24 replies to this topic

[B_Nye]

Thought I would jump in here. I was creating an ad campaign where I wanted to attract US and UK searches. I tried to create an ad that had a UK version of a word in a phrase (using "centre" vs. "center"). They rejected my new ad (the "centre" version) as a duplicate. Here's their explanation than may shed some light on how Overture treats english (US vs. UK) spellings:

Jun 24 2005  09:11 PT

Hello B.,

Thank you for your inquiry.

In regards to the different spellings of the word, I will gladly assist you.

It was accurately declined for the reason of "duplication of results".  An Internet user will get the same results if they search for the word with either spelling. We have a Match Driver feature that maps the different spellings to the same results.

Our Match Driver is set up to do the following:

- Matching your terms to misspellings, singular/plural combinations and other variations that might be used to search for your product or service
- Looking at your term, title and description to match your listings to searches where we believe the intent of the user is to find your product or  service, even though they have not typed your exact bidded keywords
- Removing unnecessary "noise" words such as "a", "the", "of" and "for"
- Reordering words in multi-keyword search queries and directing them to a single primary form

If we can answer any other questions about this feature, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of any further assistance.

Sincerely,

xxxxx xxxxxxx
Customer Solutions
Yahoo! Search Marketing

I don't know how accurate this Match Driver is for UK-based spellings. There was another ad where I varied a word ("rationalization" & "rationalisation") where they approved both versions. The "z" vs. "s" was the only difference in the phrase.

[Kal]

Interesting! A similar thing had happened to me, when one set of ads with UK spelling AND a US version was accepted but another set with similar regional spelling differences wasn't. After your post, I'm guessing it's at the editor's discretion.

It's another reason I prefer AdWords over Overture, you have much more control over what searchers see.

[B_Nye]

I think you're right Kal. Spelling variations on the same word or phase take a day or two for approval, but the original spelling is normally approved immediately. Their Match Driver probably catches suspected dupes or misspellings, then they turn over problem ads for manual review.

I also agree that Adwords is much better. It matches exactly to your keyword. Plus it's more flexible for doing modifications, pausing ads, etc. If it were easier to enter keywords on overture (versus creating a new ad for each keyword) it would be a much better product. I do however like overture's keyword bid tool. I wish adwords had something similar.

B.

[Freelancer]

Basically the answer to this question seems to be NO.

There is nothing that searches just the UK market that is reliable and equivalent to Wordtracker. I have been wanting a tool such as this for a LONG TIME... best I got was Priority Submit but then found out that it wasn't very good or reliable - acccording to some people on this discussion board. AND it's not specific to the UK and it's not easy to use...

As with most things in the UK, I guess you have to look at what the US trend is and detract a few numbers!!

I would very much like to know about British search enquiry patterns. But there is no tool out there for us to use. Someone develop one quick!! They should have a word tracker for different countries...

I am a copywriter for British websites based in Britain with a British audience. Why do I need American statistics? I don't, obviously, but there is no alternative. <moan, moan>

[Randy]

Sounds like a business opportunity waiting for someone to capitalize on to me.

[oneofthe3lions]

Could one not simply add Uk to the keywords? If the searchers have the same experience and get international/usa results then I would imagine that they themselves would be sticking uk on the end right?

[OldWelshGuy]

There IS something that wil do this and I do it all the time as do many other seo's. You get your keywords, then you set them in a campaign with absolute match, and to appear on uk only searches. Job done.

It will not give you the exact figures due to the inaccuracy of AOL being American and the .com pages etc etc, but it will if you run it long enough give you the search patterns, and as such you then know the order of importance.

[Freelancer]

Welshman,

I don't actually understand what you mean:

"set them in a campaign with absolute match, and to appear on uk only searches."

What is a campaign? You mean adwords?

[Trellian]

Sounds like a business opportunity waiting for someone to capitalize on to me

Working on it, we just need more UK keyword data. So if anyone here either owns or is friendly with a UK based search engine PM me!

Cheers
David

[Randy]

I figured you probably were David.

Freelancer: I'm not OWG, however I believe his suggestion was exactly that. Setting up an Adwords campaign with absolute match and targeted only at the UK audience.