SEO & AI Search (GEO) Expert

Improve your Google ranking with Peter Mahoney, 20+ years SEO & Wordpress experience

3 Approaches to PPC Advertising

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3 Approaches to PPC Advertising Wordpress SEO & AI Search (GEO) ExpertI don’t actually offer PPC advertising services (Pay per click). I’m very specialised at what I do already, but clients do regularly ask me for advice garnered from 18 years experience across a variety of technologies.

So I do have some thoughts to share with you.

One very effective technique with PPC is to target what is known as a “spread” of search queries and phrases. That’s based on making the most of the three different “tracks” people take when planning PPC campaigns.

  1. Many people make the mistake of just targeting the most popular searches, which of course is a valid technique but places them firmly, exclusively, in a very competitive market. It also costs a lot more to run campaigns of this nature.
  2. Conversely some people will try to do the opposite, target only the less common searches to save themselves money spent on the campaign, but of course they see a lot less traffic.
  3. There is a third-road, which is trying to find searches with a statistically slightly higher popularity, but lower competition. However, the vast nature of Google Adwords and other PPC markets tends to even these “gaps” out pretty quickly, so even when they can be found the gap is very narrow.

I prefer to approach these campaigns as a spread, to include some targets from all three of these categories. That way you achieve a good mix of results, financial outlay, and it gives you greater scope to track the success of your campaigns and decide which of these might be worth higher future investment.

Basically, you get more options, more data and therefore in the long run a much more strategic and lucrative approach.

Google’s RankBrain and SEO

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Google has a new update for us. Called “RankBrain”, in its most basic sense it’s an attempt by Google to run AI (Artificial Intelligence) as a way of working out how useful a site is to any given query.

One example Google has given for how it affects things, is this search query:

What’s the title of the consumer at the highest level of a food chain

Obviously that’s not the most well structured question, but a lot of searches aren’t that carefully thought out.

The point of the example is the word “consumer”. In different contexts it can mean different things, and RankBrain is intended to help match searches with the most relevant results; understanding the context.

It doesn’t have a huge effect on how I would structure a site and its contents for SEO though—fortunately because my advice for SEO has always fit in very nicely with Google’s overall ethos, changes to their algorithm usually strengthen my clients’ SEO.

But it is worth being aware that Google is definitively not just “pattern matching”; counting keywords in your content. They’re trying to read it like a human being would—so keep writing for a human audience when you’re adding content.

Google confirms more searches are performed on mobile devices than desktop computers

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For those of us who track this sort of thing, this comes as no surprise. But it’s worth knowing it’s now official – Google has confirmed that more searches are performed on mobile phones and tablets than traditional PCs/laptops.

It makes their last major update well timed – just a couple of weeks ago they made sure mobile friendly sites would have priority in mobile-based search results over sites that are not.

But this does mean if your site isn’t mobile friendly, we have the stats to hand that show you ARE missing out of search engine potential. Contact me and I can help.

Get mobile friendly

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Google has been sending out millions of these messages over the past couple of months.

Google systems have tested 177 pages from your site and found that 32% of them have critical mobile usability errors.

Google Webmaster Tools has long pointed out the important of having a mobile friendly site–but now Google is taking it seriously. When you’re looking at search results on a smart phone (which accounts for a huge percentage of people) you’ll see a little notification if a site is mobile friendly. Funnily enough, those sites will be getting most of the organic traffic.

There has never been a better time to get a mobile friendly, responsive website.

All the sites I build are responsive, and you’re welcome to ask for my help.

Lies

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Here’s a pretty typical advert you’ll see online when searching for SEO, “I can create 33 SEO backlink Panda Penguin safe from PR10”.

The trouble is it’s all LIES.

I know I bang on about the trouble with buying backlinks to try to help your SEO. Regular readers will be familiar with my disdain for people selling the impossible—since Google’s Panda algorithm tries very hard to find people buying links, saying any scheme like this is “Panda safe” or even worse, “Panda friendly” is a massive fib.

So at the risk of repeating myself, I’m going to say some things I’ve said before – albeit in a more concise and succinct form.

It is true that Google does like to see links to your site. But they are excellent at discerning real links (where someone liked your site or service enough to link to it) from purchased ones. Those bought ones are usually just low quality directories and profiles. When I say profiles I really mean it, user accounts get created on the Apple website that have your domain in the user description and the scam-sellers have the nerve to say that’s a PR10 link from a high quality domain. As if Google can’t tell the difference between say, a news story on the BBC and a bunch of comment-user accounts.

I generally stand against buying backlinks because of my SEO ethos. My ethos is simple by the way – Google have given us a swag of information regarding what search engines do and do not want – so I say we give them what they’re after. But on the flipside we need to be sure to avoid what they don’t want.

I have about three jobs a week come in from people who bought back links and got caught – and dropped off Google completely. When they penalise you, they really hit you hard.

Technically speaking really awesome backlinks would certainly help your SEO. But 99% of the time buying them is not awesome, and I recommend avoiding it.

I (like Google) see SEO as a long game, if done properly. But also, if done properly, it “sticks”. A site with good SEO that’s risen to the top should stay at the top.

And with that, I shall get down from my well-trodden soap-box.

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