Anyone else notice this?
When I inserted some keywords, without wanting synonyms, and knowing it would have results, it gave me a lot of related phrases...
I also noticed that Analytics has been acting funky too...haven't been able to change the data range in my reports. ARGG#&#&!
Seriously, do people at Google actually use their own products?
[edited by: Chico_Loco at 4:12 pm (utc) on Mar. 18, 2009]
On top of that the numbers now seem to be way off too--like thousands of times off. e.g. avg search volume 22k, feb search volume 142. I've seen this on hundreds of KWs. Wordpot seems to support that the lower number is more accurate so maybe the avg have been way over estimated all along. That's been my experience anyway. I kept wondering why I wasn't getting all the "average" traffic.
I can't see what it's hoped this will do. Savvy people will keep digging for their targeted terms.
Is it intended to squeeze more money out of people who don't know any different? If so it's a really bad idea. The terms that keep being suggested are so out of the price range of anyone but publicly traded companies that I can't see people adding them to their campaigns. I just see them trying elsewhere - Facebook for example.
Annoys those that know the tool and will put off those that don't. Virtually every client I've ever suggested AdWords to always says "Oh it's too expensive" because Google makes it far too easy to spend too much money on non-targeted terms and get a crap CTR and crap conversion rate. So they just give up. I see this adding to that.
Bad move all round.
That said, though, based on what I am seeing in this thread, my initial reaction is that it is a glitch rather than an intentional change.
I'll look into this and post again when I know more.
AWA.
Thanks AWA - forum doesn't allow specifics but here's an example which I hope will be accepted...
'specific outdoor group activity' is the term being researched - I'm actually being suggested 'cheap flights' as a term I should be considering!
A bit of digging tells me that what is being reported here are technical issues which known to the engineering folks, and not intentional changes. Needless to say, Engineering is at work to resolve things as quickly as possible.
Those of you who have seen me post over the years will know how reluctant I always am to even estimate a time-to-resolution for a particular issue - because, as I have said before, I pretty much hate to be wrong in front of the whole world. ;)
This is one of those times - and I will exercise my better judgment and not even guess.
I will, however, happily update this thread a couple of hours after I have first heard it is resolved.
In the meantime, please accept my apology for the inconvenience - and my thanks to you all for your patience.
As an aside, I may have to go dig out one of my old posts about mining the the first hundred or so 'organic' search results for great 'related' keywords - which I still think is a very effective thing to do. And a great way to learn stuff you never knew before, too, heheh.
AWA
Does that include the Keyword Tool reporting issue referenced in brizad's post as well?
On top of that the numbers now seem to be way off too--like thousands of times off.
Other threads about this:
Jan / Feb Fallen Off A Cliff [webmasterworld.com]
Google Adwords Keyword Tool Seems Borked [webmasterworld.com]
I may have to go dig out one of my old posts about mining the the first hundred or so 'organic' search results for great 'related' keywords
If you have this post (or if anyone has it) I'd be interested in a read.
Thanks AWA, it seems tech is already on top of the issue as it seems to be working properly at this time. Hopefully, we'll get your confirmation soon.
Tool was working earlier today, has just 'gone bad' again.
Sorry to have been remiss in not responding here earlier. I have been unexepectedly busy elsewhere this week and am running days behind on many things that are very important to me - including posting here. My apology, and I hope to have my head somewhere at least near 'above water' at some point soon. ;)
Now, on to the actual questions at hand: based on multiple conversations, and to set the most reasonable expectatons I can, I would not anticipate everything being fully resolved until sometime mid next week. This is one of those estimates that I hate making, by the way. ;)
Does that include the Keyword Tool reporting issue referenced in brizad's post as well?
Honestly, I have not had a chance yet to read those threads yet, let alone research and reply. Again, my apology.
If you have this post (or if anyone has it) I'd be interested in a read.
Thanks for the interest! Yet another one of those things that I have not even had a chance to follow up on.
The basic idea, though, is to (perhaps set your default preference for search results to 100* then) search on what you consider to be your most important keywords. With each search, take some time and read the snippets in the search results to get an idea of the OTHER things that your keywords may mean to folks out there. These may become negative keywords. You are also quite likely to get some great insights into other ways that folks think about or describe exactly what you have to offer. These might be keywords to add, in very targeted groups, of course.
Yes, this can take some time, but I find it to be very entertaining, in addition to being useful.
Hope that makes sense.
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* BTW,you can set your search prefernces here:
[google.com...]
AWA
