A SEO Blog by James Harrison

Recently I decided to blog more about SEO related topics. Mainly because I have a couple keywords I want to start targeting. I noticed one of my blogs (My San Diego SEO Blog) was getting traffic for terms relating to ‘SEO‘ and ‘San Diego‘. I’m pretty sure the love I’m getting from the engines come from my relevant link right here in my blog side bar because I never really had any San Diego content.

The title of the blog used to be

“SEO Competition - Blog 2.0 vs. The Website“

But now that I’m targeting the term San Diego SEO, I changed it to

“San Diego SEO, Blog SEO & Web 2.0 SEO“

Basically I gave the term I’m targeting prominence, plus I gave the keyword ‘SEO‘ more density. This blog is one of my fun blogs. I’m not really targeting any other terms. Normally, I wouldn’t recommend adding a keyword 3 times to the title tag (like I did with ‘SEO’). But like I said, it’s my fun blog.

I was getting traffic from Yahoo! & MSN, but NOT GOOGLE. As you can see in this snapshot I took (with the time & date) that my rankings for the term ’san diego seo’ was horrible.

Before I made that title tag change on Thursday, August 7th 2008 Blog Optimizer was ranked #498 for the term ‘san diego seo‘

*Disclaimer - That Thursday night I wrote the post; Web 2.0 Tags + SEO = Search Engine Love

Now look at the change in ranking the next day.

The next day (Friday, August 8th 2008) BlogOptimizer was ranked #63 for the term ‘san diego seo‘

*Disclaimer #2 - Since that site is a blog, it has the ability to jump 400 spots AND fall 400 spots overnight (literally). If you search for San Diego SEO now, I’m willing to bet that BlogOptimizer is not #63 anymore. Blogs are very fluid in the SERP’s unless that blog has strong link strength.

In case you didn’t know how important titles were to websites, search a term in Google and see that 9 out of the top 10 sites have that targeted term in their the listing titles.

This post is for pay per click marketers that spend more time in Google’s AdWords Editor than they do on the actual Google AdWords interface/website. Here is a list of keyboard shortcuts for AdWords Editor that could help speed up your AdWords Editor processing time. I personally only use about 20 of these (the ones bolded). But, here is a list of all the I could find.

Ctrl+O - Open Account
Ctrl+R - Get Recent Changes
Ctrl+S - Post Changes
Ctrl+A - Select all Items in Data View
Ctrl+Z - Revert Selected Changes
Delete key - Delete Selected Items
Ctrl+C - Copy Selected Items
Ctrl+X - Cut Selected Items
Ctrl+V - Paste Items
Ctrl+Shft+V - Paste Items into selected ad groups
Ctrl+1 - Jump to Keywords tab
Ctrl+2 - Jump to Sites tab
Ctrl+3 - Jump to Negatives tab
Ctrl+4 - Jump to Text Ads tab
Ctrl+5 - Jump to Image Ads tab
Ctrl+6 - Jump to Mobile Ads tab
Ctrl+7 - Jump to Ad Groups tab
Ctrl+8 - Jump to Campaigns tab
Ctrl+K - Add Keyword
Ctrl+Shft+K - Add or Update Multiple Keywords
Ctrl+Alt+K - Delete Multiple Keywords
Ctrl+B - Add Site
Ctrl+Shft+B - Add or Update Multiple Placements
Ctrl+Alt+B - Delete Multiple Placements
Ctrl+L - Add Negative Keyword
Ctrl+Shft+L - Add Multiple Negative Keywords
Ctrl+M - Add Campaign Negative Keyword
Ctrl+Shft+M - Add Multiple Campaign Negative Keywords
Ctrl+Alt+M - Delete Multiple Campaign Negative Keywords
Ctrl+E - Add Campaign Negative Site
Ctrl+Shft+E - Add Multiple Campaign Negative Sites
Ctrl+Alt+E - Delete Multiple Campaign Negative Sites
Ctrl+T - Add Text Ad
Ctrl+Shft+T - Add Multiple Text Ads
Ctrl+Alt+T - Delete Multiple Text Ads
Ctrl+I - Add Image Ad
Ctrl+Shft+I - Add Multiple Image Ads
Ctrl+J - Add Mobile Ad
Ctrl+Shft+J - Add Multiple Mobile Ads
Ctrl+Alt+J - Delete Multiple Mobile Ads
Ctrl+G - Add Ad Group
Ctrl+Shft+G - Add or Update Multiple Ad Groups
Ctrl+N - Add Keyword-targeted Campaign
Ctrl+Shft+N - Add Site-Targeted Campaign
Ctrl+D - Add Draft Keyword-targeted Campaign
Ctrl+Shft+D - Add Draft Site-targeted Campaign
Ctrl+W - Exit AdWords Editor

If you know of any shortcuts that I missed, please comment them.

The other day I decided to ask my Google rep if I could completely delete (old deleted) AdWords campaigns. Here was my question;

“Is there a way to delete deleted campaigns for good. Where they wont even show up anywhere in editor or in the AdWords interface. Like completely delete…vanish.”

My oldest AdWords account literally has over 30 deleted campaigns & more than several hundred ad groups. Just recently I paused all the campaigns in that account and because of the view I had my account set to; “all active” I was reminded of some of my old accounts… (oh, the memories) It was kind of nice to see how much better my AdWords campaigns are created and structured now compared to then. But, I wanted my deleted campaigns gone for good. After all I deleted them for a reason. If I thought I might need them again, I would’ve just paused them.

Anyway, here is what the rep had to say…

“Thank you for your email. I understand that you would like to permanently remove the deleted campaigns from your AdWords account, and also, from AdWords Editor. Please know that while it’s possible for you to delete an active ad, keyword, or campaign, it isn’t possible to permanently delete these. Your historical account data is just as valuable to your ongoing advertising experience as your active campaign information. Therefore, this information remains with your account so that we can provide you with the best advertising performance possible.

You can customize your account view to hide or show deleted items. To learn more see https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=69944&hl=en_US.
Also, please know, depending on your specified preferences, AdWords Editor hides or displays deleted and ended items in your account. You can also specify whether you want AdWords Editor to download deleted and ended campaigns and ad groups.

To view deleted items, follow these steps:

1. If you’re using Windows, go to the Tools menu > Settings. If you’re using a Mac, go to the AdWords Editor menu > Preferences.
2. Uncheck the box labeled Hide all deleted and ended items. Then uncheck the appropriate boxes below it.
3. Click OK.
To download deleted and ended campaigns and ad groups:

1. If you’re using Windows, go to the Tools menu > Settings. If you’re using a Mac, go to the AdWords Editor menu > Preferences.
2. Uncheck the boxes next to Hide all deleted and ended items and Hide deleted and ended campaigns.
3. Check the box next to Download deleted and ended campaigns and ad groups.
4. Click OK.
5. Go to the Account menu > Get Full Account. This downloads your account, including the deleted and ended campaigns and ad groups.

I hope that this information is useful for you.

If you have additional questions, please visit our Help Center at https://adwords.google.com/support to find answers to many frequently asked questions. Or, try our Learning Center at http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/ for self-paced lessons that cover the scope of AdWords.

We look forward to providing you and your clients with the most effective advertising available.

Sincerely,

Google Rep
The Google AdWords Team”

Turns out it’s not about saving your campaigns in case you need it again one day. It’s all about ‘historical data’. This worries me more since some of the accounts are ones I started back when I didn’t have a PPC clue or they belong to client’s who have accounts I took over after months to years of bad quality scores and editorial rejections.

Knowing this… Think About it, Maybe sometimes it pays to start fresh.

Just recently I was searching through Google for some information. I ran into a search listing I thought was pretty funny to be there.

I know it’s not much. But, I do feel it’s kind of weird that Google will warn you that they are sending you to a site that may harm your computer. Why even show that listing? (Thanks for the warning though) Why not tell that company that they pose a threat to internet searchers. Honestly to me, that’s a turn off that will lead me away from that listing.

I wonder what it is about that site that leads Google to put a disclaimer under their listing. Any Ideas??

Every week I receive a Google Agency Update email. It just entails what’s new from Google. It seems like they start new business and open up more projects and locations every week. At the rate Google is building, …. (whole ‘nother story)

Anyway, here is one of the updates in the email I received.

————————————————————–

Share what you know with Knol

A few months back we announced a new product called Knol with one goal, to help users share what they know. While the free tool was previously open to a selected group of contributors, last week Google’s Knol was made available to everyone.

By definition a knol is an authoritative article about a specific topic. Create, search and make suggested edits to any knol and connect with other experts in your area of interest to share and grow knowledge.

Everyone knows something. Share what you know today: knol.google.com. And, for more information please refer to our Blog post as well as the Knol help section.

—————————————————————

So, of course I was curious to learn more about Google’s Wikipedia; Knol. I Googled the term ‘knol’ and came across something I thought was interesting…. knol.com

Knol.com is a Dutch company in the Netherlands that sales steam cleaning equipment. Visit their site and see that recently they had to put in bold smack-dab in the middle of their page that they are steam cleaning equipment company in English for all the visitors that may end up there looking for Google’s new “knowledge base”. I used babelfish to translate what the latest news was about.

 

Come to find out, back when Google mentioned the launch of the knol the first time, knol.com’s servers crashed due to a huge surge of traffic (visitors searching for Google’s Knol). Tons of traffic came from search engines, direct type in and links pointing from other blogs and news sites in the industry. Their hosting company 040 Hosting even blogged about this situation and how they will be more prepared next time Google drops the news.

Just like I, people end up at their site because of Google’s Knol. This could be good publicity, but unfortunately anyone looking for Knol is most likely not in the Netherlands looking for a steam cleaner or will be anytime soon. Plus, now they have to buy more bandwidth just because of their name.

If you translate what knol.com had to say about this situation and read what their hosting company has stated, it seems like the owners of knol.com love their name/domain no matter how much bandwidth they need to purchase. It also sounds like they turned down a very generous offer for knol.com. Now that’s brand name loyalty.

Good for you knol.com