Yahoo/Microsoft Search Alliance Update

In late August, Yahoo! completed the transition of the back-end technology for English-language Yahoo! organic search results in the U.S. and Canada. There is now consistency of the organic search results between Yahoo! and Bing. In our opinion, there is still a gap in relevant search results when compared to Google. It’s our assumption that Yahoo! and Bing will make additional modifications to the search algorithm after the holiday season. As for the paid search results, advertisers can start transitioning their paid Yahoo! Search Marketing account to Bing now. The Yahoo! ad serving transition is expected to start mid-October. For additional tips on how to prepare for the search alliance, check out our recent search engine marketing article.

Negative Keywords

In Search Engine Marketing, the most underutilized tactic is the usage of negative keywords. We have noticed that numerous clients neglect to use negative keywords in the pay-per-click campaigns. According to Google, negative keywords are a core component of a successful keyword list. The adding of negative keywords to an ad group or campaign means that the ads will not show for search queries containing the specified negative term. By filtering out unwanted impressions, negative keywords can help marketers reach the most appropriate prospects, reduce your cost-per-click (CPC), and increase your ROI.

There are several reasons to make a keyword negative such as zero conversions, bad brand association, not relevant to a user, or to improve search quality. Most search engines will allow 250 up to 10,000 negative keywords per ad campaign or ad group. There are a few tools to help you identify negative keywords such as WordTracker, Keyword Discovery, and Epiar Negative Keywords.

Be sure to implement negative keywords in your next ad campaign. Let us know how these tools work for your campaign.

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