[festerized]

Google Negative keywords
I have been using goggle for about 6 months now, I spent a total of $240.00, I set up my campaign and set my spending target low. I did this because I’m trying to get a feel for the market keywords and how and when customers use them. As I’m better getting orientated with Google I noticed I spent $240.00, ON WHAT??, No one called me, so I’m looking at my Google campaign and I find at the bottom of the keyword tab: “Negative Keywords”, it shows me all keywords that Google has charged me, I spent $86.00 on the key words Addition & additions, So I keyword Addition & additions in every combination I could think of, my web site never was before the 3rd page, so why I’m I spending that much money on keywords that are so general and that no one will see my site, this may be that my keyword on my site are not optimized, so for now what I did was to “Excluded” these keywords and many others words that I was paying for that had nothing to-do with my site or a carpenter looking for a job ETC.
I find it interesting that I never heard the term Excluded or negative keywords before, well I am new
And Google hides it at the bottom of the page and it’s always minimized, I think they don’t want you knowing why you are paying for crap keywords?

 

[festerized]

Google negative keywords

Just out of curiosity how many of are you running back to your Google campaign to check the keywords your paying for?

 

[ProWallGuy]

Where did you find this keyword tab? Is it in google analytics?

 

[festerized]

Google negative keywords

From Google home page go to campaigns
All campaign will show
There are tabs going across page
Campaign /ad group/settings/ads/keywords/networks
Click Keyword
Directly under the keyword tab is a little box that’s says “see search terms”
Then click all
Oh and hold on it’s a little scary to see what you are paying for

 

[J. Sullivan]

I had a hard time grasping what you were saying, but let me know if I come close.

First, without doing actual keyword research you're going to be tossing money out the window anyway. If you're going to use PPC, you have absolutely, positively, 1000000% MUST do keyword research. Before you spend a penny you should know which keywords are going to bring in traffic, which ones are going to be duds, and which ones are going to bring visitors that are going to convert to customers. The key is not to pay for any old traffic, it's to pay for traffic that is going to bring in sales.

You're confused on what negative keywords and excluded ones actually are. Those are where you put the keywords you don't want to show up in. You wouldn't be charged for these. For example, let's say you're targeting "Boston, MA additions". You don't want to show up for "the worlds worst Boston, MA additions", or "Boston, MA Addition hacks", so you would put the words that you absolutely don't want to show up for in the negative keywords list.

Google breaks it down better than I can here:

http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=63235

Lastly, without an already optimized website you're just chucking cash at it, and it's probably not going to bring you the results you want. If you are getting tons of traffic but don't have a website that will convert them to sales, you're just paying for people to visit your site.

PPC (and SEO in general) is not something you can just wing. You really need to know what you're doing when you decide to implement it, or your going to be spending cash on something that isn't going to make you money.

Basic blueprint for PPC

Market research
Keyword research
Campaign set up
Campaign monitoring
Adapt and change based on results
Rinse and repeat

 

[JV Marketing]

I joined this forum because of this post. Optimizing your Google PPC and ony of the other services "WILL" save you thousands of dollars.

My tip for the day.... use Google's keyword tool and search for your main keyword (or all of them for that matter).

Lets say you are a plumber

Search Google's tool for "plumber"...here are just a few of the results I found. From the list below I would add the following as negative keywords (jobs, employment, job, training, salary, union, wages, training, electrician) These are terms that are not relevant and will hurt your quality score as well as cost you more money.

There is a lot more to be said on the subject but if you just do this it will put you ahead of 90% of your competition.

Jim

plumbers

plumber jobs

plumber

plumber contractors

master plumbers

emergency plumber

emergency plumbers

find a plumber

master plumber

plumber repair

plumber service

24 hour plumber

plumber contractor

local plumber

plumber employment

plumber wanted

plumber job

plumber electrician

plumber wages

plumber training

plumber salary

plumber union

licensed plumber

plumber services

 

[J. Sullivan]

@ ProWall

It's an AdWords thang, not a Analytics thang.

If you're looking to see what keywords visitors are using to find your site in Google Analytics, click the Traffic Sources button on the left sidebar and then the Keywords button.

 

[festerized]

Google negative keywords

JV nailed it, Google is automatically assigning you keywords that may drive unwanted people to your site, the results will cost you money and create a poor ratings with Google
I’m trying to tell everyone be careful, why should I have to pay for misspelled keywords or job hunters in NY when I live in south jersey, Google is almost hiding the fact that you are paying for these words
Sullivan you almost sound like your defending Google, are paid to post positive feedback???

 

[J. Sullivan]

Not defending Google so much as I was trying to explain how it works for you so you stop wasting your money. And I think Google is doing just fine without having to pay me to provide a glowing review. I am a full time web developer, and in all honesty I think PPC should be a last resort to get traffic to a small business website - there are much better and much cheaper ways to handle it that actually make you money.

Back to the task at hand:

Google isn't "assigning" any keywords to you, you just haven't set up your negative keywords list. You decide what words you want to pay for, not Google.

If you've set it up for the keyword "addition", you're automatically going to show up for searches that contain the word.

Such as:

LA remodels and additions
Toronto addition builders
I need help doing addition

Since your keyword is so broad, you're going to show up for all different kinds of junk keywords. If you don't want to show up for terms like that, either use a more longtail keyword, or set up your negative list.

If you do some keyword research so you know what keywords to go after (I would suggest geo-targeting them so you're not getting people nationwide) and then set up your negative keyword list (so you don't show up for junk keywords) you'll be in a better position, and your money won't be going out the window.

If you just wing it, you're going to keep dumping cash without getting any results. It's not on Google, it's on the missue of AdWords.

 

[festerized]

Google negative keywords

I got some change in my pocket so I want to add another 2 cents
I think as more small business grow on the web, and learn from mistakes, like getting ripped off by SEO optimizers, our sites are drawing in more traffic organically, therefore less need for SEO and adwords
What’s going to see happen is a lot of SEO salesman looking for new jobs, its great web sites like Contractor Talk that put these crooks in check
Sullivin your wrong again, Google assigned me these bad words I did not create them

 

[J. Sullivan]

I give up haha :wallbash:

 

[cbscreative]

With all due respect, David, this is why there are people who specialize in AdWords, PPC, etc. I am not one of them, so you don't need to write me off as one of those people getting kickbacks from Google. I know enough about these topics to bring in a specialist if I were advising a client wanting to use these and not waste money. As I see it, you are trying to do the job of a specialist and then getting mad at Google for not making it more obvious to you.

As for us crooks who do SEO, you can keep believing that, but there are plenty of people hiring these crooks who are making good money doing it. Yes, some of them are crooks, but I hope you won't assume the entire industry is corrupt. It's too bad contractors don't have hacks that make your industry look bad because then you might be more likely to understand what us web guys have to deal with.

 

[festerized]

Google negative keywords

I started this thread a couple of hours ago and it already ranks #9 on Google search for “Google Negative keywords” It got there organically thru links? It seems like linking has a major factor in web traffic
Anyone got any tips please share

 

[festerized]

My web site was designed to show customers that I have already met, thru paper advertising, my work, and referrals. Not to draw in new customers. It wasn’t until last October when I saw the market drop in my area and started to put entertain the thought of web advertising.
I WILL FIGURE OUT THE SEO GAME, and I will share it all as I figure it out, which is the reason for this post in the first place
And yes SEO are all crooks, the reason is that there is no control, no rules of conduct, no limits, ETC.
That goes the same for online lead providers as well, if left unchecked all of the above will seek out its victims.
We need some kind of limits or rules of conduct when conducting business online

 

[ProWallGuy]

@ ProWall

It's an AdWords thang, not a Analytics thang.

If you're looking to see what keywords visitors are using to find your site in Google Analytics, click the Traffic Sources button on the left sidebar and then the Keywords button.

Thanks! :thumbsup:

 

[cbscreative]

And yes SEO are all crooks...
if left unchecked all of the above will seek out its victims.

Don't worry, I'm used to that perception, so I'm not the least bit offended by it.

While you are right about the crooks seeking out victims, if you offer something of value, people will seek you.

 

[JV Marketing]

Couple observations here...first we are talking about a couple of different types of marketing here. PPC and organic...there are many books out there on both (buyer beware)

First I want to touch on this:

I started this thread a couple of hours ago and it already ranks #9 on Google search for “Google Negative keywords” It got there organically thru links?

Contractor talk has an alexa ranking of 36,623 (not shabby) it also 170K+ backlinks (again not shabby). I'm not going to analyze the site anymore but based on those two numbers google is going to give this site some ranking power.

By the Way, at the time of this writing 5:27pm cst if one does a phrase match search on Google you will notice that this thread is the #1 result out of 13,400 results. (that wont last...once the activity dies off the ranking will slip) (most of the time anyways)

without quotes its 6th out of 2,620,000. Not to shabby

So whats the problem with that search phrase? How many times does it actually get searched? If nobody uses it then there will be no traffic from it.

Three points I would like to make:

1) If I targeted this keyword for my marketing efforts could I make any money?

2) Check this same keyword in 24 and 36 hours to see if the rankings hold

3) Because of this forum's authority status from google it's a little easier to get content ranked by the search engines.

Enough of the organic traffic...as for this:

And yes SEO are all crooks, the reason is that there is no control, no rules of conduct, no limits, ETC.

LOL Not all but most are

I WILL FIGURE OUT THE SEO GAME, and I will share it all as I figure it out, which is the reason for this post in the first place

The question is....how much will you spend figuring it out...I have seen people spend 1000's

I'm not trying to discourage you David...as a matter of fact there is more than enough free information out there on the subject, you just have to find it.

Back to the Google PPC...Somewhere in my little bag of goodies I have this designation from Google saying that I'm an adwords expert (or something like that) I got it by spending quite a bit of money advertising on Google and taking their test.

The only reason I tell you that is so that at least you know I have spent my own money on Google adwords (and other peoples)

If you do not play your cards right with Google they will chew you up and spit you out. Google's PPC advertising system is designed to weed out the poorly performing advertisers. Google wants it's clients (the people searching) to find exactly what they want...that keeps people coming back and keeps Google on top.

What this means to the average person is this...If you run an ad on Google PPC and your click thru rate is half as good as the other guy you will pay twice as much for your click...this could get expensive. Now is always exactly like that? No....there are some other (minor) factors as well but basically thats how it works.

If I were building a page to collect leads for my product or service, I would build it so that I could track every single click. The reason for this is so that I could tell which keywords get me a lead and which ones dont. The ones that dont become negative keywords.

Thats the short version.....

If you are really interested ini PPC check out a fella named Perry Marshal...I think he has some pretty good free info

 

[festerized]

Google negative keywords

JV thanks for the insight
I just checked goggle again for “Google negative keywords” it now ranks #7
Your conclusion of dying over time has had the opposite effect
7 hrs latter it climb up two spots, 10 more hours it will be at #2, it will never be #1 without paying for it!!!!

 

[festerized]

Google negative keywords

Update: Google ranking for “Google Negative keywords” is ranked #5
After 9 hours of being posted
:furious:One last word to all you rip off SEO optimizers: you gig is up!

 

[tinner666]

Fester. Did you see my last post in the other thread. It touched on the issue.

http://www.contractortalk.com/f100/lead-company-issues-68022/index3/

These so called crooks would look at that and turn my comment into a winner in about 15 seconds. There are good ones out there. Honest ones. They can help because they live and breath it. Like I live and breath roofing.

I'm not good at it, but i understand the principal. It gets me lots of organic search traffic. I stay busy. I have 4 more contracts to write up tonight, or tomorrow when I'll be further backed up.

Ivinni, Sore, Sullivan and quite a few others here have dropped kernels of knowledge all over this site. Same as i try to about roofing/construction. Like them, I know more than I'm saying in our respective trades.

Maybe one will chime in with a twist on my earlier, linked post to prove it.