Negative keywords and very unusual activity

[dane120]

Hi Guys

The keywords I have in an Adgroup are as follows:

blue widget
"blue widget"
[blue widget]

When someone searches on:

*blue widget with yellow spots*

I was under the impression that using the following negative keywords would stop my advert from showing

*-yellow spots*?

Also I have noticed from my referring urls that when someone has searched for:

*turquoise widgets*

my advert has been displayed, why would this be? I am not bidding on the word *turquoise widgets* nor am I bidding on the word *widgets*

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[trannack]

when you bid on a broad match term, google takes similar words and plurals into the equation. I guess turquois is a king of blue, and widgets is just the plural.

You could perhaps avoid these if you take the broad match options off.

[dane120]

Instead of not bidding on broad match. Would I need to add turquoise as a negative keyword or would I need to add turquoise widgets as a negative phrase? Bearing in mind I want my advert to display for other connotations of widgets.

[RhinoFish]

One of the problems with broad match is that you need to anticipate all the possible things broad/expanded matching will include, so addressing it with just negs, can at times, mean you need 2,000 negative keywords. Your choice and depends and too many things to say which is "right" for you.

"Would I need to add turquoise as a negative keyword or would I need to add turquoise widgets as a negative phrase?"

If you add *-turquoise* as a neg, you'll block any and all searches that have that exact word in it.

If you add *-turquoise widgets* as a neg, turquoise widget (singular) will still show.

See here for more - an excellent neg discussion:
[webmasterworld.com...]

[edited by: RhinoFish at 1:11 pm (utc) on Oct. 18, 2006]

[trannack]

if yu negative out torquise yu would not show for torquise widgets.
Not sure what happens if you negative out a plural - got a feeling there was a similar thread here recently, but haven't got the time to find it. Think it was in the last 2-3 weeks though.

I'm sure someone here will point you in the right direction on this one. Not relevant to myself as I am quite happy with all plurals.

[trannack]

snap