No search volume? No problem! 3 ways to improve low-traffic AdWords campaigns

Search volume is the foundation of most successful AdWords campaigns. After all, if you’re bidding on a keyword that gets 10,000 searches per month and you have a 5 percent click-through rate, a 10 percent conversion rate and a 20 percent close rate, you can expect to close 10 sales a month from that keyword.

Better ad copy, landing pages or sales tactics can improve those numbers, but at the end of the day, you only have 10,000 searches per month to work with.

Now, if your keyword happens to get thousands of searches per month, that’s not a problem, but what if the keywords you want (or need) to target only get 100 searches per month?

Fortunately, if you’re dealing with low-traffic keywords, quitting or throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something sticks aren’t your only options. In this article, we’re going to look at three different ways to handle low-traffic situations.

1. Use broad match


If you’re bidding on keywords with large search volume, broad match is a great way to waste a lot of money.

For example, we once audited an AdWords account for a company that implemented system application products (SAPs). Both they and their customers used the term “sap” all the time, so they targeted the keyword “sap.”

Now, the keyword “sap” alone gets about a million searches a month, but when they made a keyword broad match, their ads were showing up for every search you can imagine. Among the countless irrelevant search terms, they received hundreds of thousands of impressions (and hundreds of clicks) from people who searched for “A$AP Rocky” — an American rapper.

Unfortunately, keywords with large search volume tend to confuse Google. I mean, just look at what the Keyword Planner suggests as related terms for “sap”:


It’s like Google is saying, “I don’t know what you’re looking for here, so here’s a bit of everything!”

The lower search volume a keyword has, however, the more specific it tends to be. More specific searches are a lot easier for Google to interpret and match to other similar searches.

For example, here are some of the keywords Google suggests when you plug “sap deployment” into the Keyword Planner:


This keyword only gets 140 searches per month, but Google’s suggestions are right on the money.

Searches like “sap implementation services” are a perfect fit for what the business is looking for, and while they might not get a ton of search volume, they increase the total number of relevant searches that this business’s ads will show up for.

When you’re dealing with low search volume, broad match can often be a great asset. Low-search-volume keywords tend to be specific, so broad match can do a great job of getting your ads in front of additional low-volume searches that you may never have considered before.

To make things even better, after you’ve run your broad match keywords for a while, you can go into your Search Terms report and see if Google has uncovered any gems you should add to your campaign (or money wasters you need to add as negative keywords).

Obviously, this approach isn’t quite as efficient as targeting a high-search volume keyword using exact match, but using broad match can help you get several hundred to thousands more relevant searches a month out of a highly targeted low-volume keyword.

2. Prime the pump


Sometimes, the reason your keywords have low search volume is that people don’t think to search for what you’re selling.

This is especially true for businesses with new, innovative products or niche companies with very small potential audiences.

In these situations, it’s usually a good idea to start by focusing a little higher up the funnel. If no one has ever heard of a “sleep inverter,” why would people be searching for it?

Instead of waiting for people to discover your product, service or business at random, it’s a good idea to be a bit more aggressive with your marketing. Paid social, display and video advertising are great ways to spread the word and build awareness and demand.

All of this is Marketing 101, but here’s where we can get a little tricky with AdWords.

New or niche products and services often have a warm-up period. Unfortunately, most people won’t see a Facebook ad for a “sleep inverter,” click on it and immediately buy, especially if it’s expensive (which most new or niche things are).

Instead, most people will need some time to think about what you’re selling and do a little research before they’re ready to buy. A good display or video retargeting strategy can help here, but if you really want to snag someone who is thinking about your product, it pays to use remarketing lists for search ads (RLSAs).

Using RLSAs to access more search volume
Odds are, if you’re selling something niche or new, there is a “normal” that you are disrupting. Under most circumstances, if someone is searching for that normal, they won’t be interested in what you’re selling.

For example, if you’ve invented a “sleep inverter” bed alternative that helps with back pain, it might be hard to convince people who are searching for “best mattress” to click on your ad. They’re not looking for a “sleep inverter,” they’re looking for a mattress!

However, someone who’s already clicked on one of your “sleep inverter” display ads and is researching “best mattress” has a good chance of clicking on your search ad and potentially making a purchase. After all, they already know what your product is, so connecting your “sleep inverter” to their search for “best mattress” may be just the push they need to buy.


3. Combine and conquer


As mentioned above, low-search volume keywords are typically also highly specific keywords. This can create real problems when it comes to optimizing your ad copy.

To get clicks, specific searches need specific ad copy, so if you want to make the most of the few searches you do have, you need to write ad copy that closely matches the search terms and search intent of your low-traffic keywords.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to evaluate your ad copy when you only get 10 clicks a month, so unless you write the perfect ad copy the first time, you may miss out on potential clicks, conversions and sales without even realizing it.

However, there is a way to test ad copy on low-traffic keywords. You just have to be clever about how you put your ad copy together.

Odds are, even if the specific keywords your target audience uses are different, their pain points are basically the same. With this in mind, you should be able to write ad copy that ties the keywords and pain points together in a fairly formulaic way.

And, if your ad copy is basically consistent, you can give all of those ads the same label in AdWords and use that label to aggregate your ad performance across all of your keywords in the Report Editor.


Once you’ve picked your ad label in the Report Editor, all you have to do is pick the metrics you want to evaluate, and Google will show you bulk data for your ad copy. It’s not a very scientific way to do things, but it’s a great way to get a feel for how your ad copy is performing.

In addition, you can also use this same tactic to test two different sets of ad copy. All you have to do is label each version separately in your campaigns and run a labels report in the Report Editor.


Like the other tactics discussed in this article, this approach isn’t ideal, but when you don’t have enough traffic to do things right, it’s a handy trick to have up your sleeve.








Referance Link : https://searchengineland.com/no-search-volume-no-problem-3-ways-to-improve-low-traffic-adwords-campaigns-295262

International SEO and search trends: How does it all work?

If your business sells internationally, then your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts need to operate around the world, and international SEO Service can be complicated.
Multiple countries, multiple languages, and often, multiple languages within a given country. It’s easy to get tied up in knots. And even easier to confuse a search engine and create a number of typical SEO issues like duplicate content.

Fortunately, good international SEO is achievable; it just needs a little planning and the right approach for your unique situation.



What is international SEO?

International SEO is the process of organizing and optimizing your webpages to allow search engines to identify the countries you are targeting, the specific content and language for each user in a given location.

In many ways, this is a similar to how we provide SEO for small businesses that target multiple locations, since they often organize by towns, cities, counties or states.
Domain names for international SEO
You may want to consider a few things when choosing a domain name for your international SEO campaigns.

Some domains, known as country code top-level domains (ccTLD), will default to a specific location. Other top-level domains (TLDs) can be geotargeted to point at specific countries.  The sub-folders and subdomains on these TLD domains can be geo-targeted to different countries as well.
The main takeaway here is that you must ensure you have the correct domain for your international SEO requirements.

Just to confuse matters, these rules can sometimes be broken, and one such example is when promoting content with SEO. Even ccTLD domains or geotargeted TLD domains can rank informational content internationally.
This is a little contradictory to international SEO thinking, so let me give you an example.

My company operates out of the United Kingdon (UK), but we have customers all around the world. The majority of our customers find us through articles on our blog, which runs on a UK ccTLD. This proves that in the right situation, informational content can still rank internationally from a ccTLD. Go figure!

This is not to say you should disregard geotargeting; for the majority of industries, this is not the right approach. Ranking internationally is about providing the right content for the right audience, often for specific business reasons.

You want to make sure Google does not get utterly confused with the several versions of your site and bury you in the deepest, darkest depths of the search index.


How to target a specific country

The following is a basic checklist for targeting a specific country with international SEO:

Use a country-specific domain.
Specify the location you are targeting in Google Search Console.
Register your business address with Google My Business.
Include the street address of the business on the website.
Host the website locally (as much for usability as for SEO).
Get links from country-specific websites.
Use local language(s).
What we are trying to do is send a clear signal to Google about where you operate and who this content is for. Multiple signs send a clearer signal, so try to include all items on the checklist.

International SEO strategy

Typically, most international SEO efforts include targeting multiple countries, which means you must scale your approach across all desired locations.

There are a few ways to approach this which may or may not be suitable for your situation. Here are two approaches applicable to the majority of serious international SEO efforts.

 1. Content marketing
As I mentioned earlier, targeted content marketing can help pages rank internationally, even from a ccTLD site. If you can generate leads through content, then promoting your content with SEO can be the simplest option. As an example, Search Engine Land ranks internationally as a content provider, but so does the informational content of my company, which is based in the UK. This is technically easy, but you must also make sure this is a viable business model for your company. For companies that exist online, this is often a good fit, but for more traditional businesses, this is often not the right way to go about things.

2.  Single TLD site
In some industries, you will often see automatic international search results. There is a company in Australia that sells safety harnesses. It is a niche business, and without any specific international SEO, they rank pretty well across English-speaking countries such as Australia, the UK and the United States. If they wanted to focus on international SEO, they’d have little trouble doing so; a more traditional SEO process would likely be all they’d need.

The takeaway here is to do your research before you dive into a complex international setup.

3. Subfolders and geotargeting

If you require country-specific content, one of the easiest options is to create localized sub-directories on your own site. These sub-directories can be geotargeted in Google Search Console and can contain country-specific content and language. Here is an example and the pros and cons of each:

example.com — root site targeting the USA.
example.com/uk/ — UK.
example.com/de/ — Germany.
There are three key benefits to this approach. First, you are only expanding your existing site, so there may be less technical management and overhead, e.g., hosting.

Secondly, the sub-directories will inherit authority from the parent domain.

Lastly, you only have one site to promote, so while you will want country- and language-specific links, this is still simpler and more cost-effective than promoting multiple sites.

As for the cons, users may not recognize geotargeting from the universal resource locator (URL), and you will have a single server location. This can be a relatively easy way to get started with true international SEO, but it is important to understand the limitations of this approach.

4. Country-specific domains

This approach can use country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) or subdomains on a TLD. In a way, they are two slightly different techniques to achieve the same end goal.

Geo-targeted subdomains. These TLD subdomains will need to be geotargeted in Google Search Console:
www.example.com — US.
uk.example.com — UK.
de.example.com — Germany.
Country-specific ccTLD domains. These will automatically target the country associated with the ccTLD:
Amazon.com — US.
Amazon.co.uk — UK.
Amazon.de — Germany.
For businesses with a physical presence, operation or local offline marketing in the target country, this is typically the best approach– although not the most cost-effective approach, as each site must be configured and marketed independently, typically by the local marketing team.

Both of these approaches allow the business to use local web hosting and build clear location signals with country-specific links to the URL. These are strong signals and should be considered when making a decision to enter a competitive international market where you may be competing with companies resident in that country.

If you can use ccTLDs here, I tend to favor that approach over subdomains; but it requires you to own all the international ccTLD versions of your domain. Doing this can confer strong branding benefits where users prefer to click on their own ccTLD.

Folks in the UK are used to .co.uk sites, people in France prefer .fr sites and so on. SEO is just part of a larger conversation, so the right approach should be determined by the wants and needs of the target customer.

Conversely, using subdomains is not as popular, as users may not recognize or understand the domain, which could impact trust and click-through rates.

This is the approach favored by the likes of Amazon and eBay. So, if money is no object and you are playing the long game, this is typically the approach we would recommend for international SEO companies.

An important consideration here is that any problems can be multiplied across your entire portfolio of sites. So, you will want to make sure your initial site is technically perfect before you create international sites.









Referance Link:  https://searchengineland.com/international-seo-and-search-trends-how-does-it-all-work-292140