Google to further dilute exact match in AdWords will ignore word order & function words

Not just for plurals anymore, close variants will extend to include word ordering and function words in inexact match keywords.

In the good old days, “exact” meant exact. Then things got fuzzier. Now they’re about to get downright blurry.

On Friday afternoon, Google announced another change to the way exact match targeting works in AdWords. Matching for close variants — plurals, typos, abbreviations, adverbs and so on —  will be broadened to include variations in word order and function words in the coming months. With this change, Google may ignore word order and function words when determining whether an ad should trigger for an exact match keyword.



Google introduced close variants in 2012 as a way to capture plurals, misspellings, typos and other versions of exact match and phrase match keywords to broaden reach and coverage and save time building out keyword lists. Advertisers that wanted tighter control were able to opt out of close variant matching until 2014, when Google removed the ability to opt out of close variants for exact match and phrase match. Bing followed suit shortly the following year. The latest blurring of what exact match means is Google’s increasing trust in its machine learning and the belief that it’s now at the point where advertisers can let the algorithms take over and focus on other things. Google says early tests indicate advertisers could see up to 3 percent more exact match clicks on average while maintaining comparable click-through and conversion rates.

What the change means

There are many cases in which variations can change the meaning of a keyword. Take a recent example of [pancake mix] being matched to a search for “pancake mixer.” Those are not the same thing. However, there are many cases in which variations don’t change the meaning at all. Here are the nuts and bolts of how these changes are meant to work:

Function words

Function words are binding words phrases and sentences like the and that, conjunctions like and and but, prepositions, pronouns, quantifiers like all and some, modals like could and would and auxiliary/hedging verbs like be or might or will.  Essentially, they are words that don’t have meaning on their own. Well, hmmm, unless by will you mean a legal document.
With this change, function words may be ignored, replaced or added.

For example, the exact match keyword [restaurants cleveland ] could match to the query “restaurants in cleveland.” More examples from Google:

Word order

Notice in that last Miami cruise example, the function word changed along with the word order. Word order often doesn’t make a difference (in English), and users often don’t use natural word order when searching even though the intent is the same. Take a keyword like [teacher gift ideas]. The meaning doesn’t change with [ideas gift teachers] or [ideas teacher gift]. You’d never say either of those out loud, but the intent is clearly the same.


When word order is changed, Google says it will not add words to keywords (though it may change function words as shown in the Miami cruise example above).

Exceptions

One of the biggest concerns from advertisers will be whether Google matches queries to keywords that don’t have the same meaning. Google stresses it will not change word order or function words in exact match when it understands changes would alter the meaning of the query.

Take the case of a query like “LAX to JFK flights.” The user obviously doesn’t want to see ads for “JFK to LAX flights” or for “LAX from JFK flights.” That’s a pretty straightforward scenario for Google to recognize.

But something like [android compatible] does not mean the same thing as [compatible android]. Maybe Google will know, maybe it won’t, at least not right away.

These changes do not apply to phrase match keywords. And AdWords is still designed to prioritize matching identical keywords to identical search queries.

Google’s philosophy is: Spread a wider net, and then filter out what you don’t want, rather than build a net that might not be big enough to catch everything you want. Better to waste money on some bad keywords than to miss out on some potentially good ones.

Often this approach works. And it certainly works much more often than it did even a few years ago. It’s the rare person who misses building out endless iterations of keywords, but many will feel the pendulum is swinging too far in Google’s favor with this change. It strips more control from advertisers and puts the onus on them to say what queries they don’t want their ads showing up on rather than what they do want. There are financial implications to putting the emphasis on building out lists of negatives. Inappropriate variations are often discovered only after an advertiser has paid for wasted clicks and the variation shows up in a search query report. Precision control is being ceded to the machines.

How to manage these changes

This change means advertisers will have to be increasingly diligent about mining search query reports and thinking ahead about unintended consequences when word order matters.

There are a few things you can do to prepare for the coming changes.

1. Review existing exact match queries and determine if the loss of function words or a reordering of the words changes the meaning. Add those variations as negatives in your campaigns.
2. Review close variants in your Search Query Reports to see if other variations are currently being triggered that might be affected by these changes. Add those as negatives.
3. Starting in April, step up your mining of Search Query Reports, particularly for close variants.
4. Get ready to update your scripts. If you are using a script like the one from BrainLabs to make exact match exact, it will need to be updated. We will provide a link here when a new version is available.

Google’s Keyword Planner tool just became even more inaccurate

You’re probably familiar with the Keyword Planner tool, which is one of the best sources we have to spot opportunities and make the business case for an investment into paid or organic search campaigns.

One of the things it provides is guidance on the volume of searches for any given query. The numbers reported in the tool have always been somewhat vague. They are rounded up and numbers end with at least one zero. A pinch of salt has always been required when digesting the data.

It turns out that these numbers are now even more imprecise.

Manish spotted that Google has started to combine related terms, pooling them all together and reporting one (bigger) number.

No longer can you separate the data for keyword variants, such as plurals, acronyms, words with space, and words with punctuation.

As such it would be easy to get a false impression of search volumes, unless you’re aware of the change. No sudden jump in search queries, just an amalgamated number. Be warned.
Here are a couple of examples…

Bundling together anagrams and regional spellings

Lumping together plurals and phrases without spaces

The problem could be exacerbated by third party tools. Manish says:

“For those that don’t notice the change – or worse, pulling the data from tools that haven’t updated to take into account the change – this means that some advertisers and SEOs are grossly overestimating those numbers, since many tools will combine data, and there is no notification alert on the results to show that how Google calculates average monthly searches has been changed.”

So yeah, this isn’t exactly good news. In fact, I can’t think of any benefit to the end user, but Google has a history of obfuscating data, so perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise.

That said, it once again pushes the focus towards relevance and context rather than pure volume. Advertisers and content creators would do well to focus on optimising clickthrough rate and landing page performance, rather than just shotgun marketing.

Guesstimated data aside, you can use Search Console to make sense of actual performance. Map your page impressions to organic (or paid) positions and you’ll get a sense of how accurate the Keyword Planner data is for any given term.

It’s also worth remembering that there are seasonal factors at play with the reported data. Volumes shown are an approximate figure based on 12 months search data. You might get a better idea of more accurate monthly figures if you cross-reference data from with Google Trends, which will show seasonal spikes (February is a big month for flowers).

Keyword Planner replaced Google’s Keyword Tool and Traffic Estimator about three years ago. Users of the old tools initially complained about missing the broad match and phrase match options. Now, they’re going to miss even more detail around keywords and data.


Proceed with caution, as ever. 

3 Steps To Find The Best SEO Keywords

I received a lot of questions about keyword research, so in today’s article, I’m going to walk through some of the steps we take to identify the best SEO keywords for any type of business.

 

Step 1. Brainstorm the Obvious Keywords

SEO keyword research is sort of like using a thesaurus. You need to start with a list of keywords, which we call a “seed” list.

 

I recommend you start by brainstorming the most obvious phrases that your prospect would search to find your product or service.

 

For example, if you are a dentist in New York, most likely, people are going to search ‘New York City dentist’ or ‘NYC dentist’. Those are what I would call the obvious keywords.

 

Once you’ve brainstormed some obvious keywords, you’ll want to plug them into Google’s Keyword Planner. This tool will give you more keyword ideas, as well as search volume.

Step 2. Sort By Search Intent

Google’s keyword tool will spit back a bunch of keyword ideas, and these keyword ideas will generally fall into 2 categories…

 

1. Keywords with purchase intent – where it’s obvious that prospects are looking to buy a product or hire a service provider.

 

2. Keywords with research intent – where the prospect is most likely just doing research, and not ready to buy.

 

In our example above, “NYC Dentist” is a classic example of a purchase intent keyword. You’d search that if you were looking to make an appointment with a dentist.

 

However, “dentistry” would be an example of a research intent keyword. If somebody is searching “dentistry,” they’re probably not ready to go to a dentist quite yet. In fact, they may not be interested in going to a dentist at all. They could be researching the field of dentistry and considering becoming a dentist.

 

Your first priority when optimizing your website for SEO should be to optimize your homepage and product/service pages for “purchase intent” keywords.

 

Note: It’s important to optimize your website for “research intent” keywords too… typically that’s where you can find some really nice “low hanging fruit” opportunities to drive traffic in the short-term. But we recommend that as Phase 2 after optimizing your core pages for “purchase intent” keywords.

Step 3. Prioritize By Search Volume

As I mentioned, Google’s Keyword Planner Tool will also show you the search volume. By “search volume,” I mean how many times that particular keyword phrase is searched in Google every month.

 

You’ll see that some keywords are only searched ten times a month, some are searched thousands of times per month, and some are actually not searched at all. Of course, you want to avoid optimizing for keyword phrases that nobody’s searching for.

 

If you start with obvious keywords, and then sort by search intent, and prioritize by search volume, you’ll be well on your way to finding the best SEO keywords in your market.

3 Steps to Pick the Best AdWords Keywords

In today’s article I provide 3 criteria for selecting the best keywords for your Google AdWords campaign.  

If you have ever conducted keyword research for a Google AdWords search campaign, then you know the process can be daunting. Go to adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner and start searching for relevant keywords for your business.  Within seconds you'll literally have hundreds of pages of keywords that Google has determined are related to your products or services.

 

That's a lot keywords to comb through!

 

In addition to the sheer volume of keyword possibilities there is another problem.  How do you know which keywords are better than others?  Google's keyword planner tool provides search volume, estimated cost per click and competition, but there is no column that grades the keyword opportunities.  Sorry, it's up to you to figure that out on your own.

 

To grade your keywords, you need to first list the criteria that make keywords better advertising opportunities.  In this article, I'll present 3 basic criteria that every keyword must meet before you add it to your AdWords campaign.

 

Criteria #1. Searched In Google

This first criteria should be obvious.  If the keywords you're targeting are not searched in Google, then you're not going to generate any leads or sales from your ad campaign.  There's no harm in adding keywords that are not searched, but you shouldn't expect to get anything from them.

OK, moving on we'll assume we're now only considering keywords that have search volume.

 

Criteria #2. Searched By Your Prospects

Next, we need to make sure the keyword is in fact searched by your ideal prospect.  For example, can you imagine situations where your prospect would turn to Google to search this particular keyword?  Or is it more likely that other people besides your ideal prospect would be searching?

This is not a perfect science and it requires you to put yourself in the shoes of your prospect.  Play devil's advocate and try to think about all the other people that might be searching for your keyword.  Also, review the current ads in Google.com for your keyword to see if those ads are targeting your prospect.  If they are, then that's a good sign.

 

Criteria #3. Searched To Make a Buying Decision

Finally, consider whether the keyword is more likely searched in order to make a buying decision or to do more research.  Your keywords can easily pass the first 2 criteria, but many will fail this last test.

Let's look an example for a chiropractor.  Consider these two keyword opportunities:

1. back pain
2. San Francisco chiropractor

Both are searched in Google. Check... Both are searched by a chiropractor's ideal prospect. Check... But one of them does not pass this 3rd criteria.  Can you guess which one?

It's "back pain."  The "back pain" keyword has no intent to make a buying decision.  It's more of a research keyword.  However, just about everyone that types in "San Francisco chiropractor" is looking to make a buying decision.  See the difference?

Again, this is not a perfect science and it requires you to put yourself in the searcher's shoes.  Think about all the different reasons why someone would search for the keyword you're considering and prioritize the keywords that are more likely searched by prospects looking to make buying decisions.  This will ensure you're targeting keywords in your AdWords campaign that are more likely to drive sales.

 

Getting Started with Google AdWords: How to Determine Your Test Budget

If you’re considering launching a Google AdWords campaign, then you may be asking yourself, “How much do I need to invest to test this out?  Is $100 enough or do I need thousands?”
It’s an important question and I hear it all the time from prospective clients. Unfortunately, this question is impossible to answer without further research.  For example, we need to answer the following:

1. Which keywords will you be targeting and how much do they cost per click (CPC)?
2. What is the time frame for your test? Do you need to see results in weeks, months, or a year?
3. What is your sales process and typical sales cycle?  Do customers buy the same day they search or does it take months before a purchase is made?
4. What are your typical sales conversion rates?

Let’s go through an example and at the end you’ll know how to estimate a reasonable budget to test a Google AdWords campaign.

Find Your Target Keyword CPCs

In a Google AdWords search campaign, you pay per click.  That means you only pay Google when a prospect clicks on your ad.  If your ad shows up in Google’s results 1,000 times, but no one clicks on it, then you don’t pay a penny.  That’s why AdWords is sometimes called PPC, or pay per click advertising.
So if we’re estimating our budgets, we obviously need to know how much it’s going to cost when prospects click on our ads. And the exact amount you’ll pay depends on the keyword you’re advertising on.  For example, if you advertise on the keyword, “coffee shop,” then you’ll pay a different amount than if you advertise on “mortgage broker.”  Google estimates you’ll pay $2.90 for “coffee shop” and a whopping $13.76 for “mortgage broker.”
That’s a HUGE difference when we’re estimating budgets.
Now, you may be wondering how the heck do you find all the CPCs for keywords.  It’s actually really easy because Google provides you with the Keyword Planner Tool.  Search for your target keywords and the Keyword Planner tool will give you an estimate for how much each keyword will cost per click.  Note that these are estimates so you may pay more or less.

Testing Time Frame

It’s important to realize that you need to go into an ad campaign with a realistic time frame in mind.  As you’ll see later, the time frame will depend on your budget and it also depends on your industry.  There simply may not be enough search volume for your target keywords to get leads and sales data in 1 month.  For example, “mortgage broker” is searched 9,900 times per month in the US.
If 1% of the searchers click on your ad, then you would get 99 clicks from that particular keyword.  Is it realistic that you would get a sale from only 99 website visitors?  Probably not.  Of course, you’ll be targeting more than one keyword.  The goal here is to make sure there is enough search volume for your target keywords to achieve your goals within your time frame.  Plus, if you have a longer time frame, then you can spread out your monthly budget across multiple months.

Your Sales Cycle

This step is easy.  What is your typical sales cycle?  If it’s over 1 month, then obviously you’ll need to test for multiple months to get decent data from a test campaign.  If your customers buy within 1 day, then you know you’ll get almost instant feedback from the campaign once it starts.

Your Sales Conversion Rates

The final step before we can calculate your budget is to use your sales conversion rates.  In my example above, we estimated that we can drive about 99 prospects to our website from the keyword “mortgage broker.”  There are at least two more conversions that need to take place:

1. Prospect has to call, complete a webform, or visit your office after clicking on the ad
2. You have to close the sale

Let’s say your goal is to get the prospect to complete a webform to schedule an appointment.  A reasonable conversion rate for lead generation like this might be 5%.  So out of the 99 visits, about 5 will schedule an appointment.  I’ll assume 100% will show up for the appointment, which is not realistic, but makes this example easier. :)
Next, is your appointment to client close ratio.  Let’s make the math easy here and say you’re sales conversion rate is 20% (and the sales cycle is only a few days) so you would generate 1 new client.

Estimate Your Test Budget

Alright, now it’s time to put all this information together to estimate your test budget.  We already estimated we can generate 1 new client from 100 clicks on a targeted keyword.  Plus, we know our example keyword costs $13.76 per click, so it’s going to cost about $1,376 to generate one sale.
That means we need at least $1,376 for our initial test to get a sale within about a month, based on the CPC, search volume and sales cycle.  So if you only have $100/month to test, then it’s going to take about a year to test just one keyword.  It’s possible you’ll get a sale more quickly, but it’s also possible it will take longer than estimated to get that first sale.  In this example, I would recommend a budget of at least $2,000 to give this one keyword a fair shot.
As you can see, there are a lot of variables that go into estimating your AdWords test budget.  Play around with the Google Keyword Planner to find your target keywords’ CPCs and search volume.  Then run the numbers based on your sales cycle and conversion rates.

Or, contact me and I’ll do it for you! :)