EMP E-Marketing Performance » : » Making Sense of Keyword Matching

Diana at E-Marketing Performance has written a great article on how the major search engines categorize keyword matching.  Some day there may be a standard that they all follow like the new XML site maps, but at this point you have to keep up with the difference between standard, advanced, broad, excluded, negative, phrase and exact. The kind of stuff that keeps people up at night. They are all the same, yet different. The cool part is that in Google phrase and exact will get you one type of search results while on MSN you will get something else. This is in regards to ranking and quality score. Good times for all.

She also mentioned the Paid Search Marketing - Best Practice Guide which can be found at eConsultancy.  It is a good read.

Why Do the Other Search Engines Bother to Compete?

Since most of us are not Jack Welch’s GE, it is OK not to be number one or two in everything we do. As you probably know Google is number one when it comes to search. Yahoo! and MSN are a distant two and three, respectively, which still equals billions of dollars in ad sales.

A solid search engine marketing strategy needs to include more than just Google. A well-rounded campaign should include Yahoo! and MSN, as well as Ask, LookSmart, MIVA and other 2nd tier search engines. The reason being is that if you are just advertising on Google, you are missing out on 40% of overall searches. You are probably also spending a lot more than you need to. The  2nd tier engines usually have a lower cost per click, and can also drive more qualified traffic than Google and the other giants. Ultimately, you need to diversify your search engine portfolio, just like you would diversify your investment portfolio.

SEOmoz | KeYwORd INSErtioN - A few PPC tips and tricks.

Using the dynamic keyword insertion tool in Yahoo!, Google and MSN is very helpful in creating custom search ads for your campaigns. When using this feature, the keyword that the user is searching on is placed in the location of the keyword insertion code. There are various ways to do this and SEOmoz, gives a great explnation on how it would work in Google.

How To Optimize A Contextual Search Advertising Campaign

Brad Geddes at Search Engine Land, wrote a great article about optimizing your contextual search campaigns when advertising on Google and Yahoo!. A lot of advertisers group search and content ads together, which is not good for business. The reason being is that when advertising in these two areas you are going after different types of customers or visitors. Content ads are within the content pages on Web sites that choose to advertise Google ads. The people who are on these pages are not necssarily actively searching for anything. It is more of a passive experience. With that said the keywords and ads need to be developed with a different mind-set than if the ads were coming up in a search result.

Brad explains how all of this works, and makes several great points about not combining search and content ads in the same campaigns. The reason being that it will throw off your reporting and make your data look way off. For example, your paid search ads may be bringing in a CTR of 5%, but your content ads only 1%. That is not necessarily bad, it is the nature of the environment in which your ads sits.

PPC Discussions: AdWords is Stealing From You (or you just don’t know what you’re doing)

The blog, PPC Discusions, has a good article that helps fight several of the conspiracy theories attached to using adWords. Apparently there has been more grumbling about AdWords in one of the forums, and people are blaming Google and not themselves for poor campaign management.

At the end of the day, AdWords is just a tool to help get your product in front of potential customers.

I like this quote:

The bottom line, at least for me, is this: AdWords is working for tens (hundreds?) of thousands of people and companies. If it’s not working for you check the variable you have the most control over - the person/people running your campaign(s). Hammers don’t build houses, carpenters do. Wrenches don’t fix cars, mechanics do. Stoves don’t prepare meals, chefs do. AdWords doesn’t make sales, marketers do.

If your SEM campaigns are not working, most likely you do not have to look much further than yourself or what you are offering.

End Searcher Optimization: The New SEO

Brian Eisenberg of Grokdotcom has come out with a great article about how SEO is changing from focusing on H1 tags and META, to truly focusing on the customer and their needs. It was bound to come to this. People are looking for information, not code structure or keyword density. They want to know about your product, and what others think about your product. As we have seen with the way search engines are evovling, the search engines are going in that direction as well. They are looking at how popular your site is. Is it reputable? Do other quality sites link to it? Is there buzz about your product in forums and blogs?

A spider does have to be able to read your page, but when it comes down to getting customers to your site and conversions, you need to be able to have something worth talking about.

Connecting Through Content, Issue Two - KnowledgeStorm

KnowledgStorm and MarketingSherap have joined together again to develop a report identifying where technology buyers go to find information about products they are purchasing.

Interestingly enough 84% of technology buyers begin their search online. I think a lot of times marketers forget that when someone is buying something for their company, they usually have the same research habits as if they were buing a new TV or other electronic home accessory. As marketers develop marketing plans, we need to remember that people have habits of doing things, and those habits usually cross-over from work to home.

This report has great insight into what BtoB buyers are doing online, and what you should do to get their attention. Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing and quality content development. These three things will help you when trying to attract buyers for your products.

Download the article.