Something to Ponder If You're Trying Adwords Alone

Oh folks, Google changes so often. It gets more complex, and less transparent as we go along. Both on the Adwords and SEO side.

Right now, I am embroiled a handful of accounts where the people had tried (either alone or with another Google-Person) to do Adwords. And here's the rub - the results from the old campaigns are making trouble for the new campaigns I am creating. The problem stems from something called "Quality Score".

Now, Quality Score used to be rather straightforward, and it was about "relevance". Is *this* website and *this* ad really relevant to this search term? Makes sense, doesn't it! A good thing to weed out people who are mistakenly advertising at the wrong crowd, or whose ad doesn't really match the website's content.

But now it ALSO get's affected by the history of the account. Basically, if you start out crappy, it is an uphill battle to get back in Google's good graces. The end result is *much* higher click costs, and sometimes your ad not being seen for various keywords. It's a pain in the neck.

So, before you think "I'll try this first, THEN call Peter".....well, I'd really prefer you just call me first. Oh yeah, here's Google's official list of items that make up Quality Score....(the whole page can be seen here)

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While we continue to refine our Quality Score formulas for Google and the Search Network, the core components remain more or less the same:

*The historical clickthrough rate (CTR) of the keyword and the matched ad on Google; note that *CTR on the Google Network only ever impacts Quality Score on the Google Network -- not on Google
*Your account history, which is measured by the CTR of all the ads and keywords in your account
*The historical CTR of the display URLs in the ad group
*The quality of your landing page
*The relevance of the keyword to the ads in its ad group
*The relevance of the keyword and the matched ad to the search query
*Your account's performance in the geographical region where the ad will be shown
*Other relevance factors

About Facebook Ads - Part 1

Hi folks,

New Year, new energies! I downloaded a great new screen capture video software called Jing Pro that is allowing me to do some new videos , for this blog and my therapist friends.

So without further ado, here's some info on Facebook ads - part 1 (part 2 is already "in the can" and will be posted soon). Best, Peter

View the video at Screencast.com
(working to get it rightly sized inline right now)

The New Year's Spike

Folks, the New Year marks a time when people take action. It is especially true in our business. I just logged into Google Analytics and this year is no exception.

Yesterday, Tuesday January 4th showed the biggest number of visitors to my counseling website ever. I didn't do anything new - no big news out there on me. This day was about 3x a normal Tuesday.

The spike would have been sooner if New Years Day hadn't been on a Friday, I'm sure.

Just something to put into your mental bank for next year.

All the best, Peter

Jot Form, Something new I Like

Hi everyone,

Web forms can be tricky for even savvy coders to create - often because we do it infrequently enough that we forget all the in's and out's. I have found a new, free resource to do that and wanted to share it with you - JotForm.com.

Simply, JotForm lets you create WYSIWIG forms simply and easily (and for free - always my favorite price). I've already created one that is integrated into my counseling site. It's something I've thought of for a long time - a contact form that includes the insurance info - so I can call and check benefits for them. It's already paid off, I've gotten one person filling it out within 24 hours of it being up.

Check it out for yourself! Best, Peter

New Year, New Copyright

Hi everyone,

It's the New Year, and one thing I do that is a subtle reminder to web visitors that the site is well-tended is to update the Copyright notice at the bottom of each page.

My private practice website sports the brand new 2010 date.

Just a little something I always like to suggest.

Best, Peter