Although the majority of experienced AdWords advertisers have now realised the problem and found ways to work around it, Google have announced plans to implement technology which will be able to see through a variety of search engine errors.
As the situation currently stands, keyword lists have to be manually set to allow for errors in spelling, grammar, plurals as well as variations on a keyword or phrase. Without doing this, they could risk their customers, i.e. the owners of the website, losing out on business when the search engine directs the customer away from them.
The new technology means that rather than the advertisers having to spend time and effort developing these lists, Google will now perform the task automatically, just as it does with organic results, although it should be noted that users will have the chance of opting out.
“Often Requested”
Unveiling Google’s newest plans, Jen Huang, the AdWords product manager, said this had been an often-requested feature, and stated the company’s belief that the move would benefit both advertisers and consumers.
The new functionality has already performed well in tests with advertisers and Google state that it has seen an average of a 3% rise in search clicks, at comparable CPC’s, although there have been variations from advertiser to advertiser.
Five Variations
It is known that the new functionality will be able to spot and account for five variations in language. Firstly, it will be able to see through spelling errors and will automatically correct these, (“waterproof sunblock” instead of “waterproof sunblock”), secondly they will correct singular to plural and vice versa, after this, the programme will correct stemming and change phrases such as “single serve” to “single serving”, next the function has the capability of adding accents where these have been missed out (“hotel” and “hôtel”), will be able to correct abbreviations such as Dr. to Doctor and acronyms back to their entirety.
The reason for this change in policy claim Google is that up to 7% of searches include spelling errors and this can have a negative effect on both the searcher and the website in question.
The new technology is likely to be available from mid-May.
