Keywords and Search Terms

Everything to do with using your own website to advertise your rental property. Design, usability, hosting, getting listed on the search engines, optimising your site, pay-per-click, etc, etc.
alanrhone
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Keywords and Search Terms

Post by alanrhone »

A useful tip for anyone considering appropriate keywords and Search Terms is to log onto www.content.overture.com/d/?mkt=uk After doing so click on "Learn More" within the "Advertiser Box". You will then see a further box which includes "Keyword Assistant". Click again and this will bring up a "Search Term Suggestion Tool". Enter the Search Term you are considering and you will be advised how many times that Search Term was used in the previous month.
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

This is a good tool, but just to clarify, I believe the number of searches it indicates are for people who used Overture as a search engine, not for the whole of the internet. Or it could be for the engines and directories that Overture supplies ads for – can’t remember exactly, but the numbers are relative, not absolute.

There are local Overture keyword suggestion tools. Useful if you are targeting, say, British guests as opposed to US. Here are the urls for the various languages:

UK English
http://inventory.uk.overture.com/d/sear ... uggestion/

American English:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchi ... uggestion/

French:
http://inventory.fr.overture.com/d/sear ... uggestion/

Google also has a keyword tool, which tells you which similar phrases have been typed into Google searches. You can get that here:

Canada
https://adwords.google.ca/select/main?c ... ordSandbox

UK English
https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/mai ... ordSandbox

American English
https://adwords.google.com/select/main? ... ordSandbox

And there is a UK-based directory called espotting which also has a keyword suggestion tool, which will give you more of an idea of how British people search:

http://www.espotting.com/popups/keywordgenbox.asp
Paolo
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alanrhone
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Post by alanrhone »

Thanks for the additional useful information Paolo. Needless to say, I came across the Overture Keyword Tool when considering pay-per-click. I have found the tool invaluable - particularly when considering which words and terms to incorporate into my Page Titles.
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

Hello Alan,

How did you get on with pay-per-click? I found Google AdWords much easier to use than Overture, and more profitable too.

Did you get good results? Would you recommend it to other owners?

Thanks!
Paolo
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alanrhone
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Post by alanrhone »

Hello Paolo,
My experience was exactly the same as yours. I looked at both Overture and Google but found the latter much easier to comprehend and use. Having said that, I much preferred the "Oveture Keyword Tool" and based my Keywords and Search Terms on their Tool. Initially I was just "experimenting" and ran with Google for a month. It cost me about £30.00 limiting expenditure to £1.00 per day. I also had another run In September for a couple of weeks when I had a rather late (2 week) cancellation from a regular guest of ours who comes over from Canada each year. Overall I spent £45.00 and received 271 clicks from approximately 18,000 impressions. The click-through rate was 1.4%. I was sufficiently impressed to conclude that I would run with Google again from November.
Kind Regards,
Alan.
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

Alan,

There is a nice tutorial from Google about the four types of keyword matching you can do, it's here:
http://www.google.com/adwords/tutorial.html

It's a sort of animated demo with a voice.

If you are as vague about keyword matching as I am, it could be useful for fine-tuning your next AdWords campaign.

(For those of you who have not used AdWords yet, this will not mean a great deal. I will be writing an article on the basics of Google AdWords pay-per-click and posting it in this forum.)
Paolo
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alanrhone
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Post by alanrhone »

Hi Paolo,
I have previously explored this tutorial when I first used Adwords. My recollection is that I favoured the Keyword Tool at Overture because it produced more accurate and relevant keyword "phrases". Google seemed to concentrate more on "single" keywords and some of them had little relevance.
Alan
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altyfc
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Post by altyfc »

Hello Alan

We (The Dedicated Partnership) did some promotion work for you many years ago. I don't know if you recall. Anyway, I hope you are keeping well.

I am going to throw in a couple more sites which I hope users here might find useful:

1) Wordtracker - takes into account not only what people are searching for, but also what people are bidding for.

2) Digitalpoint Keyword Suggestion Tool - this combines Overture and WordTracker data.

Hope you find these useful.

Aaron
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Post by alanrhone »

Hello Aaron,
I do indeed recall the work you did for me - nice to hear from you and thanks for the contribution
regards,
Alan
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altyfc
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Post by altyfc »

No problem.

Going off at a tangent... I've just been taking a peek at your website. I must compliment you on your choice of tiles in the kitchens. If I'm not mistake that's the 'Keswick Mix' you've gone for. We went for the same in our kitchen at home earlier this year. :)

Aaron
alanrhone
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Post by alanrhone »

Aaron,
Thanks for your compliment - clearly we both have excellent taste. More seriously, I am still featured on one of your B&B sites. We no longer provide B&B and are now exclusively self-catering. I must remember to switch to your self-catering site when due for renewal.
Alan
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livinginitaly
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another one for the mix...

Post by livinginitaly »

speaking of keywords and sources of... here's one we find invaluable.

Good Keywords v1.5 (v2 available soon apparently)

It's a free download from http://www.softnik.com/

Accessed directly from a desktop shortcut it's really easy to use and covers Overture, Overture UK, Lycos, Teoma. Also shows link popularity and site popularity (using alexa).

Not my software, i'm making no money from pushing it... just think it's good thats all :)
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