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New Year’s eve is when our hopes for the future grow to their fullest, when we are inspired to work hard and to change the world – or at least our own lives.
The motivation brought by a new beginning is certainly contagious, however, it usually short-lived. Let’s be honest, sometimes it doesn’t even make it through the night.
The New Year’s Resolutions that I am about to share with you are not meant to be mastered in one day. These resolutions are meant to be studied, owned and progressively improve all throughout the year.
Before We Take Down Our Christmas Tree, Here Are The AdWords Resolutions For The New Year
1) I Will Optimize my Website And AdWords Campaigns for Mobile Use
It is important to ensure that visitors accessing your website from a mobile device are able to experience it to its fullest. Google is encouraging business owners from all sides of the spectrum to optimize their sites for mobile devices, seeing as it has become critically important due to the global trend of mobile search.
2) I Will Create a Calendar to Plan and Excute Optimizations More Effectively
There are certain strategies regarding the timing in which we make changes to a campaign and the way we track those changes. For more information, you can read our blog on creating an Optimization Calendar here:
3) I Will Test the Newest Campaign Types on my Own Account
We all have our preferred campaign type and strategy that fits our comfort zone. However, in the long run, it stops you from broadening your skills and mastering a different field. This includes brand new campaign types waiting to be tried out. So, this year get ready to dive into every campaign type and discover which one best suits your goals.
4) I Will Make Sure to Track my Conversions the Right Way
Be it Google Adwords conversion tracking code, Google Analytics or Offline tracking, make sure to use the tools at our disposal so that all conversions are being recorded and analyzed properly.
5) I Will Use Google Analytics More Often
Installation and proper use of this tool is something you can find anywhere, but to truly maximize its use one must create goals, customize dashboards and apply Google Analytics remarketing. Check out our blog to learn how to get the most out of Google Analytics this year:
6) I Will Diversify My Bidding Strategy
We are constantly using a Cost Per Click setting to control our campaign’s bids more tightly. However, consider your goals and test Cost Per Thousand impressions, Per Acquisition or Per Click. There are so many other benefits that we are missing out on, only because we don’t take risks and test the best strategy for us.
7) I Will Make More Bid Adjustments
I have always been a fan of adjusting my mobile devices bids, however that’s not all that is available on bid adjustments. There are multiple locations, audiences or Ad schedule settings that probably only need a lower or higher bid than the rest rather than just being removed. Analyze your campaign data and adjust your bids to reach top performance.
8) I Will Optimize My Ad Copy More Often
We tend to stick to whatever works for us – let it be keywords, strategy or Ad copy – which stops us from testing new text, images or messages. Set the campaign to rotate your Ads to fairly show them all and check out these best practices on split testing Ads in one of our blogs:
9) I Will Make Time To Read More Blog Posts
To develop a blog post there must be a lot of research and reading involved, but as a business owner one can catch up on the Google AdWords industry from just one article every now and then. Start with one article per week until it becomes a daily habit and you will always be up to date with new features and best practices, all from top PPC experts.
10) I Will Try Out New AdWords Features
Each new year comes with new features that improve the way we track and analyze data, our campaign’s performance and reduce workload. Check out our suggested AdWords features for 2016:
Slow And Steady Wins The Race
We know that its hard to keep up the motivation and to include your resolutions into your schedule, however, if you create a plan and little by little make them part of your weekly routine it will become easier to stick to them. Eventually, you will see the results pay off.
Thanks for watching, see you next time!
Video Transcription
Today we’re gonna be talking about the Google Search Algorithm, and specifically how the algorithm is updated often to make sure that users are always provided with the most relevant results possible.
It’s worth noting that these search engine algorithm updates occur more than 600 times a year. That’s more than twice a day. So stay tuned to find out about the most important updates in Google history and how those updates affect your website.
1) The Panda Update
In 2011, the Panda update was rolled out by Google in an attempt to limit poor quality websites making it to the top search results.
Since its full rollout at the end of April 2011, the Google Panda update has been experiencing a progressive and continual string of updates.
If you want to make sure that your website is complying with Google’s policies, check out the Google Webmaster blog and Google Webmaster Guidelines for more guidance on how to build high quality sites.
2) The Penguin Update
The second biggest update in Google’s algorithm history came in April 2012 with the release of the Penguin.
The Penguin update’s biggest aim was to decrease search engine rankings for websites that artificially increase the number of links pointing to a specific page within the site a.k.a. black hat SEO.
So don’t get caught up trying to get as many links as you can no matter where they’re from. Since Penguin, it’s way more important to focus on developing high quality content and earn those links.
3) The Hummingbird Algorithm
The next biggest update came in 2013 with the release of the Hummingbird algorithm, an update that focuses on the user’s intent when performing a search rather than the keywords.
Danny Sullivan the founder of Search Engine Land had the following things to say about the Hummingbird algorithm. “Hummingbird is paying more attention to each word in a query, ensuring that the whole query — the whole sentence or conversation or meaning — is taken into account.”
4) Mobilegeddon
The last update we wanted to discuss with you today is also the most recent.
By now you’ve probably heard people talking about something called Mobilegeddon, which is actually a reference to Google’s first mobile-friendly ranking algorithm update.
The purpose of Google’s latest algorithm update is actually designed to reward mobile friendly websites with greater exposure on the search engine results pages.
The best way to combat any backlash from the algorithm is to make sure your website is mobile ready and responsive.
If you want to learn more about how to implement SEO best practices or follow the Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, stay tuned for more tricks and techniques from the www.whitesharkmedia.com blog.
See you next time!
