Year: 2005

My Google AdWords used to occationally earn the coveted “up north” position (above, not on the right) on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) but recently have been pushed down to an average of #5. But I don’t think I’ve updated my CPC (Cost Per Click) in three years.

So, how do you get to the top listing? This post by a Google representative explains it very clearly:

Search Engine Watch Forums — Top position? Impossible?

Here are two basic facts worth knowing:

• Rank number = Max CPC x CTR. Thus Max CPC and CTR have equal weight
• Ads go to the top when they have met an additional performance standard, which focuses on the relevance of the ads to our users…This is measured by CTR.

There is additional discussion from people in the forum about this information but no one discussed how to boost CTR (Click Thru Rate). And the only way I can think of doing so is to improve your ad. Once again, I haven’t touched my AdWord ad in years. I think the only way to do this is by adding gimmicky copy. Right now, I have a couple promotions starting that I could list in my ad which would boost CTR. And afterall, isn’t click-thrus why we are using AdWords?

Off-topic. Just wanted to share that my old National Guard unit, the 3/126th Infantry is shipping out of Michigan to Fort Dix to get ready for duty in Iraq.

I was a truck driver and later worked with ammo supply. It’s been almost eight years since I dropped out of the NG, and I’m sure the unit has changed a lot since. Should I feel glad that I quit or like I cheated them? Either way, my spirit is with them and so are my prayers.

I was talking with someone today about the shrinking size of trade publications. This time the subject was Laboratory Equipment, which was 24 pages and 26 advertisers (5 full page).

So it was interesting to find an editorial in the new Circuits Assembly (pdf) acknowledging the shrinking magazine. What Mike Buetow lamented is that as ad-pages shrink, so does editorial content, only further diminishing his magazine’s relevance. But this is a guy with a plan…

First, he makes a rather bold step in saying…”wouldn’t (readers) be best served if we packaged each issue as if they paid for it?”

Then he creates an action plan to cram more content into his magazine by providing abbreviated content that continues online. This actually gives him the freedom to publish longer articles and provide more data. This creates room to address more of his nine key technology areas each month. He echos what I’ve said is the continuing job of trade publications: “Our role is to act as a filter, screening the noise from what’s truly crucial.”