Useage of wild characters

[mjancosek]

I have been doing some SEO for a couple of sites. They are getting really nice rankings. However the other day my employer asked me to include "special characters" for expanded phrase matching. I.E. = [keyword], "keyword", -keyword, *keyword*.
He saw this in a book "Definitive guide to google adwords.

My question is that if I put this in the meta tags won't it take up valuable space? Also, does this work?

I think that this is just a way to work the adwords campaign and not natural searches.

Am I wrong?

Thank you
mjancosek

[incrediblehelp]

mjancosek putting these in the meta tags of the page wont do anything for your AdWords. I think you might be confused with functionality of the back end of AdWords where you can expand the keywords that your ads will show up for.

[mjancosek]

That is what I think as well. I am doing the meta tag keywords and he wants me to do the adword functionality as keywords.

[MarcThai]

Originally Posted by mjancosek

That is what I think as well. I am doing the meta tag keywords and he wants me to do the adword functionality as keywords.

Tell your boss if he wants to lose ranking you will put in the special characters. Who is going to find his website searching for special characters? We are HUMAN BEINGS, not characters.

Remember, the client (or the boss) is always right, except when he is wrong. Don't be afraid to tell him he's wrong. If he doesn't believe you, tell him to get some expert advice from this forum. I don't mind calling a spade a bloody shovel!

[Peter (IMC)]

It seems that the problem is lack of understanding of adwords both on your side and on your boss' side.

Those phrase matching operators [ ] " " - and * are for use in the administration of keywords in Adwords. You´re not suppose to use those in your website.

[Matteo]

Lord Save us from the well intentioned and un-educated clients.

You are dealing with SEO and he is trying to include ad-words stragedy.

Apples and Oranges together make great fruit salad but bad serps.

Add a few slices of spam and you have a festive Hawiian Fruit Salad....but still a bad recipe for SEO

[nelsonez]

mjancosek as many have already mentioned here it appears there is a break down in communication or a lack of understanding of how a "natural ranking" occurs in Google versus a "sponsored" ranking from Adwords. The two are separate and anything you put in your meta tags will have very little bearing on the functionality of the Adwords. And putting special characters related to Adwords into the meta tags will produce NO benefit to the functionality of Adwords and may in fact have a detrimental effect on any good "natural rankings" that you might have achieved.

Do not assume your boss has ANY understanding of how all this works. Just because he read a book does not mean he truly understands what is going on. I am not saying treat him or her like an idiot .... only that you should not assume anything. We get new clients all the time who don't realize there is a difference between "natural rankings" and "sponsored or pay-per-click" rankings. I am also amazed at how many people still think Google rankings are based on how many "hits" their website gets. Even after we explain to them that Google has really no idea how many hits a website gets they still don't believe me.

[seo4china]

The book was "Definitive guide to google adwords". You are working on organic SEO, not PPC. Tell your boss that his "opinion" would be relevant if the book title was "Definitive guide to google optimization" or something similar...

It happens all the time, clients reading something somewhere and asking you to implement it. If you are the expert in house and you are paid for that, you need to make it clear that you are going to use your own strategies.

[deilenberger]

Just for the heck of it - I Googled the book title, and guess what (no surprise!) it's one of those QUADRUPLE YOUR GOOGLE RESULTS magic cookbooks, undoubtably filled with fine information from someone who couldn't make a living doing SEO..

AdWords Definitive Guide - Double the Customers on your Website in 30 minutes or Less, with Google AdWords

Perry Marshall? Does that sound like a real name?

"Hi, my name is Perry Marshall, and I've sold millions of dollars of products on the web since 1997, when I was national sales manager at a hi-tech startup in Chicago. Today I consult with dozens of companies in software, publishing, manufacturing and information marketing. A day's work for me might include everything from direct mail campaigns, press conferences and copywriting to drafting a business plan for a product launch."

Right.

See: Use Google AdWords and the Power of Guerilla Marketing to Attract New Customers

"Use Google AdWords and the Power of Guerilla Marketing to Attract New Customers 24/7/365
Google AdWords: Beat The System - Access 100 million people in 10 minutes. Free Fast-Start Google AdWords 5 day email course."

One Google result was amusing:
Perry Marshall Exposed
How To Build and Automate Your Internet Business Using Chain Reaction Marketing Read This Before You Buy Perry Marshall...

And lots more. One thing for sure - "Perry Marshall" brings a lot of Google hits..

[DrTandem1]

By the way, it is generally agreed that SEs such as Google largely ignore the keyword meta tag. I suspect that it is used more as a crosscheck with on-page content and looking for spam, rather that a positive attribute for SEO.

[coolguy27]

I think the use of wildcards are being ignored by SEs especially in Metas...

[itispals]

Hi mjancosek,
You are right about what you think, It is for Google Adwords that those matching would work and not for organic rankings.
You can explain your BOSS.

All the Best,
BroadSpire - Managed IT services.

[Matteo]

Hey I can Gaurantee #1 rankings on google in 15minutes......IF you have a billion dolllar budget