The other day I got a call from the CEO and Founder of a company I work for asking why his main keywords, which are usually in positions 2-4, were either at the bottom of the first page or not on the page at all. As I run through the possible reasons in my head, I jump over to Adwords to see where Google says the keywords are positioned. Adwords says the keywords are in positions…..2 to 4, exactly where they should be.
So….Google tells me the keywords are exactly where I want them, but the keywords are showing much lower in the search results, which is what the CEO is looking at.
Who do you think he believes me or his own eyes?
After researching the issue (aka…franticly calling my Google rep), I learn if you search a particular keyword continuously in Google and don’t click any of the ads, Google assumes those ads are not relevant to your search. Google adjusts the ads (bringing lower ads to the top) to find an ad that might interest you, thus lowering the usual top ads down the chain.
Smart move for Google, bad move for Paid Search Marketers.
Google remedies this issue by providing the AdPreview tool that will show you where your ad shows for the compulsively repetitive keyword checking folk. The tool gives you the option to pick which Google domain (.com, .co.uk), the display language, and the specific location of the search.
The tool will also help reduce the number of impressions if your compulsively repetitive keyword checking clients know to use it as well.
Nice. I work for a company that does paid search for our clients, and Adpreview is great, except for those few clients who refuse to understand the difference between the search and the preview tool.
Comment by cory huff — October 8, 2008 @ 5:36 pm