MUST have negative keywords: Developers / development companies

Hand on heart… how right, how nailed down are your negative keywords? As right as they could be? Or are you still wasting cash on irrelevant search terms , driving pointless, expensive traffic to your site?

There’s a Hole in my Bucket

Yes of course you need the right search phrases, broad or modified broad keyword matches for your PPC campaigns, but you need the right negative keywords too. Afterall… why pour good money into the campaign bucket if there’s a big bad hole on the bottom? A big bad hole that only smart negative keyword can patch up.

Let’s take a look at a few real life examples.

When’s a Magento Developer not a Magento Developer?

Say you’re a Magento Developer. In which case “magento developer” would seem like a fair enough search term wouldn’t it? All those lovely prospects out there in Googleland searching for Magento Developers to weave their Magento magic. So you add “magento developer” as a target keyword.

But what about…. “Magento developer resume” or

“magento developer cv template”?
“magento developer guide”?
“wordpress developer salary”?
“ios developer jobs”?
“android developer console”?

Wouldn’t you attract searchers by job seekers? By developers? By wannabe developers? By people comparing salaries? Of course you would. Are job seekers, developers, wannabe developers and people comparing salaries going to spend money with you. Of course not. All you’re doing is attracting dud searches. You’re buying an inappropriate audience.

Why Waste Your Search Spend?

Take a look at the organic results for ‘magento developer guide’. As you can see all the results relate to documentation and manual. There’s a cat in hell’s chance that anyone searching for a “Magento development company” will use this term to find a partner. Why waste your search spend?

Of the two paid ads below you’ll notice that both relate to Magento development. We’d wager that neither ad will attract many clicks or conversions.

The list below can be used by web developer companies, eg. Magento, WordPress, Liferay or mobile app developers eg. iOs or Android companies as well.

Let’s start with your MUST HAVES:

#Keywords to consider:

Don’t let the poor application of negative keywords bleed your budgets dry. Think about them. Factor them in, save money and increase the quality score of your campaigns.

Negative keyword questions? Aspects of your PPC campaigns that could be clearer? Contact Us today for the latest, smartest and most profitable paid search insights and advice.