I just got an urgent email from a major keyword service which said something to the effect of:
“Your subscription expired on _____ (date) and we just don’t know how your website can continue to grow without doing constant keyword research”
Assuming you’ve developed a strong center of gravity on a bulls eye keyword, here are 7 ways you can continue to grow your website, business, and profits WITHOUT doing constant keyword research:
- Just process your damn search query report in Adwords already. Seriously, I called your Mom yesterday and told her to lay on the guilt extra thick, because I STILL find 80% of my list is just not doing this, and that’s like flying blind. Adwords is getting more competitive by the day, and you NEED VISIBILITY into which keywords convert and which ones don’t so you can peel and stick, adjust your bids, and empower Google’s fuzzy logic to do ITS thing, which is to EXPAND YOUR PROFITABLE TRAFFIC WITHOUT REQUIRING CONSTANT MANUAL KEYWORD RESEARCH. Of course, this all assumes you’ve installed the conversion pixel on your website (look in the tools section of Adwords). And if you don’t want to do this, maybe you could donate to my favorite charity instead of feeding Google unnecessarily? Enough said.
- Ditto on the placement report.
- Taguchi test in Adwords to improve your click through and strengthen your center of gravity in Google’s eyes. So they can automatically expand to more keywords on your broad match bids. (The stronger your keywords perform, the more Google will try to expand to related words, and who knows better than they?)
- Split Test using Profit Per Impression (www.SuperSplitTester.com) so you can afford to bid higher and command a larger share of voice, which, uh, like encourages Google to try and expand your broad match keywords
- Do an 80/20 Survey on your Opt In List or E-Commerce site, then use the results to improve your Adwords copy, landing pages, follow up sequences, back end products, and sales processes.
- Get on the phone and call your customers and prospects, just to ask how you’re doing and what you could improve. (Forget all our fancy emotional interviewing techniques, just pick up the darn phone)
- Consider updating your site and your landing pages to a more substantial, web 2.0, modern Adwords compliant format.
Most if not all of the above, especially #s 1 and 2, should be done way before you start spending time and money in keyword services outside of Google. And you should make sure you’ve leveraged Google’s FREE tools before you move to the paid services. Only makes sense, right?
When you’ve done all above, the keyword services can be a source of incremental volume, bid efficiencies, and profit. But it’s nothing like it used to be, thanks to all the wonderful free tools Google’s providing, and thanks to their ever improving fuzzy logic auto-expansion algorithms.
Sorry, this kind of pissed my off today, I should probably have held back my tone a little bit, I know it was out of character for me. What do you think?
Dr. G 
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
agree, its back to broad match for me, utilizing all the built in tools, free tools.
thanks for your laser precision thinking Glenn, keeps me honest and focusing on what\’s most important.
Hey Glenn,
as you know, I’ve been an early adopter of SQ reports since they were first released in May 2007, so they’re great for “post-click” intelligence (most importantly for negatives) and have improved a lot.
But the downside is their utility tails off over time as you get the most important negatives included. The additional “positives” you can harvest suffer from “low search volume” and are of little use unless seasonal.
So the new “Opportunities” tab is really the *only* keyword research tool you need now for “pre-click” keyword intelligence, in my opinion.
Google just keeps getting better and better at helping us with keyword research.
As they should, since it’s in all our interests. Makes you wonder why it’s taken them so long sometimes, doesn’t it…?
Thanks – I think we all (well, at least 80% of us) need a kick in the butt.
Dr. George
I still go for the money keywords. Never needed to buy a keyword tool though. Google has enough free ones that with a little guidance are almost limitless in their functionality.
Been using invisible pixels since \’01.
Lol
Thanks glenn for that awesome post.
Keyword services makes us believe that without them we can´t profit in this business.
Hi,
Great info.
Your link to http://www.supersplittester.com has an extra e between \’split\’ and \’tester\’ so the link in your post goes to a broken website.
Kindly,
Michael
Thanks very much for flagging that Michael – fixed now
I also love the opportunties tab. Actually started using it more after talking to David about it – Thanks David.
The things that I still use some keyword spy tools for is to brainstorm and generate major category ideas or advertising approaches.
For the detailed keyword list, I am now relying on the search query report and the opportunities tab. Great stuff in there!
I, love your poop eatin, grin!
I,m waiting till I, have one as well!
All I, have so far after nearly a year, is a Business name and #, but where the hell is the start button?
Thanks,
Gord786970
@ Gord
I’ve never heard the expression “poop-eatin’ grin” – I like it!
I agree that just applying the 1st advice on search query report, almost immediately you can cut down your ppc cost by heaps.