Then when looking at the Overture inventory tool today, I saw keywords that were '9 9 9 9 widget', and they were high volume.
I don't think this keyword is getting actual searches - I'm assuming its some programming bug or ascii type character being inputted into search engines, and they are changing the character to '9 9 9 9'.
Any info on this one would be very appreciated.
I don't think this keyword is getting actual searches
I don't have a clue what it is, or why. But I'm seeing the 9 9 9 9 prefix show up in my referer logs for my site.
I was looking at an account last night where many keywords had been changed to '9 9 9 9 widget'. It happened when they inputted a lot of keywords into an adgroup at once (1900). At first, I thought it was just some odd bug, because they were't able to add more keywords to the group.
Then when looking at the Overture inventory tool today, I saw keywords that were '9 9 9 9 widget', and they were high volume.
eWhisper, as I read your post it sounds as if you are looking at an account in which others are able to make changes. And you mention that you are also seeing these keywords in Overture's inventory.
So, here is my theory: Someone who has access to the account in question has copied and pasted a list of keywords, including the mysterious '9 9 9 9' keywords, from Overture to AdWords.
Possible?
I'll consult with the tech team here, and see if they have any insight.
As for myself, I have never heard of this before - so it's a real mystery to me. But, after many thousands of hours spent with AdWords, I am pretty confident that there is nothing in the AdWords system that can change one's keywords.
AWA
Gert
Your explanation is very possible, and the first thing that I thought of. It was the fact that their AdGroup was locked at 1900 keywords that set off triggers that something else might be going on.
I'm not sure if it's something in the AdWords system, or some toolbar which is adding 9 9 9 9 to searches, or some other variable which translates to those characters.
The number has come up a few times, and I've seen it a few times in the logs - and was wondering if anyone had an idea what was going on. There are a few other toolbars that add a code into the referral log or change the seach query, so there are really a lot of possibilities as to why this number is suddenly showing up a lot - it's just the first few times I saw it were all PPC related - so thought I'd start with that arena and branch from there.
It's not really an AdWords issue, but since the thread started here, thought it'd end here as well.
"9 9 9 9 keyword" is an Overture test keyword for their system. It was not suppose to be released into their keyword tools. However, since the only place it really exists is in the Overture inventory tool, there might be some people looking at sites optimized for this term as those who've scraped OV results for dynamic content pages and not actually build unique content.
[edited by: engine at 6:00 pm (utc) on Nov. 25, 2004]
