Looking for more ways to increase traffic to your web site?
We’re ready to help you make it happen! Throughout the following pages, you’ll find 25 tips to help you attract more prospective customers to your site. Try a few or implement them all, and see how the traffic to your web site increases.
IMPROVE YOUR ADS.
Writing more effective titles and descriptions for your ads can help you achieve higher click-through rates and increase the amount of business on your web site.
1. Follow our editorial guidelines.
By following our editorial guidelines, you will see a better return on your investment and our users will also see better results. Users will find exactly what they’re seeking quickly and easily. And you’ll receive a large quantity of traffic to your site that is targeted and actively looking for a particular product, service or piece of information.
We uphold these high standards so that we can deliver the best possible leads to you—the ones that are most likely to convert and provide a return on your advertising investment.
To learn more about our editorial guidelines, please visit the
2. Write titles and descriptions that are clear, concise and factual.
Users are more likely to click on an ad with a factual title and description than a “salesy” ad.
Effective Ad Example:
Find LCD Televisions
Discover a large selection of LCD televisions.
Straightforward and factual title and description.
3. Avoid gimmicky language, uncommon abbreviations and unnecessary symbols.
These devices often hurt an ad’s credibility.
Ineffective Ad Example:
SAVE $$$ on GR8 Computers
The best computer store on the planet. It’s EZ to order.
Unnecessary use of symbols and abbreviations.
4. Use correct spelling, punctuation and grammar.
The more appropriate and professional your ads are, the more likely searchers are to click through to your site. Using title case (capitalizing the first letter) for your titles adds prominence to your title, and using sentence case makes your description easier to read.
Effective Ad Example:
Find LCD Televisions
Discover a large selection of LCD televisions.
Correct use of title case for the title and sentence case for the description.
Ineffective Ad Example:
Find LCD Televisions
Discover a Large Selection of LCD Televisions.
Incorrect use of title case in the description.
5. Include your keywords in your ads.
Research indicates that the perceived quality is higher in ads where the keyword is included within the title and description. And customers give those ads a higher “likelihood to click” rating. You can use the insert keyword feature to dynamically insert your keywords into your title and/or description when you create or modify ads.
Effective Ad Example Using the Keyword “DVD Players”:
DVD Players from Electronics Planet
Brand name home and portable DVD players and accessories.
Factual, impartial tone, and keyword in title and description.
To learn more about the insert keyword feature, please visit our
http://help.yahoo.com/ss.
6. Promote your competitive advantage.
Some of the best-performing ads use promotional language that is competitive relative to other ads with the same keyword.
Effective Ad Example Using the Keyword “Laptop Computers”:
Electronics Planet–Quality Choice Winner
Winner of the quality choice award for laptops, five years running.
Emphasizes performance, specifically the company’s ongoing success compared to its competitors.
7. Use a call-to-action in your ad.
Straightforward language can help drive your customers to act, and lets your audience know what action to take.
Effective Example Listing for the Keyword “Laptops”:
Savings on Laptops at Electronics Planet
Save now on a wide range of laptops during our summer sale. Ends July 31.
Incorporates call-to-action in the description; also includes keyword in the title and description.
EXPAND YOUR KEYWORDS.
Although millions of unique keywords appear on the Yahoo! network, only a small percentage of those keywords have advertisers bidding on them. What does this mean for you? There is a large opportunity to use the untapped keywords to reach new customers—so start expanding your terms!
8. Examine your products and services.
By analyzing your web site, you should be able to identify a variety of appropriate keywords.
Make a list of the products and services that comprise the top 25% of your business. These make excellent keywords.
Example:
If you have an electronics web site where 25% of your business comes from televisions, you may want to choose keywords such as: television, TV, plasma television, LCD television, 20-inch television, etc.
9. Use our Choose Keywords Tool.
The Choose Keywords Tool gives you keyword suggestions that are applicable to your business and shows you a keyword’s estimated monthly search volume. You can enter keywords, phrases and a specific URL to get keyword suggestions. You can also continue to refine the keyword suggestions to increase their relevancy to your business.
Remember that relevance is crucial. Just because a keyword has been searched frequently does not necessarily mean it is appropriate for your business.
The Choose Keywords Tool can be accessed by clicking the “Add Keywords” link
on the Ad Group Details page.
10. Use your company name as a keyword.
This is a great way to generate brand awareness. You should think of the different variations a customer may use to search for your company to ensure that your ads appear when prospective customers search.
Example:
If your web site name is Electronics-Planet.com, consider bidding on the keywords “Electronics-Planet,” “Electronics-Planet.com” and “www.Electronics-Planet.com.”
11. Be specific and use niche terms.
Modifying a general keyword such as “television” with a more specific term like “Brand X” can lead to more relevant matches and potentially improve the number of click throughs. Since niche terms are so specific, they may be understood only by people who are very familiar with your product.
GENERAL TERM SPECIFIC TERMS
Television Brand X television
plasma television
32-inch plasma television
12. Use different combinations of keywords.
According to a study conducted by OneStat.com in July 2006, searches containing more than one word make up 88% of all searches.
Therefore, to appeal to a broader search audience, we recommend that you choose at least 20 keywords that use two or three words.
Example:
Combining Keywords for an Electronics Company
BRANDS + PRODUCT TYPES = EXAMPLE KEYWORDS
Brand A TV Brand A TV
Brand B television Brand B TV
Brand C 13” television Brand C TV
Brand A television
Brand B television
Brand C television
Brand A 13” television
Brand B 13” television
Brand C 13” television
13. Look at your competitors’ web sites.
Review the product offerings on competitors’ sites to see what concepts might be applicable to your campaign.
Please keep in mind that keywords you adopt must be relevant to your campaign or they will not pass editorial approval.
14. Use geo-targeting and geo-modified keywords.
Use the geo-targeting feature of Sponsored Search to target your ads to a specific region.* Or, enhance the specificity of your keywords by incorporating geographic locations. Identifying variations like this can help you appeal to searchers interested in products and services in your local area.
Example:
If you sell flowers in
*Please note that geo-targeting accuracy is not guaranteed and may vary depending on the level of targeting selected, as well as other factors.
15. Incorporate retail modifiers.
Searchers often include keywords related to the shopping process in their searches. Adding modifiers such as “compare,” “low price” or “shop” to your keywords can make them more attractive to searchers.
16. Examine seasonality in your product offerings.
If your products and services are related to specific seasons or holidays, incorporate those into your keywords (e.g., “Father’s Day gifts,” “Mother’s Day flowers,” etc.).
You may also want to refer to our seasonal calendar to determine when to launch your holiday campaigns.
17. Consider the buying cycle.
• Early in the buying cycle, a small number of fairly general keywords are relevant to the search (e.g., “32-inch television”).
• In later phases, the number of keywords relevant to specific purchase options rises, enabling more keywords to be selected (e.g., “32-inch Brand X television”).
• Customers often state intention in searches, prefacing product and service keywords with “buy,” “purchase,” “research,” etc. (e.g., “buy KD-34XBR970 Brand X television”).
Therefore, we recommend that you:
• List 10 – 20 terms that customers would use early in the buying cycle.
• List the specific model numbers of your products (in addition to product names) that searchers might look for in later stages.
18. Review your web logs to learn what prospective customers search for.
A web log is a file that lists actions that have occurred on your web site. With log file analysis tools, it’s possible to get a good idea of where your visitors are coming from and what keywords they were searching on that led them to your site.
While we suggest that our advertisers seek out more keywords to increase traffic and sales, we also stress that you only choose keywords that are relevant to your site. Prospective customers will be much more likely to spend time—and money—at your site if they immediately find what they’re looking for. Your site will be viewed as more credible, and your budget could benefit, with clicks that are more likely to convert to sales.
LEVERAGE OUR FEATURES.
Expanding the parameters of Sponsored Search can expose your business to a larger audience and lead to more clicks.
19. Select the Advanced match type.
The Advanced match type extends the reach of your existing ads by including them in relevant searches that use your keyword in a phrase, separated by other words or in a different order. This allows you to appeal to a broader audience and potentially receive more clicks. Please note: Advanced match is the default setting throughout the levels of your account.
To learn more about the Advanced match type, please visit our
20. Extend your reach with Content Match.
Content Match complements your Sponsored Search campaign by displaying your ads alongside relevant articles, product reviews and more on web sites like Yahoo! and more.
To activate Content Match for your ad group, click on the Ad Group Settings button located on the Ad Group Details page. In the Tactic Settings panel, select “edit.” Then click the Content Match status to “On.” Make sure Content Match status is “on” at the campaign level as well.
To learn more about Content Match, please visit our
21. Use ad testing to see which ads get the best results.
Ad testing enables you to test multiple versions of ad copy to determine which message works best. For each ad group, you can create up to 20 unique ads that can be rotated for the keywords within that ad group. The system will automatically display your better-performing ads more often in search results.
22. Use the quality index to help gauge the effectiveness of your ads.
The quality index is a relative measure of your ad’s performance. It reflects the ad’s ability to meet the needs of searchers by looking at click-through rate, as well as other relevance factors.
The quality index shows you how well your ad is performing for all keywords in an ad group for which it is displayed.* By determining which ads are attracting prospective customers, and which ads need attention, you can focus on making all of your marketing messages more effective.
Ads with good quality index scores can be rewarded with a better rank.
Good Quality Index Score =
Poor Quality Index Score =
Example of an ad with a good quality index score:
TVs from Electronics Planet
Plasma, flat screen, HDTV and more. Free shipping on select models. www.electronics-planet.com
Example of an ad with a poor quality index score :
Super Hot Savings
Hot deals on the best of the best! Click here for savings!
www.electronics-planet.com
*Based on normalized click-through rate.
GO BEYOND SPONSORED SEARCH.
Featuring your business’ ads in Local Listings and natural (non-sponsored) search
results enables you to connect with more customers searching for what you sell.
23. Local Listings: Drive traffic from the Web to your door.
Increase foot traffic or telephone inquiries by connecting with prospective customers who research online but prefer to purchase offline with a local provider.
Sign up for Local Listings to target prospective customers who search for businesses like yours in your area.
For more information, please review the Local Listings page at http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/local.
24. Directory Submit: Get listed in the Yahoo! Directory.
Yahoo!, the world’s most visited Internet destination, attracts over 1.3 billion searches each month.* The Yahoo! Directory lets you list web sites and promote your business to potential customers.
Yahoo! Directory Submit is part of a suite of services created to help businesses like yours get more out of Yahoo!. It provides an expedited review of web sites you propose for the Yahoo! Directory.
For more information, please review the Directory Submit page at http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/dirsb.
*comScore Media Metrix 2.0, U.S. Internet Audience, November 2006 (measuring unique users, time spent online, reach of
25. Search Submit: Complement your Sponsored Search campaign.
Our Search Submit products let you submit a few pages or your entire site to the Yahoo! Search database that powers natural or algorithmic (non-sponsored) search results. Placement is based on relevance to keywords, not bids. This complements your presence in Sponsored Search and can increase your coverage in search results.
For more information, please review the Search Submit page at http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/srchsb.
If you would like more information and tips for increasing your site traffic, visit the Improving Your Results section of the
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