Tidbits and Advice 11.30.07 (PPC Mistakes)

November 30, 2007

SEO QUICKSTART TIDBIT #1:

As part of an ongoing list called “what the hell is Google thinking” I’d like to offer this little tidbit of experience from Randfish over at SEOMoz.org where he observes how Google may be actually penalizing him for trying to make his user experience better. This will undoubtedly continue to be a focus for all of us going forward as we try to move more to Web 2.0 site features while still trying to rank.

Hey look… We’re back to ranking #2 for “recommended list” after we 301′d our old page to the Marketplace section. I’m going to go with the theory that we got penalized for having too much content in CSS hidden layers because we used drop-downs for the list of companies so the page wouldn’t be huge. I’m trying to make it good for users, Google! Don’t penalize for that!

SEO QUICKSTART TIDBIT #2:

Over at Bizmord.com I was reading through the article 17 Most Common PPC Mistakes Web Marketers Make and I gleened a few nuggets of knowledge that I thought I would pass on here. Most of these tidbits I was aware of but it’s always good to get reinforcement. If you’re just starting out with PPC you need to know that it’s not as easy as you might think. Just like SEO, it’s a world of it’s own and you need to continuously learn and keep up with what works and what doesn’t.

1) focus on the “long tail keywords”
2) look at your own web statistics for exact keyword variations people use to search for your product
3) #1 ad in paid search results is not the brightest strategy
4) Try geo-targeting even if you sell nation wide
5) Make sure you’re linking your ad to a relevant landing page
6) Craft a unique Google ad that stands out among your competition
7) Do not put your phone number in your ad
Monitor your company name and make sure that your competition is not targeting your name too
9) Offer seasonal or holiday discounts in your ads
10) Make sure that you list your negative keywords (words that you do not want to be shown)
For example, I might want to be shown for SEO advice or SEO services but not SEO by itself.
12) Focus on keywords that convert and make changes, not just keywords that have the highest click thru
13) Put your keywords into the ad copy so they stand out
14) Monitor and report unfair practices by your competition
15) Consider bidding on your competitors brand names