Four tricks to discovering negative keywords

As important as it is to find the most relevant keywords to drive traffic to small business websites, it's often just as crucial to identify ones driving irrelevant views. In paid search marketing campaigns, when companies are shelling out big bucks for each click, determining which keywords are not providing any return on investment is vital to running a cost-efficient initiative.

Carefully picking keywords only gets businesses so far, entrepreneurs should also be researching negative keywords as well. Negative keywords are the yang to standard keywords' yin – both are needed for truly successful marketing campaigns.

1. Search query reports

As SEO Optimise notes, the best way to start finding negative keywords is by analyzing existing search reports. This will show entrepreneurs which terms their ads are being displayed for. The key is to look for patterns that lead to wasted clicks and adding those terms to negative keyword lists.

"See if there are repeated words or themes that are irrelevant. For example, say you sell red shoes, and as such have 'buy red shoes' as a keyword on broad match," the news source explains. "If phrases like 'buy blue shoes' … appear in your search query report then adding 'blue' on broad-match negative … will exclude the searches you've noticed, but also exclude long tail searches you haven't seen."

Entrepreneurs should also put themselves in the shoes of the searcher. Why did they search one thing and then click on the ad, even though it appeared to be irrelevant? Perhaps copy needs to be changed as well.

2. Consult others

There are dozens of sample keyword lists out there and just as many negative keyword lists. By browsing the web or perhaps asking other businesses in the same sector, small companies may be able to generate negative keyword lists even without their own search reports. When using someone else's list, it's crucial to scan it first and ensure it doesn't contain keywords that may actually be useful to the business.

3. Misspellings and typos

Consumers could be in a rush, search from a cellphone or just be unsure of the proper spelling of a product and may accidentally stumble across a business' ad. For example, even though a company has "iPod" on their negative keyword list, the ad may still be displayed to someone searching "iPad."

"People don't have to type carefully into search engines or use precise spellings – they may even be searching to find the right spelling. So you should expect there to be searches with misspellings and typos," SEO Optimise suggests. "So when you've found an important negative keyword you may want to think of its misspellings too. Typo generators can help."

4. Social media

Social media marketing has a variety of uses and can even be leveraged to inform search advertising efforts. By searching sites such as Twitter for a brand or product name, businesses may be able identify other ways their branded terms are being used by consumers.

Determining other uses of prospective brand and product names is an effective way of building negative keyword lists. This prevents irrelevant views from consumers who are looking for completely different products.

Paid search marketing can be an effective strategy for getting products and services in front of consumers without a lot of work in advance. More than 19 billion searches are conducted every month by Americans, which means paid search campaigns can reach a tremendous audience.

Do you use paid search as a part of your campaigns? Do you use negative keywords as well? 

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