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Bring out your Google notebook again; Google is making another major change and this time it is to Google AdWords. Just when we all start to get used to things, Google makes another a major game-changing announcement. This announcement is that the exact-match keywords you use are no longer going to rank for, well, exact-matches but for close variant keywords. Wait, what? What exactly does that mean? This blog is going to break everything down for you, to help you understand the changes that are happening as well as how these changes might impact your business.
What Is An Exact-Match And Close Variant Keyword?
First thing first, we need to define what these two phrases mean. Some of you might know, but a little refresher course never hurt anyone. An exact-match keyword is pretty straightforward. Its definition is simply that it is a keyword that someone searches for exactly and is given results that exactly match the keyword. For example, if you were searching for “bicycle repair tips” an exact-match keyword would bring up results with the exact keyword of “bicycle repair tips.” Simple, huh?
A close variant keyword is a keyword that is close to the search query, but not exactly what the searcher looked for. This can be helpful if someone is searching for “bicycle repair tips” but searches for either “bike repair tips” or “bycycle repair tips.” Yep, that’s right. If someone misspells their search query, the result will come up with what they are looking for. This is handy for those who aren’t strong spellers and for those of us who rely on our smartphones, which like to make strange spelling suggestions constantly.
Why Is Google Making A Change In Favor Of Close Variant Keywords?
As we mentioned earlier, Google is making a change that favors close variant keywords instead of exact-match. Their main reasons are straightforward and easy to understand. The biggest reason they are changing to favor close variant keywords is because about 7 percent of search queries are misspelled; yes 7 percent. While that might not seem very substantial, that is 7 percent of people using Google, who might not come to your site. This could actually be quite detrimental for you, so this change is a good thing for many PPC advertisers. This change did take place awhile back, yet marketers were allowed to opt out, and many did. Now, you will not be able to opt out, it will just be part of the Google algorithm.
Another reason Google is making this change is because exact-match keywords do not bring in as many clicks and views as a close variant keyword, which they know to be detrimental to you, your ranks, and revenue. Google AdWords wants to help you out by making this change, which is quite nice of them! You never know exactly how someone is going to search for “bicycle repair tips” no matter how straightforward it seems. All you have to do is go to Google Poetics to see the various, strange things people search for. People will come up with any variation of your specific keyword, which can actually keep them far away from your site, whereas a close variant keyword might just be what brings them to you.
What Does This Mean For Your Content?
According to Search Engine Watch, a great thing about this change is that your content isn’t going to see that drastic of an impact from this change. You will find that your content is hardly impacted, if at all. In fact, Google said that they believe only about 3 percent of advertisers on AdWords will see an impact, but even that will be small.
Also, this has really been happening for a while now. Variants of your keywords should be appearing naturally all throughout your content. It’s pretty hard NOT to do that. The rule of thumb is to be sure that you (or your writers) are writing naturally—not for the SERPs, and not around a keyword—but for the reader.
Are There Any Benefits For Close Variant Keywords?
The main benefit researchers are seeing is that your advertisements are more likely to come up for searchers now than before. When you were focusing on exact-match keywords, you actually were missing a huge chunk of searchers simply because, as mentioned earlier, they misspelled a word or did not type the exact keyword you used. With a close variant keyword, you have the higher likelihood of getting more clicks and results.
An example given in the article referenced above by Search Engine Watch shows just how this will positively impact your results. For instance, there could be about 10 million different matches for your chosen keyword. However, with the exact-match keyword, you were only able to reach about 1 million of those search terms, missing out on 9 million results. With a close variant keyword, you stand a higher chance of getting results for all 10 million variations. Now, not all keywords have that many variations, but you get the idea. Your chosen keyword will have a significant amount of possible variations, but with exact-match, you will always miss out.
Basically, with a close variant keyword, you are able to expand who all you reach, potentially expanding your client base to a more diverse one. This is something that you will greatly enjoy as time progresses!
Are There Any Cons With This Change?
The most significant change people are expecting is that you will see more clicks on your site than before. While this is a great thing, you need to know that this could also mean higher costs for your PPC budget. You will need to rethink that PPC budget and take some time to learn just how much more you are going to need to spend. This change is going to be implemented in September, which does not give anyone much time to prepare for it. This is troublesome for a lot of small businesses because you might need more time to figure out your budget and move things around a little bit. You might not be able to make any adjustments until the fiscal year is over, meaning you might not see the vast improvement Google is promising. Once you are able to restructure your budget, you might find that this change brings in more money, making your PPC budget worthwhile; however, it might take some time.
Another con that researchers are noticing is that we are slowly moving away from using keywords in posts, which leaves it up to Google as to whether or not they will show your ads. Hopefully marketers will get some information to help with these changes and implement some useful tools to not just rely on whether or not Google AdWords will show your ad.
What Should You Do To Prepare For The Change?
As with every change made by Google, many people wonder just what they can do to prepare for it. Advertisers and marketers are definitely running around in a tizzy trying to figure out what is happening and how to prepare.
Let’s look at a few ways to prepare for this change:
1. Focus On Content Curation. With this change, you should start considering focusing more on content creation than pay-per click ads, because your content is what will help keep people on your site once they click. Obviously PPC ads are going to be somewhat beneficial for you financially, but you cannot go wrong with a bigger content budget. Your content is going to help you get more natural clicks and can help you bring in long-lasting clients that PPCs might not bring in.
2. Start Gathering A List Of Negative Keywords. One thing many researchers are suggesting for people is to start focusing on negative keywords and implementing them into their marketing strategy. Let’s break this down a little more to help you out.
- What Are Negative Keywords? Negative keywords are words or phrases that will keep your content from ranking in a particular search result. This doesn’t sound very appealing to many because, well, you want to show up in all search results, right? However, you might find that to be wrong. A negative keyword is something that can keep you from ranking on something that has nothing to do with your product. This was useful long before the latest change in Google AdWords, but it is becoming incredibly important now.
A great example of this is if you sell bicycles and someone searches for motorcycles, they might type in “bikes” and they will come across your bicycle shop site. You, obviously, happen to sell bikes, just not the type they are looking for. While you want people to search for you as a bike seller, it might be more beneficial to block out that phrase or something similar to keep motorcyclists from happening across your site. This will tailor it for the particular group you are aiming for, bicycle riders.
- How Do You Come Up With Negative Keywords? The best way to come up with negative keywords is to take some time to sit down and look through your SEO analytics . You will be able to spot a lot of the keywords that have nothing to do with your site that are being used to bring people to your business. However, some negative keywords might be hard to find. This means you will need to get creative and find different words that you do not want to rank your site. It will take time and energy, but with the new AdWords change, it will be very beneficial for your PPC budget.
- How Can You Use Them In AdWords? Google AdWords makes using negative keywords easy and strongly encourages people to use them. They give you a handy help guide telling you how to implement these keywords into your advertisements. Just like you might have learned how to implement exact-match keywords, you will need to learn how to implement negative keywords. You might not feel like spending the time and energy learning this new method, but it is beneficial and you will see better results once you do this.
In Closing
While Google updates can be annoying, many of these updates are things that will be very beneficial for marketers and websites. The great thing about this update is that it will only take a few changes and you will see great PPC results. Take some time to think about the upcoming changes you might need to make and start preparing for them. While it is happening soon, you still will have some time to come up with great new ways to use this update to your advantage.
