrange them into key themed groups. Make sure that the keyword phrase is as precise and sharp as possible. Make a decision as to whether you need a single campaign or a multiple campaign for the best results.

Ad text: Make sure that the ad group is made up of ad words and matches the current campaign and it is good practice to run at least two ads that are fractionally different to see which one performs better.

Negative Keywords: The positive words are important and negative words should not be overlooked either. Some campaigns do include up to 2,000 negative keywords. During your keyword search, you will need to identify several negative keywords to balance the campaign.

Bid Prices: A budget will have to be discussed when bidding on your adverts; using the model of 2% conversion is a good start. When the bids are set, make sure that the campaign is reviewed and adjusted if necessary. A review of the bids is good practice before re-launching to achieve better positions.

Settings: Be aware of the default settings, and review them in accordance with the campaign. Include a location target and a suitable radius (normally generated from a postcode). Highlight the networks that the ad needs to be visible on (Google and Search Partners). Crucially make sure that the campaign/ad is also viewable on mobile phones.

Budget: Set a daily and perhaps after changes hourly.

Tracking: When creating the campaign ensure that the tracking is online and providing visitor feedback. The tracking will provide records on sales, downloads and contacts – depending on what the product or service is.

Launch: Don’t launch the campaign on a Friday, unless it will be closely monitored over the Saturday and the Sunday. When a campaign is started on a Monday and ended (if needs be) on a Friday you get a fuller picture of the week.

Review and Manage: The campaign needs to be constantly reviewed and monitored. Fine changes can be made that could be very rewarding, and original settings could be very costly. Make sure that both positive and negative words are appropriate and the tracking is viewed to stream line efforts.

Alternatively, you can contact www.stormmarketing.com and let the professionals take care of it for you.

Improve your Website by Optimising Images

Within SEO circles it’s well known that getting heavily imaged websites indexed by search engines can be a problem.  This article will offer tips and advice on how to optimise images on websites.

Alt Descriptions

This is a good way to optimise images on your pages.  This allows you to match an accurate description of what the image is and is placed in the code.

In the above image, an example Alt tag would be: “pictures of all the main national UK newspapers”

The purpose of Alt tags is to provide a description of what the image is.  This is particularly useful when a browser or software is unable to display the image.  It is also very important for blind people as they need an accurate description of what the page is displaying.

Where possible, you should use a relevant keyword in the description to help SEO.  However, don’t just stick keywords in anywhere as they need to be relevant and make sense to the users.

File Name

The file name is also a useful way to optimise images, particularly if your site uses a CMS.  The file name should include targeted keywords and be descriptive but shouldn’t be as long as the Alt description.

File Size

Large image files will affect download times, not to mention annoy your customers.  It can also affect your page rank because page speed is an SEO factor.  We recommend that you resize images prior to uploading them to your CMS.  This will help reduce the loading time and make your pages more user friendly.

Is there a future in images and search engines?

Speculation suggests that search engines already have the technology to read images and its already being used by other applications such as Google Goggles.  Therefore, it may only a matter of time before image reading is incorporated into algorithms.

Companies should implement SEO strategies into Press Releases

Companies issuing press releases should consider including targeted keywords in the article according to Search Engine Watch.  They advise that this will make them more SEO friendly and increase their online marketing results.

Lisa Buyer of Search Engine Watch says there are numerous ways to take advantage of social public relations opportunities.  “Like in website writing, press releases and all social media content should be optimised with keywords and links,” she says.

Ms Buyer also recommends using SEO services to undertake thorough research of keywords and phrases to determine what works best.

Of course, we can’t afford to forget about the social networks.  Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are an excellent opportunity for businesses to interact with customers.