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Dear Kalena
A client asked me to check results on about 30 of her company’s list of search terms (breast augmentation L.A.; breast augmentation Beverly Hills; nose job L.A. etc. etc.)
Question: am I going to get reliable results by just typing those terms into a Google search box on my computer — 90 miles away from the client — and noting the SERPs?
Charles
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Hi Charles
With Google Personalized Search, Google Social Search and Universal Search thrown into the mix, these days the SERPs that one person sees may not be the same SERPs another person sees – even if they are located in the same room!
If your client wants to know specific rankings, make sure you are logged out of any Google accounts and then run the checks. It might be faster if you use an online rank checking tool – you can find these listed under the tools category at SearchEngineWiki.com or by running a Google search.
BUT, if I were you, I would run those search terms through keyword research tools to make sure your client is targeting the right terms in the first place. It might be that she is targeting terms that very few people type into search engines, OR terms that are too competitive for her to achieve high rankings. Your keyword research might pinpoint better choices for her.
Good luck!
The latest issue of the Search Light newsletter published this week. And we’re pretending it’s January, even though it’s February – if that makes sense. Hopefully our February issue will come out in February rather than March!
Believe it or not, 2010 is our 10th year of publishing The Search Light. My, how things have changed in the search engine landscape since we published our first ever issue nearly 10 years ago.
This month’s newsletter includes an article about how to choose the most effective SEO keywords, written by Search Engine College Assistant Tutor, Micky Stuivenberg. It also contains some of the more interesting FAQs answered in this blog and a blurb about the upcoming Search Marketing Expo (SMX) Conference in Sydney.
If you’re not yet a newsletter subscriber catch it here and then quickly go and subscribe before I find out.
I ran out of time to write a blog post today, but did manage to answer a reader question over at SiteProNews so I thought I’d point you all to that as I know many of you are interested in keyword research.
William wrote to me asking two questions about keywords:
1) How do you know if a keyword merits time and energy?
2) How do you know which keywords your competitors are using?
I answered both of these in my post titled How Do I Choose What Keywords to Target?.
Today Yahoo launched its 2009 Year in Review which features the top trends and web searches made on Yahoo for 2009.
Categories included in the Year in Review include:
- Top 10 Searches e.g. Twilight
- Farewells e.g. Michael Jackson
- Sudden Fame e.g. Susan Boyle
- Mad Science e.g. Hubble Telescope
- Obama in the House e.g. Health Care Plan
- Market Darlings e.g. Twitter
- Financial Hangovers e.g. Stimulus Plan
- Bloggers Roll e.g. Huffington Post
Each category features a Top 10 list of the most popular searches queries for that topic. Search query trends were measured by various factors, including total volume and growth versus previous periods.
Yahoo has also created a competition for the Year in Review called Your Moments, where you are invited to share your meaningful moments of 2009 via Twitter using the hashtag #myyearyahoo.
So what were the top ten most popular searches on Yahoo in 2009?
1. Michael Jackson
2. Twilight
3. WWE
4. Megan Fox
5. Britney Spears
6. Naruto
7. American Idol
8. Kim Kardashian
9. NASCAR
10. Runescape
After 4 years in the #1 spot, Britney Spears moved down to the #5 position. However, the majority of top 10 search queries still relate to the entertainment industry, suggesting that we consistently like to escape from reality. Sad but true.
What were your memorable moments of 2009? Please add your comments below.
Dear Kalena…
There is still one thing that confuses me about Pay Per Click advertising. Whenever I use a geographic term in my ad at the very end google comes back and tells me the search value will be too low.
For instance *web site designers Southern Maryland*. If that term is in the ad then the results seem to be flagged by Google, while the original estimates it gives me look ok.
Should I avoid uses regional terms in my ads? I left them because it didn’t tell me they were rejected and they seem to appear if I run a search for the terms at times.
Thanks
Debbie
Hi Debbie,
If you have your regional targeting set up accurately within the campaigns settings, there will generally be little need to use regional qualifying terms in your keywords/ads.
Google has determined that the number of people searching for your phrases that include *Southern Maryland* is very low so your ad is not likely to be shown. You should start by targeting more generic phrases such as *web design Maryland* and then if the search volume is too high you can reduce the click costs by adding *Southern* in later.
The other option is to set your regional target markets within your campaign settings and use Dynamic Keyword Insertion to determine your ad headlines.
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