Google’s New PPC Keyword Tool

The tool helps AdWords advertisers identify new keyword opportunities that aren’t currently being used in their AdWords ad campaigns.

Based on the URL and initial keywords you enter, the Search-Based Keyword Tool generates keyword and landing page ideas that are relevant and specific to your website. I’ve only been playing around with it for a few days, but it’s already helped me pinpoint some keywords I’ve been overlooking in our PPC campaigns.
Two lists of keywords are generated when you enter your details. The first one is a list of keywords related to your page, meaning keywords that Google has extracted from your page copy. The second list relates to the specific search words and phrases that you entered in the search field.

For each list, the tool displays the following:

The average amount of traffic a search term receives each month on Google.com (and other Google search properties, such as google.co.uk)

The approximate amount of competition you face for ad placement on these queries
A suggested bid amount for the keyword/s that may place your ad in the top three spots of the page

The frequency with which an ad for your website appeared for a given query
The frequency with which your ad appeared in the first page of search results for a given query

The page on your website that best matched the keyword suggestion (if applicable)
The tool is better than prior versions of both the Yahoo Keyword Selector Tool and the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, for two major reasons:

1) The bid suggestions give you an instant ballpark cost of adding keywords to your campaign based on actual competitor bids and you can pick, choose and export the ones you like into an Excel spreadsheet from the main report area. This time-saving functionality has been sorely missing from other PPC keyword tools.

2) By displaying the pages on your site that best match the search queries, the tool helps you choose the best landing pages for your ads without tiresome allocation by hand.

Linkedins Search Platform

Suggestive Search - When you type into the search box, a list of suggested names from your contacts pops up. You can select one of the names without having to type in the whole thing. I think this might come in handy when you're having a hard time remembering a name. Maybe you remember the first letter or the first name, but the rest of it just isn't coming to you - this can help.

Streamlined Search Results - LinkedIn changed the design to make it easier to scan the results. They also added photos. Results can be sorted by relevance, which includes the social graph, or by relationship, relationship + recommendations, and keyword.

Customizable Views Users can determine what info they want returned in their search results. Just click the "Views" drop down menu (next to the "Sort" drop down menu at the top of the results). You can decide whether you want to view headlines, photos, locations and more of the people returned in a search.

Take Action Straight from the Search Results When you mouse over a result, you'll notice links that let you take action. You can send InMail, get introduced (through a common contact), or add that person to your network.

Modify Your Search On the right hand side of the results, you'll notice a form where you can type in additional information to narrow your search down and pinpoint it to more exact specifications. You can search by name, job title, company location, and school.

Save Your Search If you want to return to the results, you can save your search. This is a good idea if you've modified your search or customized your view.

Inside AdWords: Google TV Ads program targeting enhancements

Inside AdWords: Google TV Ads program targeting enhancements

Google SearchWiki 101: An Illustrated Guide

Google SearchWiki 101: An Illustrated Guide

A new feature that allows you to move and comment on search results — has been out for less than a day, and it’s amazing to see how much confusion (as well as commentary) there is already developing. So below, some clarification on how it works, opportunities search marketers should consider, some privacy issues and ideas for improving it.

It allows you to move a listing higher in the search results, or move a listing lower in the results or delete a listing altogether. You can also comment about search results you see, and others can view your comments.

Google’s Relase New Search-Based Keyword Tool and Tells You What Keywords You’re Missing.

Google released a new keyword tool tonight, named the Search-Based Keyword Tool. This tool goes beyond what the other Google tools provide and tells you what keywords you are currently missing out on based on search query data from your site’s content.



Beyond the advertisers point of view, you can use this as a nice competitive analysis tool. You can see data about which keywords are relevant to any site on the Internet — so, if you are getting into a new line of business and want keyword data, just plug in the site’s domain and click go.

Google Analytics Blog: Want to track Adobe Flash? Now you can!

Google Analytics Blog: Want to track Adobe Flash? Now you can!

On Demand indexing

Now you can ensure your new pages or updated content is indexed by Google with 24 hours.

Well Google's new on-demand indexing service offers site owners just that. Via your Google Webmaster area, you can request that Google index new pages or content on your site - which will be scheduled for indexing within 24 hours.


The catch: The service is only available to site owners who use Google Site Search.

It makes sense that if you're using Google Site Search on your website, you want to be confident that all your content is available. On-demand indexing has been created to ensure Google Site Search users have confidence that searchers will find all their newest content.

Anyone with a website can take advantage of on-demand indexing by signing up to Google Site Search, even if you don't plan on using the search facility. Find out more about Google Site Search

Google AdPlanner now for everyone.

Google Ad Planner is available to anyone with a Google account, and the system has been given some useful improvements.

So what is Google Ad Planner? According to the original release post back in June, Ad Planner is:-
"a research and media planning tool that connects advertisers and publishers. When using Google Ad Planner, simply enter demographics and sites associated with your target audience, and the tool will return information about sites (both on and off the Google content network) that your audience is likely to visit."

There are three key enhancements to the service:

1. Improved Audience Definitions:
Define your audience by likeliness to search using particular keywords and drill down by state / metro geographical levels.

2. New Site Ranking Methods
Rank sites based their likelihood to attract your desired audience, the sites’ popularity or a mix of both.

3. Interactive Media Plan Analysis
A new interactive bubble chart allows you to compare sites in your media plan by demographics, frequency, traffic, and unique visitors.

If you're looking to expand your campaign, or checking that you're maximizing your potential coverage, this could be a very handy tool. It's especially useful that Ad Planner includes sites outside Google's content network which means you get a healthy view of the available online ad inventory.

Google Updates Site Search
Google has introduced some new functionality to its Site Search product, which allows customers to search within your own site. The feature that everyone is talking about is the ability to add pages on-demand to be indexed by site search, so customers have access to these new pages as soon as they're ready.

In this world, that is full of all kinds of hustle and bustle, people demand speed! It was the game of yesterday years, when people used to wait for hours to get the things done. Now everything is instant! Google has made everything look so simple for us. Everything is available at our fingertips.
Google is there to answer our questions, it is there to provide us with minute directions and no matter what. You name it, and it has it!
On-Demand Indexing ensures that site visitors have access to a site's freshest content, and that businesses have the flexibility to share news, product releases and promotions as they happen.




According to the Google Press Center
"With On-Demand Indexing:
• Site owners get an "Index Now" button to quickly and easily update their site search results with new and updated content.
• New pages are searchable within hours " taking no longer than a day to appear within site search results.



Google Site Search, our cloud-based search solution for business, helps thousands of organizations harness the power of Google.com, and fully customize search to suit their website. Along with the greater control of On-Demand Indexing, site owners get the same ease of use and fast results of Google Site Search, including:
• Set up that takes minutes and results returned in less than a second
• The ability to promote new or certain types of pages at the top of results
• Full customization controls over the look and feel of search
• A range of options for phone and email support"

SEO Starter Guide from Google

Google is getting into the SEO consulting business. Well, not quite. But, Google is now formally offering an “SEO Starter Guide” with practical advice for webmasters about improving search engine visibility and increasing traffic to a web site.

It is a 22-page PDF announced today on the Webmaster Central blog. This is the same guide Google uses internally for its own sites (YouTube, etc.).
The guide is well written and geared toward webmasters and business owners who need a basic training in SEO. Topics covered include:
• Page Titles
• Description Meta Tag
• URL Structure
• Site Navigation
• Creating Quality Content
• Anchor Text
• Heading Tags (H1s, H2s, etc.)
• Image Optimization
• Robots.txt
• Rel=”nofollow”
• Website Promotion
• Webmaster Tools
• Analytics
• More Resources

How to use the rel=”nofollow” attribute on individual links. Many in the SEO industry have thought this attribute is a red flag, something that tells Google that a professional SEO has been tweaking the page, and not something that an average webmaster would even know about. That’s clearly not the case anymore; rel=”nofollow” is more mainstream now thanks to a full page of explanation in this SEO guide.

Google adding new tools to Gmail
Google is introducing new tools that will convert its free email service into a video and audio channel for people who want to see and hear each other while they communicate.
Activating the features, introduced on Tuesday, will require a free piece of software as well as a Webcam, which are becoming more commonplace as computer manufacturers embed video equipment into laptops.
Once the additional software is installed, Gmail users will be given the option to see and hear each other without leaving the email application.
The video feature will work only if all the participants have Gmail accounts. It's supposed to be compatible with computers running the Windows operating system or Apple's Mac computers.
Google also modified Google Reader, a popular tool for setting up Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds from favorite websites, to feature automatic translation of content into users' chosen languages.
An RSS feed can be set up using Google Reader, for example, to pull articles from a Turkish blog or website, and the content can be automatically translated into English or any of the other nearly 20 languages available.
Google has been adding more bells and whistles to Gmail as part of its effort to gain ground on the longtime leaders in free email, Yahoo and Microsoft.

LinkedIn Events Bring Conference Networking Online

LinkedIn has launched a new events feature, letting you know about upcoming conferences and other functions in your industry. Smartly, LinkedIn Events pulls information from sites like Eventbrite and then builds features around it as opposed to re-creating the wheel by asking users to build a new event database from scratch.
The features that LinkedIn has built are much as you’d expect: search for events using a variety of filters, indicate that you plan on attending, and see who else is going to so you can do some pre and post event networking using the site. There are some other interesting LinkedIn-specific features, like integration with LinkedIn’s version of the News Feed so activities are broadcast, as well as event recommendations based on your profile information.

Optimize your Adsense AD's
Google has kicked off a series of videos for AdSense tips at the Inside AdSense blog. This is an effort to help publishers get the most out of their AdSense accounts. After all, the better publishers make out from the program, the better the program will continue to perform for Google right?





Google start Video series

The first video looks at ad sizes, and Google recommends them big. They suggest using the following sizes:

- 300x250 medium rectangle
- 728x90 leaderboard
- 160x600 skyscraper

These ad units have proven in the past to deliver better results for both publishers and advertisers. Advertisers favour these formats, and if you've receiving all ad types, you'll find that advertisers will specifically target your sites more often. If you position your ad units well, users will be more likely to see these ad formats and find an ad that they're interested in.

Google AdWords Quality Score Changes

The Google 'Inside AdWords' blog has announced changes to how they calculate quality score and rank ads. The changes will remove the bias of ad.

Quality Score Update: Google have confirmed that click-through rate (CTR) remains the most significant component of the quality score, because it directly indicates which ads are the most relevant to their users, but they have now removed the influence of ad position on this calculation.

This is because ads higher on the page are more visible and usually get more clicks over those in lower positions for this reason alone, not necessarily because it's a more relevant ad. In an effort to show the most relevant ads, Google will adjust its calculations to remove the influence "position has on the CTR.

Ads Above Search Results: Google have also tweaked for formula to determine which ads are displayed in the yellow section above search results. Previously, ads displayed in this area had to meet a certain quality threshold, and if the first listing didn't have a high enough AdRank (quality score x CPC), no ads were displayed in this section.

Now, Google are allowing ads in position 2 and 3 to leapfrog over position 1 and appear in the yellow section if they have a high enough quality score.

The changes appear to be placing less importance on how much your bidding, but rather what your quality score is.

For those of you who are unsure, quality score is Google's version of PageRank for AdWords. It takes into account a range of factors to rate the quality of each keyword in your ad group/s.

These enhancements will be released shortly by Google, so keep an eye on your ad position, spend and performance over the next few weeks!

Included link: Inside AdWords

Google Offers Migration Service to Transfer Content from AOL
AOL has recently decided to go for a more open and social approach, not unlike Yahoo. They've opened up their homepage to third party content, and are allowing users to update social network profiles right from there as well.

Ironically, AOL dropped its blogging service AOL Journals (among other services). I find this interesting because I consider blogs to be one of the top forms of social media, in the respect that they give people a voice, and their own community via readership and commentary.

Google sees this as an opportunity to get plenty of those AOL Journals users on board with its own service - Blogger. A post on Blogger Buzz welcomes those people with open arms providing links to a Blogger Tour, help resources, and a user group. But it doesn't stop there.

https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=blogger&naui=8<mpl=aol&continue=http://www.blogger.com/aj-import.g&skipvpage=true
Google is being proactive in the matter, and going so far as to offer a migration tool so that AOL Journals users can easily transport their content to Blogger. To use the tool, follow these steps as outlined by Google:

1. Sign in with the Google Account you would like associated with your blog. If you don't have a Google Account, make one.

2. Once you've signed in with your Google Account, you'll be asked to enter your AOL Journal URL. Do so and click "continue."

3. On the next page you'll be asked to sign in with your AOL OpenID screen name or email address.

4. The import process will then begin and may take a few minutes to complete.

5. After your blog finishes importing, you'll be asked to choose a title for your new Blogger blog as well as a new address.

6. Once you've chosen a new title and address, you can then select one of their blog templates.

7. Click "view your imported posts" to visit your blog at its new address.

Sounds easy enough right?

This is a smart move on Google's part. They knew bloggers would want to continue, and would be forced to find a new service to use. The easier the transition for the user, the more likely they are to use that new service. I wonder how many have gone the Blogger route.

You can now create and embed presentations in your Likedin Profile


You are now able to embed a Google Docs presentation in your LinkedIn profile, allowing you to enhance your professional profile with text, images, and videos.

LinkedIn, it's the world's largest online professional network. LinkedIn allows you to create a profile that showcases your skills and talents, and helps you find and connect with your trusted contacts and share ideas and opportunities.

Who might benefit from an embedded presentation in their profile? Graphic designers and photographers can showcase examples of their work or even their entire portfolios. Musicians and media producers can display performances and videos using embedded YouTube videos in their slides. But these are just a few ideas.

LinkedIn application was built on OpenSocial, an open standard for building social applications across the web, which means that in the future, it will be easy to run this app on any site that supports OpenSocial.

Add our app in LinkedIn to display your own Google Docs presentation in your profile.

Add your app:

Google Ads and Expandable Product Listings

Reports have been coming through about a new Google AdWords format being tested on the search engine results pages (SERPs). Google is exploring the idea of offering a plus box option for sponsored ads, where users can expand the ad to view actual product listings (with pictures) by the advertiser.

Reports have been coming through about a new Google AdWords format being tested on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Google is now exploring the idea of offering a plus box option for sponsored ads, where users can expand the ad to view actual product listings, with pictures, by the advertiser.

Many SEO purists are concerned that the expanding ads in the top position will push organic listings too far down the page. In my opinion, its "much ado about nothing" as the default when the results page loads is the contracted version of the ads.

If a user chooses to expand the ads, then they've made the decision to view the product listings, and accordingly focus on the sponsored listings over the organic ones.

A similar AdWords test which include product listings in ads was reported at the start of this year. But the new version with images could be a sign that Google is closer to launching the format as a permanent option.

At this stage, it seems that the advertisers will need to submit their products to Google via Google base, with the listings somehow linked to their AdWords campaign/s.


No official release has been made by Google with specifications and details on the new ad format, but should it generate enough interest from advertisers, I'm sure we'll see it added to the constantly evolving Google AdWords platform.

Google Analytics Upgrade:

AdSense Reporting, Visualization Tools,.....More

Google Analytics is rolling out what it calls a “significant upgrade” to its feature set. The new tools include AdSense integration, Motion Charts, advanced segmentation, an API, custom reports, and an updated user interface to highlight these new tools better.

Online publishers may be most interested in the AdSense integration tools coming to Google Analytics. After linking an AdSense and Analytics account, you’ll be able to see AdSense data including:
• total revenue, impressions, clicks, and click-through ratio
• revenue per day, per hour, etc.
• revenue per page (what pages are most profitable)
• revenue per referral (what other sites bring you profitable traffic)
The Google Analytics API, which is currently in private beta, will open up analytics data for developers to export and use however they want. Advanced segmentation allows users to dig deeper into subsets of traffic, such as “visits with conversions,” or create their own segment types. Custom reporting lets users create their own comparisons of metrics.
Google has created a series of videos showing how some of these new tools work.

Google Warning Sites About Security Issues

Patrick Chapman explained on the Webmaster Central Blog, "We will be leaving messages for owners of potentially vulnerable sites in the Google Message Center that we provide as a free service as part of Webmaster Tools." An old version of WordPress will get singled out in a first test involving five or six thousand webmasters.

Here's the really interesting part, though: "If you manage a website but haven't signed up for Webmaster Tools, don't worry. The messages will be saved and if you sign up later on, you'll still be able to access any messages that Google has left for your site."

So we wind up with unsolicited advice that's stuck in a time capsule. This seems a little Big Brother-ish of Google, but it's hard to argue with something that improves sites' security. As most experts will agree, security tends to become more of a problem with every passing month.

Google Webmaster Tools Adds Hack Alert For CMS Programs - Search Marketing News Blog - Search Engine Watch (SEW)

Google Webmaster Tools Adds Hack Alert For CMS Programs - Search Marketing News Blog - Search Engine Watch (SEW)

Google will be alerting sites to possible hacks of their CMS programs the Google Webmaster Central blog announced today. Nice addition guys.

Recently we've seen more websites get hacked because of various security holes. In order to help webmasters with this issue, we plan to run a test that will alert some webmasters if their content management system (CMS) or publishing platform looks like it might have a security hole or be hackable.