One is a new Spanish speaking web site that we launched recently and we wanted to get it to the top of Google for the keyword "metodo silva" and we were able to get to the top of the page within a few weeks.

Last weekend, I started to do a little SEO for my mom's new real estate web site in Mallorca (yes... once you parents know that you are into technology they just love to ask you for help for everything!) and once again I am starting to see rapid results.  This time I was optimizing my mom's new web site for the keyword phrases "Langzeitvermietung Mallorca" and "Langzeitmiete Mallorca"

Once again, I noticed that I am getting results a lot faster than I was expecting.  I am starting to think that SEO in foreign languages can be a lot easier.  Ok, I know that the keyword phrases that I listed as examples are not very competitive but I am still surprised given that these sites are brand new and have no established page rank. 

What have your results been with SEO for other languages?

By the way, the two web sites I was referring to are:

* www.MetodoSilvaDeVida.com and
* www.FincasIMas.com

1) Why did I get slapped by Google?

2) How do I recover from a Google Slap?

The answers two both questions are actually quite simple:

Why did I get slapped by Google?

Here are the top 4 reasons why people get slapped by Google

Google Slap 1: The content on your page was not related to the keyword that you were bidding on.  This is a huge no no which will hurt your Quality Score and you will most likely get slapped by Google.

Solution: Make sure that the content on your landing page matches the keywords you are bidding on.

Google Slap 2: The landing page is a squeeze page and does not link to other web pages.

Solution: In the footer, have at least a couple of links to other sites (on the same domain or other domains).  Google frowns upon pure squeeze pages and will slap you if that is what you do.

Google Slap 3: The landing page is full of beautiful graphics but not enough text.

Solution: The Google bot cannot read text that is part of an image file so make sure that all of your copy is in text form.

Google Slap 4: The Ad Groups are not targeted.  In other words, you have Ad Groups with many different keywords.

Solution: Break up your Ad Groups into highly targeted Ad Groups

You might say... great... thanks for the tips but what do I do now that I have already gotten slapped by Google?

Remember, the moment you launch a new campaign and a new Ad Group Google will actually have someone manually review your page so if it does not follow all of the above guidelines you are most likely going to get slapped again!

How to recover from a Google Slap?

First, implement all of the suggestions above and then follow these steps.

First try: Delete the campaign and copy and paste all of the Ad Groups into a brand new campaign.  It is MUCH easier to start over than to revive a campaign that got slapped.

Second try: If you get slapped again, make sure to weed out all of the keywords that got slapped and then delete the campaign and launch it again.

Third try: Get a new AdWords account.  Sometimes your account just might have gotten slapped so many times that it is easier to start fresh with a brand new account.

Fourth try: When all else fails, buy a new domain and grab a new AdWords account. 

NOTE: I have only had to implement the above 3 steps.  So far, I have never had to buy a new domain to have success with Google AdWords. 

Want to learn more about AdWords?

Check out:

Secret AdWords Strategies Revealed

Learn How to Steal Your Competitors Winning Ads

We did and we were shocked to find out what a huge impact such a tiny change could make to the conversion rate of our site.

Well, since we believe in continuously testing just about everything, we went to one of our web sites (www.SilvaUltraMindSystem.com) and we tested two versions of our order button.

Version A:

Version B:

Which one do you think performed better for us?

The winner is:

Even more surprising, the conversion rate was a whopping 39% greater when we used "Try it Now Risk Free" in our order button vs. "Order Now"

We also tested another version:

Again, we found out that the winning version was:

This time, the "Try It Now Risk Free" button performed about 10% better.

At the end of the day, this is a great example of the power of testing.  We usually use the Google Web Site Optimizer to rapidly setup our A/B and multi-variate tests.

If you take only one thing away from this blog post, then it should be:
1) Always keep learning
2) Always keep trying new things

You might be surprised at what you find out.  In this case, if our Order Now button would say "Order Now" instead of "Try it Now Risk Free" it would cost us over $20,000 in lost sales per month and that is only for one site alone!

Why?
* For SEO Juice
* For making money

Well, my first analysis indicates that this might be indeed happen.  Here 5 Knols that were featured on Knol's home page and they are already ranking on the first page of Google.

Tooth Pain - Google Rank #3
Vomiting in infants and children - Google Rank #3

How to Backpack - Google Rank #4
Toilet Clogs - Google Rank #4
First Ironman Triathlon - Google Rank #7

When are you going to write your first Knol?  I am guessing that the Squidoo affiliate army is going to jump on this in a second and I will be writing my first Knol very shortly and let you know how it goes! 

While the survey just launched, I have long been predicting that Small Businesses have no future in AdWords.  The future looks does not look very bright for small businesses as I outlined in my free report The Coming AdWords War.

Share your thoughts on the SE Round Table blog and find out if small businesses are being priced out of AdWords.  Click here to vote and view the results

Headsmacking Tip #3: Run Your Blog Post Titles Through Keyword Research Before You Hit Publish

I have to agree with Rand that this is very important and I was just doing exactly what Rand was writing about.  However, I would also say that one has to be very careful doing so.

The upside, you get your blog post on the first page of Google.  I just did that with four posts in a row!

* AdWords Book #8
* AdWords Help #7
* AdWords Conversion #8
* AdWords Miracle #4

For each of the above results are on the first page of Google since they are highly optimized blog posts.  So, that is great.  However, there is a downside.  The last 4 blog post titles have probably been the most boring titles in a long time.   They are not exciting and won't grab the readers attention. 

Generally, what I like to do is to write a few blog post focused on our readers and our community and only once in a while write hard core SEO posts.  In this case I have been writing more SEO posts to get into top position for AdWords related words since our launch of www.AdWordsSystemExposed9.com and www.TheComingAdWordsWar.com.

However, you have to be careful and can't go overboard so I will probably rest for a while and focus on more quality blog posts.  However, in the future you know... if the title is not sexy and attention grabbing... then I am probably writing for SEO. 

Rule #2: Know What Conversions To Track in AdWords

I am shocked that even after so many years, time and time again I see lots of new AdWords customers that do not use AdWords Conversion Tracking.

Why do so many new AdWords users not do what it takes to succeed?

I am not sure but let me try to help by further emphasizing the importance of using the AdWords Conversion Tracking.

Every AdWords advertiser will have a sales funnel that looks something like this:

Your AdWords Account gets 100,000 impressions and with a click-through-rate of 5% you end up with 5,000 visitors to your site.

You manage to have a sign-up rate of 20% and capture 1,000 leads of which 50 end up buying your product.

However, just knowing these figures at the aggregate level is NOT enough!

To succeed with AdWords you MUST know your sign-up rate and conversion rate at the campaign, ad group, and keyword level. Without this information you will NOT stand any chance of thriving in AdWords.

A lot of people always ask me... what sign-up rate and conversion rates can I expect. I will give you some rules of thumb that we have learned over the past few years.

Sign-up Conversion Tracking Rates in AdWords
Example: For information / software products where your initial goal is to just build a list via free reports, free trials, etc.

* A signup rate of 30%+ is great
* A signup rate of 20%+ is good
* A signup rate of 10%+ is ok
* A signup rate of <10% is bad

The actual results will vary greatly by keyword, by market, and by your landing page. However, if your goal is to first build a list (capture a lead) then the above is a good rule of thumb. Unless your signup rate is above 10%, it will be very hard to make any money via AdWords.

Once you build a list, here are some benchmarks on conversion rates for your list that you can expect.

* A sales rate (sales / sign-ups) of 20+% is fantastic
* A sales rate (sales / sign-ups) of 10+% is very good
* A sales rate (sales / sign-ups) of 5%+ is good
* A sales rate (sales / sign-ups) of 3%+ is ok
* A sales rate of (sales / sign-ups) of <3% is bad

Sales Conversion Tracking Rates in AdWords
Example: For information and / or software products where you goal is to instantly go for a sale without building a list.

* A conversion rate of 4%+ is fantastic
* A conversion rate of 3%+ is great
* A conversion rate of 2%+ is very good
* A conversion rate of 1%+ is good
* A conversion rate of 0.5%+ is ok
* A conversion rate of <0.5% is bad

Please not that our examples are based on selling personal development and Internet marketing software and information products. The individual results will vary sharply but these are just some general metrics you might find useful.

A few more important points: What should you track in AdWords Conversion Tracking? Sign-ups or Sales?

The answer is obviously both but in Google's interface they will only show you one conversion metric. To get to the other conversion metrics you will need to dig deeper and use the Google reports. Personally, I always use "sign-up" tracking as my most wanted response on all of our PPC campaigns.

Why? Because I can innovate much faster. Lets revisit the sales funnel.

As you can see, by the time I get to 50 sales, I will have already gotten 1,000 sign-ups!

Since I can only optimize my ads and my keyword bids after I have collected enough data for the results to be statistically significant, I can optimize 20 times faster (1,000 sign-ups vs. 50 sales) by focusing first on sign-ups.

This gives us a competitive advantage because we can split test our ads and adjust our keyword bids much faster than someone that only tracks sales.

So, if you have not started using the AdWords Conversion Tracking, you can get started in just 5 minutes.

To continue learning about AdWords check out:
www.TheComingAdWordsWar.com
www.AdWordsSystemExposed9.com

Why is Everyone Searching For AdWords Miracle?

I was just using the AdWords Keyword Suggestion tool to find out the most popular search queries for the month for June 2008 and I was surprised to see that apparently over 90,000 people entered the keyword phrase "AdWords miracle." 

The top 4 search queries for "AdWords" are:
* AdWords - 1,220,000
* AdWords Tips - 135,000
* AdWords Miracle - 90,500
* AdSense AdWords - 60,500
* AdWords Keyword - 60,500

That made me suspicious and so I entered the keyword phrase "AdWords Miracle" into Google and sure enough, there at the very top I found a link to to www.AdWordsMiracle.com. 

As it turns out, this looks like another one of those "Get Rich Quick" type of products that ClickBank is famous for.  However, what I found shocking is that more people are searching for "AdWords Miracle" than for more common keyword phrases such as "AdWords Keyword." That in itself is a miracle.

If any of you have checked out The AdWords Miracle, then please let me know your thoughts on the product.  I just wonder how they got so much momentum... perhaps Frank Kern is behind it with another massive product launch that I must have missed. 

Here is the key thing that I learned from this:

The Keyword Tool from Google AdWords rocks! The tool got a lot better now that it includes the actual search query volume.  It is a great way to quickly identify hot new keyword phrases and target them either via SEO or PPC. 

If you are into AdWords, you can also check out:

* www.TheComingAdWordsWar.com  - a Free AdWords Report
* www.AdWordsSystemExposed - Free AdWords FAQ

About two months ago I promised to answer the most Frequently Asked AdWords Questions and I received hundreds of questions from our community of over 22,000 users!

How would you like to know the answers to the most frequently asked AdWords questions from all of these users for FREE?

Along with the New AdWords Book that I just published I also recorded the most frequently asked AdWords questions.

How do you get them? Very simple... just go to the new page that I setup on AdWords and sign-up. You do not have to buy anything to get access to the Most Frequently Asked AdWords questions.

Download the most frequently asked AdWords questions

Here is a tiny sample of the questions include:

• What actually is a Good CTR in Adwords? How do you know you are doing well?
• What is a Healthy Quality Score?
• How many Keywords should go into any given AdGroup? What is the ideal number?
• How much should I expect per Click or per Conversion in Adwords?
• How to Use Landing Pages for Shops and Professional Sites?
• How do I make Money in Adwords within 24Hs?
• What does a Landing Page look like that Google would love? What impact does your Landing Page have in your Quality Score?
• Does Direct Linking still work with Google Adwords?
• And nearly two dozen more questions answered!

Download the most frequently asked AdWords questions

I will of course continue to publish lots of tips and tricks on AdWords on this blog but because I created so much new material I wanted to give you the chance to get access to it all at once.

Mike

PS: If you are an AdWords user, be sure to check out the FAQ so that you too can get the answers to the most frequently asked AdWords questions for FREE

“It Changed the Entire Way I’ve Been Looking at Adwords!”

“I have been SOOO impressed with the information. It changed the entire way I’ve been looking Adwords. The value has been enormous to me so far and I’ve only just begun. I believe that the mindset change is what I’ve found the most amazing – the idea of continually optimizing and split testing – the importance of reports. Overall – I really have been pleased. I also read the Coming Adwords War and again – SOOO impressed. BTW, I also bought Wordbutler and it is a WONDERFUL tool for building the keyword list.”

~ Melissa Kelly

AdWords System Exposed 9

Hi there,

As most of you know, I spend A LOT of time with Google AdWords and over the years, I have consulted and helped thousands of clients with Google AdWords.

I wrote my first AdWords Book many years ago and have been updating it constantly over the past few years. However, with more and more people coming online the need to help people with AdWords has never been greater and to my horror... the amount of misinformation has also never been greater.

I have to admit that I was shocked when just a few weeks ago I listened to advice from Frank Kern give users really bad advice related to AdWords. I admire Frank Kern and have a lot of respect for everything he has accomplished but when I listened to his advice, I knew it was time for me to publish a new AdWords Book.

This time, I have done more than just publish an eBook on AdWords. The ideas was actually inspired by one of you!

I received an email with the following feedback:

"I don't want another AdWords Book. I am tired of how-to guides that are full of promises but don't ever really show anything to anyone. "

So... I decided to do something radical and very different from the traditional AdWords book authors. What did I do?

In addition to writing probably the single most complete AdWords Book out there... I also created an "over the shoulders view" - a huge video collection where I let people into our actual AdWords account! So... instead of just telling you how it is... I am actually showing you what I do.

So, I hope that you will enjoy this new AdWords Book and the "Over The Shoulders View" and I look forward to your feedback.

You can go and

download the New AdWords Book Now

Mike

PS: To those that don't want to pay for an AdWords Book, you can first download a free AdWords eBook that I published here so that you get a good feeling for who I am and how much value I can deliver. www.TheComingAdWordsWar.com

“A Roadmap to Find My Niche”

“I thought your report was pure gold, probably the best single document I’ve found from all the newsletter signups I’ve done lately, and I’ve had a lot.

Your material, however, is specific enough to provide a pretty good roadmap as to how to start. Your report will be my roadmap when I find my niche.”

~ T. Allix

“I Dread to Think How Much Time and Money I Could Have Lost”

“I thought it was superb! Delivery was succinct, in easy to understand step-by-step lessons which clearly explained the logic behind each battle plan. I dread to think how much time and money I could have lost if I had started using Adwords without this knowledge. It’s a case of you don’t know what you don’t know until you know!”

~ Kathryn, UK

“Sheer Informational Gold!”

“The Coming AdWords War article is sheer informational gold. Not only is the info unrivalled, but the visual format of short paragraphs together with picture layout, increases white space which tends to move the reader along quicker without getting tired. Also, the writing style was personable, memorable and concise with a solid build to crescendo consistently laced with good suspense! As I read the 51 pages and absorbed the knowledge/reality, I felt a barrage of embarrassment and gullibility over my utter lack of knowledge and subsequent guilt over not taking sufficient time to deal with AdWords properly.”

~ Cal

PPS: You can download my new AdWords book - click here