I Need A Google AdWords 12 Step Program!
Last night, while I was logging into Google AdWords to temporarily pause my one and only campaign (I toggle my one campaign on and off constantly; helps me to feel like I'm in control. A fantasy, of course!) I experienced an epiphany:
I'm an AdWords Junkie, and I need a 12 step program.
Yup. I only use Google AdWords for one of my sites, but this one site provides me with most of my livelihood. AdWords has been delivering some very nice traffic to my flagship site for over 2 years now, and in that time I've become so comfortable and dependant on it that--last night--I realized that I had been shirking my most important duty as a webmaster: to constantly and incessantly create or find fresh, new content for my website.
I jumped over to the website of my #1 competitor and did some reconnaissance. I used the [site:] command to see what they've been up to content-wise. At that website, my worst fears were confirmed: The owner(s) of that website have been adding new content to their site for many months, and they've been rewarded with some truly excellent organic rankings in the search engine results pages (SERP's) of all the major search engines. And it gets worse: the
content that my competitor has been adding isn't even that good, yet the discipline of adding fresh content regularly has paid off! Meanwhile, I've been getting fat and complacent, suckling on the teat that is AdWords, and slowly losing ground in the organic SERP's. 2 years ago I ranked #1 and #2 for my most critical keyword in the Google SERP's. Now I'm struggling to stay within the top 25!
I'm shocked that I let this happen. How did I let this happen!? I'm no rookie to this stuff! Well, maybe I am. How depressing! I must admit: working to develop multiple websites has taken its toll. Well, it's time to get back to the basics, and that's exactly what I'm going to do, one website at a time.
To all of you AdWords users out there: learn from my mistakes! I know that AdWords is an excellent program. It is, no doubt (and I'm not just writing that because Google owns Blogger! My blog is hosted on my own server.) But don't lose focus as I did and forget about the content thing. You know that maxim: content is king! Content is king! And it is. And it always will be.
As for me, now I find myself scrambling to create new, quality content for my flagship website. I'm busting my you-know-what, playing catch-up over here, while my competitor is enjoying the benefits that come from having lots of not-so-great--but adequate--content pages indexed by the major search engines. Writing good content that is both pleasant to read and search engine friendly is kinda' stressful. Having to write page after page of good "hybrid content" in a short period of time may just cause me to have a nervous breakdown. Wish me luck!
Yup. I only use Google AdWords for one of my sites, but this one site provides me with most of my livelihood. AdWords has been delivering some very nice traffic to my flagship site for over 2 years now, and in that time I've become so comfortable and dependant on it that--last night--I realized that I had been shirking my most important duty as a webmaster: to constantly and incessantly create or find fresh, new content for my website.
I jumped over to the website of my #1 competitor and did some reconnaissance. I used the [site:] command to see what they've been up to content-wise. At that website, my worst fears were confirmed: The owner(s) of that website have been adding new content to their site for many months, and they've been rewarded with some truly excellent organic rankings in the search engine results pages (SERP's) of all the major search engines. And it gets worse: the
content that my competitor has been adding isn't even that good, yet the discipline of adding fresh content regularly has paid off! Meanwhile, I've been getting fat and complacent, suckling on the teat that is AdWords, and slowly losing ground in the organic SERP's. 2 years ago I ranked #1 and #2 for my most critical keyword in the Google SERP's. Now I'm struggling to stay within the top 25!I'm shocked that I let this happen. How did I let this happen!? I'm no rookie to this stuff! Well, maybe I am. How depressing! I must admit: working to develop multiple websites has taken its toll. Well, it's time to get back to the basics, and that's exactly what I'm going to do, one website at a time.
To all of you AdWords users out there: learn from my mistakes! I know that AdWords is an excellent program. It is, no doubt (and I'm not just writing that because Google owns Blogger! My blog is hosted on my own server.) But don't lose focus as I did and forget about the content thing. You know that maxim: content is king! Content is king! And it is. And it always will be.
As for me, now I find myself scrambling to create new, quality content for my flagship website. I'm busting my you-know-what, playing catch-up over here, while my competitor is enjoying the benefits that come from having lots of not-so-great--but adequate--content pages indexed by the major search engines. Writing good content that is both pleasant to read and search engine friendly is kinda' stressful. Having to write page after page of good "hybrid content" in a short period of time may just cause me to have a nervous breakdown. Wish me luck!
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posted by Steve Brown | Tuesday, August 30, 2005
3 Comments:
How did you learn all the stuff
needed for AdWords? By yourself?
By Ebook?
Marie
> How did you learn all
> the stuff needed for
> AdWords? By yourself?
> By Ebook?
I think AdWords is a straightforward system. You just write up a couple of sentences that you think will attract visitors, then choose your keywords, your budget and the most you want to pay (per click.) All the other features and options are quite intuitive, IMO. It only gets tricky when Google disapproves your ad or destination URL, at which point you could spend days or even weeks submitting ads until they decide to approve you.
Let me know if you need any help setting up a campaign. I may be able to offer some insight.
Content is very important, as are organic SERPs. While Google Adwords is a very excellent program, you cannot forget about the organic SERPs. A combination of being #1 (or pretty close) for your top keywords on Google and running a successful Adwords simulanelously will really pay off. Content will also give people something to link to, which will increase your PageRank, which will also increase your ranking on Google. So remember, content and links is SEO.
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