Google Adding More Ads To Top Of Search Results

Here is one for the Google haters as Barry Schwartz posted that Google is testing Adwords at the top of search result pages to show a total of up to 11 ads as you will see in his post. The extra 8 ads are shown when you expand the section and of course shifts down the free organic Google search results. I have not payed too much attention to this myself, but I can tell you that my organic search traffic is better than ever from Google right now. It also is due to the arrival of the early Christmas shoppers who are indeed already buying. Who knows when or if Google will implement this full time, but I would assume that they would wait until after the Holiday shopping season. We shall see. You can now put the tin foil flaps back over your eyes and ears. Happy Friday everyone. It has been a great week and going to be an even better weekend.

Google Alphabet Features Just Large Companies?

The new Google Instant that we posted about yesterday continues to create quite a buzz across several blogs and webmaster forums I have been reading on. One of the most interesting things I came across today is the The Google Alphabet post on the Wall Street Journal. It points out by typing in each letter of the alphabet typing each letter of the alphabet into Google that the top results included a lot of marketers. Not really too surprising in itself, but of course in the post on Adage, you can see that several readers posted what they were seeing in their area and of course the results are different across a large selection, which is nothing new. I would expect the large companies to show up being as they are probably searched for quite a bit, but also get heavier weight if they advertise or convert well Adsense or Adwords wise. Remember that Google is a for profit company.

Also to send you another direction, go to Twitter and search for Google Instant SEO. Tons of good and not so good reading. Lots of conspiracy theories as well.

Google Conversion Room Blog

Some how in my travels, I missed the Google Conversion Room Blog. If I didn't miss it, then I forgot about and did not bookmark it. I have been catching up on some Adwords post on the blog and there is some great stuff on there. In addition, there is a free ebook dedicated to increasing the number of website visitors you convert into buyers as well. Linked off of it as well is the AdWords webinar series. If you have thought about using Adwords to drive traffic, I highly suggest you go through everything here first before getting started.

Adwords As A Testing Ground

DISCLAIMER: Let me start this post by saying that if you have never used Google Adwords before, be careful. Many moons ago, my introduction was a hard lesson. I spent $1200.00 in a little over 24 hours and made back $76.00. You do not have to be a college graduate to know that will not fly.

Upon rebuilding or building a new BANS sites or niche site, I like to pick out a couple of the interior store pages and check their profitability. Most times it is a money loss investment wise, but a very small one. I will research some long tail keyword phrase in the Adwords tool, some with medium competition, some with little or no competition. Usually these entail 100-300 searches a month of the exact phrase. I usually can pick these up for about .03 to .05 cents a click. I set a daily budget for a $1.00 a day and let it rip. I use the exact match option by putting the phrase in brackets. example: [big harry widget 1234]

I will run these for 30 days and set up tracking in Google Analytics. After 30 days, I have a great idea how profitable that exact page will be, how well monetized the page is and if the keyword focus is on the money. I can then use that data to either change the focus or product or move on to a few more pages. Sometimes you will run into a few that are extremely profitable and worth the investment to continually run.

Once I am zeroed in, I know that when that page ranks naturally and garners its own free organic traffic, it will make money.

Do some research on setting up campaigns using Adwords. I never let the ads run on anything but Google, not network ads, just Google. This is because my good organic traffic will come straight from Google as well and I want as close to the same type surfer to test with.

Google Unveils Beta Search-Based Keyword Tool

The new beta Google search-based keyword tool helps generate keyword and landing page ideas that are relevant and specific to your website. The tool will help you find additional advertising opportunities that aren't currently being used in your current AdWords campaigns. Pretty cool little tool to play with for ideas.

I forgot to add that this tool will let you expand on existing keywords and export top 800 keywords for specific topics as well.

Even been to eBay, lately?

If you are selling through a BANS store, then every now and again it is good to see where you are sending your traffic. In addition a trip around eBay is bound to renew your juices and you might just stumble across a new niche. Look at what is getting bids and what isn't. Also look for tighter niches, as nobody said you have to have 1000 products displayed. If you feel you can effectively count on at least 25 product results at a time that niche is fair game. You would be surprised. Look around at the ads themselves to pick up on any SEO tactics being used as well. Try to get around eBay at least once every two week.

Ill leave you today with a great video on Google adwords as well. Use this as a source of traffic and this video goes great with my post about Adsense. In the video the discuss a great tool called Hexatrack, I highly suggest using it.

Google adwords and your BANS store

I see several people get very frustrated with Google Adwords. Not only BANS store owners, but marketers everywhere. I will give you a few cost effective tips to get your feet wet without blowing the bank.

1. Commit to a 30 day plan at a budget of $1.00 a day. This should be very affordable and give you an idea of what works for your niche.



2. Do not go shooting for the moon on your first keyword phrase. Shoot for a phrase that might get 100 or so searches a day. The more popular the phrase the stiffer the competition against Adword pros. Use the free wordtracker tool to dig around and check if there is heavy competition for that phrase. 8 or competitors is too many in my opinion.

3. The title of you ad should be close to your keyword phrase you are shooting for.

4. The next 2 lines is your hook phrase. Try something like...

Looking for "keyword phrase"?
Find what you are looking for here!
www.yoursitehere.com

5. In listing your keyword phrase, put it in brackets.
[your keyword phrase]
This will only show your ad when this exact phrase is searched for.

6. Put your maximum bid at .10 cents.



7. Make sure to only check the Google search button. This will make sure you only get Google traffic.



8. Monitor your results everyday and your average position ranking. You are trying for around the top 5, hopefully the top 3. Also keep tabs on your click through ratio. Ideally you want it around 10% or better. That means you are targeting the right traffic.

9. Check the results on the back end. are they clicking into your BANS store?

Hopefully that will give you a quick look at adwords without blowing a wad of cash. Ideally you should pick up around 200 or more targeted clicks into your store that should convert.