uGuX SEO

Using these negative keywords will increase your conversions (some claim 20-30%) — not your traffic — but rather your traffic-quality.

The why and how of PPC keyword negatives

There are different types of users (that we do not want!): ones that are looking for bargains, non-impulsive buyers; looking to research, study, learn, etc.; and free-seekers.

The list

Alright, I’ve added a huge list of keywords to negate in your PPC campaigns:

about
act
act of
association
associations
bargain
book
books
career
careers
case studies
case study
cheap
class
classes
clearance
close out
close outs
closeout
closeouts
college
colleges
complaint
complaints
compliance
course
courses
definition
diagram
discount
discounted
dumb
education
employment
example
examples
exposed
forum
free
guide
guides
hate
help
hiring
history
illegal
indictment
inexpensive
intern
interns
internship
internships
job
jobs
journal
journals
law
laws
legal
legislation
liquidation
loser
magazine
magazines
map
maps
metrics
news
odd lots
overstock
parts
price
prices
pricing
problem
problems
protest
quote
quotes
recruiter
recruiting
regulation
regulations
remainder
remainders
research
resume
resumes
returns
review
reviews
salaries
salary
sample
samples
scam
school
schools
secret
statistics
stats
stupid
success stories
success story
suck
sucks
support
training
tutorial
tutorials
universities
university
warranty
what are
what is
white paper
white papers

Here are a couple of sites that helped me compile this list:

http://socialmediasystems.com/06/06/ppc-negative-keyword-list-what-about-googles-negative-keyword-tool/

http://www.komarketingassociates.com/blog/200-plus-negative-keywords-to-consider-for-b2b-ppc/

http://www.redflymarketing.com/blog/how-to-build-a-negative-keyword-list/

http://www.ppchero.com/2007/03/30/positives-of-the-negative-using-negative-keywords-to-enhance-your-campaign%E2%80%99s-performance/

PS: If you think of any others, I’ll add ‘em.

Edit: As commented by Marc Kantoori (below), sometimes people looking for freebie offers can be helpful — so you may want to take out the word “free” in certain circumstances.

Google has a traffic estimator (aka Traffic Estimator Sandbox) that allows you to check the amount of clicks each key term/phrase will generate per day, but they require you to put in a lot of information (regarding CPC, target country, etc.).

So, if you bookmark this page, this form could just make things a little bit simpler:

Keyword tips

[keyword] - if you want to measure an exact search term/phrase.

“keyword” - includes phrase with possible search terms added to it.

keyword - broad/general search.

-keyword - negates a term.

PS: I don’t think anyone else has posted this form on any websites, but it’s always possible.

For those of you who do advertise on Google AdWords, may have noticed that the ROI for website advertising is weak.  So, I’ve turned off all my content advertising, and now Google has decided to send me an email — trying to resolve possible concerns I may have:

“I’d like to know where my ads are showing on the content network and how they perform on various sites”

Done. We recently released Placement Performance Reports, which provide site-by-site performance metrics for your contextually-targeted campaigns — tracking clicks, impressions, cost, and conversion data at the URL level. Placement Performance reports can show you the placements where you’re meeting your objectives, and those where you aren’t. Read tips on how to use these reports effectively to boost campaign performance.

If you do decide to advertise on other sites, I recommend using an entirely different campaign so no effect on your CTR will be skewed.

Google’s free AdWords tool: “Keyword Tool External” shows everyone’s SEO dream — which keywords and phrases they’d like to optimize for. There are a few ways to analyze these results — and they’re discussed through this article in comparison to other major keyword tools.

Overture search inventory

Overture hasn’t been updated since January 2007, and has excessive timeouts. Regarding their accuracy, their data is highly lacking — relying on their data can certainly be costly. When a competitor relies on this data it can be most beneficial to you — since you’ll see many webmasters optimizing for keywords that just aren’t searched as much as they’ve been in the past.

Wordtracker

Wordtracker is “better” than Overture but still has many inaccuracies. I had searched for “SEO” and it turned up saying that there were 37 searches per day for “blackhat seo expert” (approx. 46 searches per day on Google — according to SEOBook’s estimates). I’m currently ranked number 1 for that term on Google. I then waited a few days and my referrer tracking has shown no visitors from that key term. So, Google’s Keyword Tool External shows that there is “no data”. Read more »

The Looooooooooonnnnngg ping list is at the last paragraph (if you don’t care to read about the explanations of it, and/or view the short ‘n’ simple list of pinging places).

Pinging is used to get exposure to your blog. A lot of times you can get backlinks to your site through some of these small-time pinging services (nice for SEO). Basically, if you have a feed at your site, you should be able to ping (all WordPress and Blogger users have this). In WordPress, you can edit your ping list by navigating to Options > Writing > Update Services.

Short ‘n’ Simple Ping List

http://rpc.pingomatic.com

Yeah, that isn’t a whole lot. Ping ‘o Matic pings to a lot of services — but not all.

The Long List

http://1470.net/api/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://pingqueue.com/rpc/
https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast
http://rpc.britblog.com/
http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx
http://www.holycowdude.com/rpc/ping/
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://ping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/

PS: My computer removed the duplicates and sorted them alphabetically — hopefully, most of these services work.