Well chosen keywords and phrases will ensure that your ad is found by the right people looking for products and services just like yours.
Keywords and phrases should be highly specific and relevant to your business.
Google rewards relevance. So your keywords should tie in directly with your ad copy and your website. When someone types your keywords into Google, they should be looking for a business exactly like yours. As a result, those people that click on your ad will already be predisposed towards joining or purchasing from you.
You have to put yourself in your customers’ shoes. If they are searching for a product or service like yours, which words and phrases would they type into Google?
You need to tie it all together, your keywords and phrases should be closely linked to the wording in your advert and that in turn should match exactly the words and phrases you use on your website and on your landing page.
You must be specific and targeted. Avoid using terms or words that are too general. Don’t be tempted to add keywords that are not related to your ad but that generate lots of traffic, many of the people you attract won’t be interested in your product or service anyway.
Single keywords are often too generic whereas two or three-word phrases are usually more targeted. For instance, ‘organic vegetable box delivery’ is a specific phrase that will attract anyone that wants to buy their organic veg direct and have it delivered to their door. Using these keywords separately or in other combinations may be far less successful.
Use different variations. Your prospects may use different terms for your particular product or service. So always list variations in your keywords. These might include colloquial terms, synonyms (such as shop and store), product names and serial numbers, alternative spellings as well as singular and plural versions. You can even list common misspellings.
Use Google’s keyword tool to get ideas for keywords and expand your list. All you have to do is submit a keyword or URL and choose relevant and high-ranking words from the results. Once the tool has generated some initial ideas, you can then enter the best words and phrases to drill down and generate even more specific ideas.
You can also use the Website Content option to find the most relevant keywords from your own website. If you have a lot of keywords, it can be a good idea to create separate campaigns based on a few tightly-focused keywords.
Another good free resource is the AdWords Help Tool. It shows a list of relevant user queries that have occurred on Google.com, based on your URL.
Google also offers four ways to match keywords: broad, phrase, exact and negative match. Use of punctuation when you input your keywords indicates which type of matching you want.
Broad match is Google’s default setting for all keywords. Your ads may be triggered when someone searches for any words that include your keywords.
So if for example your keywords are ‘garden design and maintenance’ then your ad may appear if someone types in ‘garden maintenance’. Some variations such as synonyms (shop/store, for instance) and singular and plural forms may also trigger your ads. You do not have to use any kind of punctuation to specify that a keyword is broad-matched.
Phrase match is more tightly targeted. Your ad will only appear when someone types in a phrase that contains your entire keyword phrase— ie ‘garden design and maintenance’. So if someone types in ‘urban garden design and maintenance’, your ad will be triggered. Use quotation marks to indicate that your “keywords” need to be phrase-matched.
Exact match goes one step further. Searches must be identical to your keyword phrase. To get an exact match put your [keyword phrase] in square brackets. With exact match, you may get higher click through rates (CTRs) as you only appear when searches are specifically relevant to your business.
Particularly important is the use of “negative” keywords, it is a useful way to stop irrelevant searches triggering your ad. Add a minus sign before a keyword so that it is specifically excluded. So for example, if you were a garden designer using the keyword phrase ‘garden design’ you could add ‘–book’ to ensure searches for gardening books don’t bring up your ad. Or, if you sell cameras but not camcorders you can make camcorders a negative keyword.
I hope this is of some use.
Best of luck with your advertising.
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