Unwanted Visitors

[polyhedron]

I started using adwords a couple of weeks ago and it isn't paying off at all for me. As a matter of fact, it's costing me money for 'competitors' to browse my site.

I'm a web developer and I created a site to show off my talents. I then set my area to a 20 mile radius around my office. Well so far in the last couple of weeks, I have had 8 clicks. Four of which were other web designers just browsing my site (I determined this by looking at their path and search queries), and one person wanted to know if I was hiring!

Anyway is there a way to help avoid this? I know that there is no perfect answer, but I'm getting over 50% of unwanted traffic so far that I'm paying for!

Here's a list of my keywords:
baton rouge web design
louisiana web design
professional web design
web design
web design companies
web design company
web page design
web site design
"web design firms"
"web designers"
"website design"
"website designers"

Any suggestions on focusing on my target market?

[Mel66]

I assume you are trying to get people to hire you as their web designer. That said, here are some suggestions:

* Experiment with your match options. Most of your terms are broad match. Try changing them to phrase or exact match to see if that helps weed out the unwanted visitors.
* Add negative keywords. If you don't want people who are looking for jobs, try adding: -jobs, -hiring, etc. Use Google's Keyword Suggestion Tool and you will get a good idea of both terms to add, and terms to delete.
* Some of your terms are pretty generic and, I would guess, expensive. I think "web design" means a lot of different things. Consider eliminating a couple of the more generic terms.
* Make sure your ad copy makes it very clear what you are offering and what you would like site visitors to do (sign up for your services, call for a quote, fill out a form, whatever). This won't stop competitors from clicking and shopping you, but you might weed out those looking for jobs. I know Google's character limits make it hard to write good ad copy but it certainly can be done. Also make sure your landing page fits with your ads and is compelling and clear. Landing pages won't stop the unwanted clicks, but they can raise your conversion and help offset them.
* Get Andrew Goodman's "21 Ways To Maximize Results with Google AdWords." It is well worth the money. I am not an affiliate of his, just a satisfied customer. :)
* Give it more time. 8 clicks is a very small sample size. We usually like to get at least 100 clicks before deciding if something is working or not. Of course, your budget may limit this so YMMV.

These are the ones that come to mind right away. I think anyone that does PPC will get some percentage of unwanted clicks. Keep tweaking your keywords and ad copy and see if it helps. Also, Adwords/PPC isn't for everybody - if the ROI isn't there, try something else.

HTH! Melissa

[AussieWebmaster]

I assume you are trying to get people to hire you as their web designer. That said, here are some suggestions:

* Experiment with your match options. Most of your terms are broad match. Try changing them to phrase or exact match to see if that helps weed out the unwanted visitors.
* Add negative keywords. If you don't want people who are looking for jobs, try adding: -jobs, -hiring, etc. Use Google's Keyword Suggestion Tool and you will get a good idea of both terms to add, and terms to delete.
* Some of your terms are pretty generic and, I would guess, expensive. I think "web design" means a lot of different things. Consider eliminating a couple of the more generic terms.
* Make sure your ad copy makes it very clear what you are offering and what you would like site visitors to do (sign up for your services, call for a quote, fill out a form, whatever). This won't stop competitors from clicking and shopping you, but you might weed out those looking for jobs. I know Google's character limits make it hard to write good ad copy but it certainly can be done. Also make sure your landing page fits with your ads and is compelling and clear. Landing pages won't stop the unwanted clicks, but they can raise your conversion and help offset them.
* Get Andrew Goodman's "21 Ways To Maximize Results with Google AdWords." It is well worth the money. I am not an affiliate of his, just a satisfied customer. :)
* Give it more time. 8 clicks is a very small sample size. We usually like to get at least 100 clicks before deciding if something is working or not. Of course, your budget may limit this so YMMV.

These are the ones that come to mind right away. I think anyone that does PPC will get some percentage of unwanted clicks. Keep tweaking your keywords and ad copy and see if it helps. Also, Adwords/PPC isn't for everybody - if the ROI isn't there, try something else.

HTH! Melissa
Great answer Mel...

The other thing you should do is look at your web logs and see what has brought customers to your site in the past. Use those keywords - and as Mel suggested tighten the process from broad to more exact matches.
If you find five variations of web design that have gotten you traffic in the past then use those as exact matches in your local area and see if they hold.
Also start each in a separate AdGroup and AB test creatives.... this way you will see which are better for getting clicks and you can also AB test the landing pages that way too.

[ileong]

I know this is the AdWords forum, but you should really try Overture Local Match. It's going to be hard to compete with the "heavy hitters" for your particular service industry using AdWords.

You can actually choose which towns to include or exclude within a 100 mile radius of your physical office location.