Google Data » Google Grants Team Member

Free Transaction Processing For Google Grants Recipients Continues Through 2011

Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 16:08:00 +0000

Cross posted on The Official Google Checkout Blog

We’re thrilled to announce that as part of the Google Checkout for Non-Profits program, free transaction processing for Google Grants recipients will be extended through 2011.

So if you’re part of the Google Grants program and you have a Google Checkout account, you’ll be able to use Google Checkout to accept donations without paying transaction processing fees in the coming year. We hope many non-profits take advantage of this benefit through the next year as they raise funds to advance their causes.

For more information about other Google tools for non-profits, check out the Google for Non-Profits website.

Posted by Satyajeet Salgar, Checkout Team

Industry Benchmarking Series

Google Grants Team Member — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 18:00:00 +0000

Last year we conducted our Annual Survey, which collected responses from our grantee base on a range of topics like AdWords usage, performance, marketing strategy, product adoption, organization needs and case study information.

In an effort to better understand the needs and trends of organizations within our grantee base, we also asked for NTEE codes from US grantee respondents so that we could begin to associate these needs and trends with sub-categories of the NGO industry and offer some insight into the NGO industry in which your organization works.

We’re excited to be able to now share this insight with you in the form of industry benchmarks.

Over the next few months we’ll feature a series of posts that offer benchmark data for each of the NTEE categories represented within our grantee base. The benchmarks are an aggregated and averaged interpretation of the NGO categories that were well represented in the survey results. We won’t provide benchmark data for those categories that were under represented or didn’t have any results.

You can look forward to industry information like types of tracking metrics, mission objectives, marketing objectives, AdWords performance and agency usage.

We’ll begin our series with the Arts, Culture & Humanities category and continue in batches until we’ve shared benchmarks for all represented industries.

Add our blog feed to your reader to see when your industry benchmark is posted.

Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team

Announcing The 2011 Nonprofit Video Awards

Google Grants Team Member — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:51:00 +0000

If you’re a non-profit organization who has created one or more amazing videos in the past year, we have good news for you. For the second year in a row, YouTube is teaming up with See3 Communications to present the DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards, a celebration of the best non-profit video on the site.

Whether you created a high-definition documentary about street slums in India or shot a quirky cellphone video of rescue dogs at your animal shelter, we encourage you to submit your video at www.youtube.com/nonprofitvideoawards. We’ll award prizes like $2500 grants from the Case Foundation, Flip Cams, free admission to the Nonprofit Technology Conference, and a spotlight on the YouTube homepage to small, medium and large organizations, plus a special award for the “Best Thrifty Video”.

To give you a sense of what works, here are the finalists’ videos from last year’s competition:

The deadline to enter is March 2, 2010 and you must be a member of the YouTube Nonprofit Program at the time of judging, to enter. Good luck!

Posted by Ramya Raghavan, YouTube Team

New Regions And Cities Available For Targeting On AdWords

Google Grants Team Member — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 23:00:00 +0000

Cross posted on the Inside AdWords Blog

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be rolling out city targeting in 12 additional countries to help you reach more customers in local markets with your AdWords campaigns. With this expansion, city targeting will now be available to AdWords advertisers in 34 countries. In addition, we’re also announcing the ability to target regions in Argentina.

The countries with new city and region targeting options in AdWords are:

Argentina (region targeting only), Austria, Brazil, China (coming soon), Colombia, Czech Republic, Finland (coming soon), Hungary (coming soon), Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, South Korea, Switzerland, Ukraine

Location targeting helps you tailor your ads toward specific markets, analyze your AdWords campaigns by market, and optimize your campaigns for higher return-on-investment (ROI). Now, you can go a level deeper and optimize the performance of your AdWords campaign at the city level.

For example, let’s say your organization operates in Mexico. You conduct a campaign level analysis and learn that you’re getting more conversions from big cities, such as Mexico City, than from rural areas. Here are a few steps that you can take to optimize your AdWords campaign:

1. Run an AdWords geographic report or Analytics report to determine where your users are located and where you’re getting your most valuable traffic.

2. Adjust your campaign setup:

Run a campaign targeting cities bringing in the most traffic and increase the bids on the keywords in that campaign to maximize your impressions in those cities.
Consider setting up a regionally (or nationally) targeted campaign with potentially lower bids on the same keywords to capture additional traffic from outside your top-performing cities.

3. Adjust bids accordingly to optimize for the highest campaign ROI.

We hope that with the expansion of city targeting, advertisers in more countries will be able to reach their local users more effectively. Visit the AdWords Help Center to learn more about getting started with this feature.

Posted by Gordon Zhu, AdWords Team

Managing Your Account With Limited Time

Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 20:07:00 +0000

“Time is on my side” might be true for The Rolling Stones, but probably not for the rest of us. “So much to do, so little time” is a more accurate sentiment. We never seem to have enough hours in the day to get everything done that we want to, especially within the business realm.

Managing your AdWords account is no exception. We know it requires continual management for maximium effectiveness - including adding new keywords, deleting keywords and ads that aren’t performing well, updating the account based on changes to your products, services, and landing pages, adjusting CPCs, taking advantage of new AdWords features, etc. On top of this, most non-profit organizations also have limited resources. How do you do it and do it well?

Fortunately, there are ways to make the account management process much easier and faster. Here are five features that can simplify the process:

1. Keyword Insertion

Keyword insertion dynamically inserts your keywords into your text ad(s). This allows the user to see an ad that is highly relevant to their search, which increases the chances of a click. If the keyword triggered is longer than the character limit, the default ad text you specify will show instead.

Tightly themed ad groups are always ideal, but keyword insertion is a great alternative if you don’t have time to separate each individual micro-theme. Still, all of the keywords should be fairly related to ensure success. It’s also important to ensure that all of your keywords make sense when inserted into the space at hand. That may mean deleting or separating keywords for competitive products/services, keywords with “reviews” if you don’t show comparisons, etc.

Implementation is easy - you simply place one snippet of code into your ad. See this quick guide that explains further.

2. Broad Match Modifier

Broad Match Modifier is the newest keyword match type, which is essentially a cross between broad and phrase match. It allows more search flexibility than phrase match, but more precise targeting than broad match. It’s identified by a plus (+) sign immediately proceeding any word within a keyword - and you can utilize this feature for certain words or all words within a keyword.

Words with the plus sign must appear in the actual search query, or a very similar variation. These variations include misspellings, plurals/singulars, abbreviations, ancronyms, and stemmings (like “donate” and “donation”). Unlike broad match, it does not include synonyms and related queries.

The time-savers with BMM are that you a) can safely use it as as your default match type for any new keywords, without having to worry about broad/phrase/exact, and b) avoid having to identify and add as many negative keywords to filter out unwanted traffic that broad can require.

3. Conversion Optimizer

Getting traffic to your site is half the battle; the other half is converting the traffic to the action you want them to take. Conversion tracking measures the effectiveness of your traffic, by showing which keywords lead to the important action(s) you specify on your site - a sale, lead, signup, etc.

Implementation does require some effort, but it’s well worth it. The good news is that once you have conversion tracking enabled, AdWords can do the heavy lifting through a great tool called Conversion Optimizer. This tool uses your conversion data to maximize conversions at a lower cost.

With Conversion Optimizer, you bid at either a maximum CPA (the most you’re willing to pay per conversion) or target CPA (average amount you’d like to pay per conversion). The tool automatically adjusts your cost-per-click bids for each ad auction accordingly. That means no more manual adjustment of CPCs is needed. Conversion Optimizer does the work for you.

To use this feature, you need to have at least 15 conversions recorded in the last 30 days. To activate it, go to the Campaign tab > Select campaign name > Settings tab > “Bidding Option: Edit” > “Focus on Conversions”.

4. Custom Alerts

If you find yourself continually checking the account for any unusual behavior, budget monitoring, or to make sure certain metrics are still “in the green”, try Custom Alerts. This feature notifies you when metrics fall or rise past a certain threshold that you set. For example, you can set a custom alert to notify you when you’re close to hitting your daily budget (you choose the amount). You choose whether your notifications appear within the messages section of your account, or emailed to you directly. This frees you up to pay attention to the account only as necessary.

5. Automated Rules

What happens if you take custom alerts to the next level, and not only provide alerts, but action on those alerts? You get a brand new and exciting feature called Automated Rules that takes a specific action based on the parameters you set. System-implemented changes can be made to the bids, budgets, and status of campaigns, ad groups, ads and sets of keywords.

For instance, you may use it to:

Raise CPCs by a certain amount for all keywords that fall below position 4
Activate ads late Sunday night for a promotion that begins the following morning
Increase your daily budget during the weekdays when you have customer support

You can have up to 10 rules at a time. There isn’t a way to edit each rule, so just delete and create new ones as desired. And stay tuned, because new levers and options are in the works...

In general, AdWords is continually developing the platform to allow for more automation and to make your life even easier. For now, take advantage of these features. And time will start to be a little more on your side.

Posted by Carla Swiryn, AdWords Team

Your Keywords And Quality Score

Google Grants Team Member — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 00:34:00 +0000

The AdWords system calculates a ‘Quality Score’ for each keyword in your account. It looks at a variety of factors to measure how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user’s search query. A keyword’s Quality Score updates frequently and is closely related to its performance. In fact, a Quality Score is calculated each time your keyword matches a search query or every time your keyword has the potential to trigger an ad. In general, a high Quality Score means that your keyword will trigger ads in a higher position and at a lower cost-per-click (CPC).

Viewing Your Quality Score

You can find representations of your keywords’ Quality Scores in three places: your account statistics, the Keyword Analysis field and via an account report. Please see below for details on each method.

1. To find representation of your keywords’ Quality Scores in your account statistics:
a. Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com.
b. Select the appropriate campaign and ad group.
c. Click the Keywords tab.
d. Click Columns at the top of the ad group table.
e. Select Quality Score from the drop-down menu.
f. Click Save when you’re finished. Each keyword’s Quality Score will be measured and displayed on a scale of 1-10.

2. To view the Keyword Analysis field for any keyword, follow these steps:
a. Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com.
b. Click on a campaign.
c. Click on an ad group.
d. Select the Keywords tab.
e. Click the icon in the Status column next to any keyword.

3. To view Quality Score via an account report, run a Keyword Performance report and make sure to select the Keyword Quality Score Detail checkbox. This option appears in the Add or Remove Columns section under Advanced Settings.

Moving Your Keywords & Quality Score

A keyword’s Quality Score may change after you move it to another ad group. However, the keyword’s performance history will not change. This is true regardless of whether you delete and re-add the keyword or transfer the keyword using AdWords Editor.

Here are two ways that a keyword’s Quality Score can change after moving to a new ad group:

1. A keyword’s Quality Score is influenced by its relevance to the ads in its ad group. If you move a keyword to an ad group with more relevant ads, therefore, its Quality Score may improve. Similarly, the Quality Score may decrease if the ads are less relevant. For example, if the keyword ‘camp volunteer’ is in an ad group with ads seeking volunteers for camp it is likely to have a higher Quality Score than if the keyword was in an ad group with ads promoting camp registration.

2. In addition, moving a keyword to an ad group with more relevant ads can improve a keyword’s clickthrough rate (CTR) going forward. This, over time, will improve its Quality Score.

Improving Your Quality Score

The best way to improve your keywords’ Quality Scores is by optimizing your account. This entails making sure that each of your ad groups contain descriptive ads all promoting the same thing, and that each keyword in the ad group closely relates to the ad. For more information on optimizing your account check out these tips for success and the AdWords Optimization Center.

Posted by Janelle Kuhlman, Google Grants Team

Request For Grantee Photos

Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:31:00 +0000

The Google Grants team would like to tell a more colorful story about the positive impact that grantees are having in the world. With this in mind, we are seeking digital photos from grantees that help tell their powerful story. The photos will be used both internally at Google and externally for marketing purposes.

If you have any photos that you would like to pass on to us, please submit your information in this form and someone from our team will reach out to you directly with next steps. Please note that not all organizations will be selected and not all photos will be used.

We look forward to hearing from you and thank you for all that you do!

Posted by Janelle Kuhlman, Google Grants Team

Request For Grantee Photos

Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:31:00 +0000

Ad Approvals Best Practices

Google Grants Team Member — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 18:25:00 +0000

Did you know that every single ad you create is reviewed by Google to ensure it abides by our advertising policies? Our ad approval process ensures users see relevant ads that promote high quality content. Our support team reviews ads in the order they’re received and it typically takes one to two business days to review your ad. Submitting a high quality and compliant ad can significantly speed up the review process and get your ad up and running as soon as possible.

If you’re new grantee or a veteran, here are some best practices to understand about ad approvals. There are also a few tips to help you avoid common pitfalls we’ve seen several grantees experience over the past year. We hope these tips will be useful as you embark on new campaigns in 2011.

Ready your campaign
Make sure your ad, ad group and campaign are active. Paused or deleted ads will not be reviewed.

Ready your landing page
Make sure your ads lead to functioning landing pages. Landing pages that are under construction or result in server errors will be disapproved.

Ensure domain matching
Make sure your visible URL is the same domain as the final site you end up on. For example, if your visible URL is example.com, the final site a user should end up on when clicking your ad should be example.com. If the user ends up on differentsite.com, you are violating our Display URL policy.

Check for typos
Check for obvious typos in your URLs. Did you miss a, “.” or a, “ /”? A broken destination URL happens more often than you think.

Avoid exception requests
Submitting an exception request makes it highly likely that your ad will take more time to be reviewed. Think twice before requesting an exception and see if you can modify your ad text to avoid a potential delay or worse, a potential disapproval of your ad.

Avoid excessive capitalization

Don’t use excessive capitalization in your ad text. Common words that are capitalized and subsequently disapproved are, “FREE” or “GOOGLE ADWORDS”.

Hopefully these tips will get your ads up and running with minimal delay! If your ads can’t run due to violations of our advertising policies, you can resubmit an ad that was disapproved for another review. Simply edit and save your ad and it will go through the ad approval process again. If you continue to encounter problems, take a look at the AdWords Help Center or ask for help in the AdWords Help Forum.

Posted by Reid Yokoyama, Ads Quality Operations Team

Ad Approvals Best Practices

Google Grants Team Member — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 18:25:00 +0000

Avoid excessive capitalization

Don’t use excessive capitalization in your ad text. Common words that are capitalized and subsequently disapproved are, “FREE” or “GOOGLE ADWORDS”.

Posted by Reid Yokoyama, Ads Quality Operations Team

An Interview With The Spanish NGO AIDA

Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 18:41:00 +0000

This week we wanted to highlight a Spanish organization, AIDA, that has been a grantee for 6 months. We hope the interview with AIDA below will help non-profits gain a better understanding of the non-profit sector and online media world in Spain.

Could you briefly describe AIDA?
AIDA: AIDA (Ayuda, Intercambio y Desarrollo) stands for “Help, Exchange and Development” and is a NGO that has been working since 1999 in the development and improvement of the quality of life of some of the poorest areas in the world. Declared as a Public Utility organization in 2004, AIDA has been working on projects of economic, human and cultural development; offering its aid and services in 12 countries of Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The work is mainly done through cooperation projects for development and thanks to the help of several professional experts.

What are the major challenges of Spanish NGOs?
AIDA: In the last few years, the biggest challenge has been the transition to a professional sector. The ongoing process has taken place inside the institutions but has involved convincing society of the need of a more professional way of doing things.

The financial crisis is also a big issue; it has made the process of professionalism and collaboration more difficult by making access to public and private funds more challenging. This makes it difficult to maintain projects and to be able to develop them in the way they were originally stated. Altogether, it makes executing organizations’ objectives very difficult.

Which role do NGOs play in the online space?
AIDA: From our point of view, a great part of society uses online media to get information about the work and the need of NGOs. Organizations are using more and more tools online to increase the awareness of their activities, since it can be faster, cheaper and more efficient than traditional media.

How has Google Grants impacted your organization?
AIDA: In our case, Google Grants has been crucial because it has connected people looking for our service with our organization online. People interested in our services are able to reach us in a fast and easy way.

How long have you been part of Google Grants and how did you hear about the program?
AIDA: AIDA has been a member of Google Grants since July 2010. We knew about AdWords because of it’s importance in the sector of online communication and advertising. We found out about Google Grants through a volunteer of our NGO.

How has AIDA benefited from Google Grants?
AIDA: Google Grants has made it easier to find volunteers and employees for our institution and has increased both material and economic donations for our projects. We have also received several collaboration propositions, kind feedback on our activities and projects, and there has been an overall increase in awareness of our initiatives.

Could you give us a more specific example of how Google Grants has helped your NGO?
AIDA: AIDA Books & More is an online library through which we sell used books that have been donated by companies and individuals. All the collected money is then used to finance our aid projects. Thanks to our Google Grants ads, the donations to this project have increased significantly, as well as the collaboration of society to keep developing it.

Is there any other project that you would like to accomplish with Google Grants?
AIDA: It would be lovely if the Google Grants team could organize courses and workshops for NGO volunteers and employees in order to learn more about AdWords and other Google products.

Would you recommend Google Grants to other NGOs?
AIDA: Of course!

Posted by Diana Memic, Online Ad Sales Team

An Interview With The Spanish NGO AIDA

Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 18:41:00 +0000

Google Grants And AdWords Policies

Google Grants Team Member — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:40:00 +0000

Writing compelling ad text is a tricky process, and it can be frustrating to receive a disapproval email after carefully constructing the perfect ad. In a previous post, Veronica introduced you to some of the policies which apply to AdWords ads. In this post, I am going to explain in a bit more detail a couple of easily made errors which can lead to your ads being disapproved when they are reviewed.

Trying to stand out
While it can be really tempting to use some SnAzZy capitalization, or punctuation (!!!) to make your ads really stand out to users, you will also bring your ad to the attention of our review team.

Submitting an ad with excessive capitalization or punctuation will lead to your ad being disapproved. So that means:
- Don’t put an exclamation mark in your title
- Make sure you only use one exclamation mark in total in each ad
- Feel free to capitalize first letters of words, but don’t capitalize every letter (unless you’re using an acronym like UNICEF).

Asking for donations?
When ads are reviewed, we don’t just look at the text, we also look at the page the user will see when they click the ad, which we often call the ad’s landing page. As a Google Grants advertiser, you may be asking for donations, and if you are, we require the landing page to make clear that donations are tax exempt.

In the US, a notice of "501(c)(3)" status will serve this purpose. In other countries, it may be making sure that your registered charity number (or the local equivalent) is on your ad’s landing page. When we come across ads that do not do this, they are disapproved under our ‘solicitation of funds’ policy.

My ad’s been disapproved, what now?
Your disapproval email will contain a link to the relevant policy in our Help Center. Take a look at the description of the policy and consider why our reviewers have decided your ad doesn’t comply with this particular policy.

When you make changes to your ad, saving the changes automatically resubmits a new ad to our specialists for review.

Posted by Dan Massey, AdWords Team

Google Grants And AdWords Policies

Google Grants Team Member — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:40:00 +0000

Introducing The NGO Impact Award For The Google Online Marketing Challenge

Google Grants Team Member — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 20:07:00 +0000

How can students hone their marketing skills and help an NGO at the same time? Sign up for the Google Online Marketing Challenge and compete for the NGO Impact Award. The Challenge is a global student competition open to any higher education institution anywhere in the world. The 2010 Challenge had over 12,000 students in 60 countries competing. This year, we would like the Challenge to reach even more people ... and we need your help in getting the word out!

For the first time ever, The Challenge will allow student teams from across the world to receive US$200 of free online advertising with Google AdWords and then work with local businesses or NGOs to create effective online marketing campaigns. Google.org will make a donation in the name of the top three winning student teams to their nonprofit partner. Prizes for the winners include:

1st place - $15,000 donation to the nonprofit partner
2nd place - $10,000 donation to the nonprofit partner
3rd place - $5,000 donation to the nonprofit partner

How can you help to get the word out? Professors or lecturers need to register on our website by mid-April in order for their student teams to participate, so contact any former or current professors you know to alert them to this great opportunity. The Academic Guide will provide professors with all the details they need to help them decide if the Challenge is right for their class. The Challenge is open to any university and any discipline around the globe, at graduate or undergraduate level. Registration is now open to professors till mid-April and students can compete from January 31st until the June 10th, 2011. Winners will be announced in July 2011.

Together, student teams and nonprofits can make a lasting impact and learn about online advertising in the process. Thank you for your support!

Posted by Kirsten Olsen Cahill, Google.org Team

Introducing The NGO Impact Award For The Google Online Marketing Challenge

Google Grants Team Member — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 20:07:00 +0000

Increase donations with gift matching

Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 20:54:00 +0000

There are a variety of strategies for increasing online donations, and tapping into corporate gift matching is one that holds a lot of promise but is a little harder to get at since it requires extra work on the part of the donor and involves processes that can be hard to find or difficult to follow.

One Google Grantee, Direct Relief, has started using a new strategy to help their donors easily activate their employers’ gift matching programs at checkout. Basically, when a donor begins the checkout process, they are given the option to search for their employer from the database. If a match is found, that employer’s gift matching program details are shown for the information of the donor.

Once the donor completes the donation, the process for completing the gift match is shown so that they know what to do next in order to activate the matching funds.

The process is far simpler from a donor’s perspective, and Direct Relief has kindly offered to share their experience with you so that you might be able to try this strategy for potentially doubling up each donation that comes through your online doors, too.

Soup to nuts - what was the cost and time investment to get this up and running?
Direct Relief: We purchased this module from a company called HEP Development Services in Leesburg, VA. (www.hepdata.com) The cost was less than $10,000 to purchase the module, and we contracted for multiple years. The time to implement was a few weeks with a little bit of back and forth, as we decided exactly how and where to implement it on our site.

What's the process for purchasing the module and installing it?
Direct Relief: Once you let HEP know how you want to use the module, they advise on how much it will cost and then produce the necessary code and send you a link. I built a page to host introductory content and the search box, then when a user searches their company, the results populate on a HEP-hosted page. It took some basic coding ability to implement on our site. Also, we integrated it into our online donation form, which makes it really easy and convenient for donors to use.

What process did you use for building out the company donation match database?
Direct Relief: HEP maintains the company match database, and we provided names to them to see how many of our donors have the potential to have their companies match their gift.

How much have you seen donations from company matches go up since you installed it?
Direct Relief: None yet - it takes about three to six months for matching gifts to be disbursed from most companies (installed in November 2010). We think this could increase our matching gifts by about 20%, however.

On a scale of 1-10, how helpful has this tool been for increasing donations compared to other tools you've used?
Direct Relief: So far, we'd rank it an 8. Nothing's confirmed yet, but we're very hopeful that this will encourage donors to have their gift matched because it's so easy to use.

Anything you think new users should know about it or consider before getting started?
Direct Relief: Decide how and where you want to use this functionality on your site before you get started so you can communicate exactly what you're looking for to HEP. That streamlines the process.

If you have strategies for increasing online donations that you’d like to share or just want to talk shop with other Grantees and non-profits, visit our Discussion Forum and start a conversation today.

Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team

Increase donations with gift matching

Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 20:54:00 +0000

Google Grants Resources Online

Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:39:00 +0000

We hope you've all enjoyed your holiday season and are ready to get back to AdWords in full force.

Sure, you've made all kinds of New Years resolutions already, but there's still time for one more important one... 2011 is the year to make your AdWords grant fabulous!

We'd like to show you two important resources that will help you make this New Year's resolution the easiest one on your list.

The first resource is our Google Grants Help Center. This one stop-shop of knowledge covers everything from setting up your account, to managing your bids, and even how to optimize your account to increase your rank on Google.com. The articles are organized by topics like Basics, Your Ad Performance, and Your AdWords Account so you can access them quickly. And if you can't find what you're looking for, don't fret! Just search for it at the top of any Google Grants Help Center page (we're really good with that whole search concept).

Our second resource is built by you, made for you. The Google Grants Help Forum was created with all your questions (and answers!) in mind. Can't find what you're looking for in the Help Center? Perhaps others have the same questions too, and have posted them in our forum. This is the place to ask the community of Grantees anything you'd like. Sometimes the Google Grants team provides answers, but most answers come from YOU!

Feel free to post a discussion, and see who answers in "My Discussions." If you answer many discussions, we'll show others that you're a star (!) and display the amount of discussions you've replied to on your profile. Also, if you find a discussion that particularly helps you, but can't read it 'til later, you can mark it and come back another time.

Isn't crowd sourcing the best?

So, get movin' on your easiest resolution this year and make your AdWords account the best it can be!

Happy New Year!

Posted by Andrea Cohan, AdWords Team

Google Grants Resources Online

Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:39:00 +0000

The First Google Grants Day in the Netherlands

Google Grants Team Member — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 18:24:00 +0000

In November, the Benelux Google Grants team had the pleasure to welcome more than 30 different non-profit organizations at the first ever Google Grants Day in Amsterdam. The attendees were a mix of existing grantees and non-profit organizations that were new to the Grants program. The day kicked off with a series of workshops and ended on a high note with insights into different aspects of online marketing from our 3 speakers.

The workshops for our existing grantees began with a hands-on optimization session, where grantees got the chance to brainstorm with our AdWords specialists on how to maximize their Google Grant to meet their organization’s mission and goals. This was followed by a session on how to create exposure and awareness through YouTube and a workshop on how non-profit organizations can get the most valuable information out of Google Analytics.

For the organizations new to the Grants program there was a special surprise: we made sure that they would leave the Amsterdam office as the proud owners of new and shiny Google Grants accounts! During their sessions these non-profits got the chance to set up their account, get acquainted with the AdWords interface and learn all about basic optimization. Suffice to say that these new grantees left the Grants Day happily surprised and extremely content.

After these product-focused and practical workshops, the speaker sessions offered the grantees a chance to think about online marketing from a broader point of view. Topics covered by speakers from Google ranged from Search Engine Optimization and Google Webmaster tools to Google Earth Outreach and the work that Google does through Google.org such as Google Crisis Response. Then, Jeroen den Tex, Chief Marketing Officer at Red Cross the Netherlands, enlightened us with insights into how the Red Cross puts the online landscape to good use.

Following the speaker session, the grantees had the opportunity to get to know their fellow grantees while enjoying a bite to eat. We were happy to learn that our grantees found it very useful to be able to share advice and best practices with other grantees, and we hope that this will encourage valuable collaboration between non-profits in the future!

Overall, the attendees were very eager to learn more about Google Grants and Google for Non-Profits products and tools. We would like to thank all the grantees for attending and all the Googlers for helping us to make this day a huge success! We hope to repeat this in 2011!

Posted by Anne-Christine Polet, DCS Benelux

The First Google Grants Day in the Netherlands

Google Grants Team Member — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 18:24:00 +0000

Posted by Anne-Christine Polet, DCS Benelux

Ring In The New Year With Accessible Content: Website Clinic For Non-Profits

Google Grants Team Member — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 20:04:00 +0000

Webmaster level: Beginner

Cross Posted on the Webmaster Central Blog

In our previous post, we did some source code housekeeping -- just in time for the holidays. But once users have landed on your site, how can you make sure they’ll know how to get around?

As it turns out, easily accessible content on your site can make a big difference. Users tend to have a better experience when a site helps them find and understand its content. Having an accessible site not only empowers users, it also helps search engines understand what your site is really about.

So if you’ve resolved to boost your site’s user experience and online presence for the new year, improving your content accessibility is a great way to start. Thankfully, there are tons of features you can add to make your site more accessible. In this post, we’ll highlight three of them:

Intuitive navigation
Concise, descriptive anchor text for links
Unique, accurate page titles throughout the site

Intuitive navigation

Help users avoid confusion by providing them with intuitive navigation, so that when they arrive at your site, they’ll know where to click to find the information they’re looking for.

Here are three features you can implement in order to lead your users down the right path:

Navigational menu: Having a menu with links to the site’s most important pages is the fastest, easiest way to show users where to click next.
Text-based links: While drop-down menus, image-based links, and animation-based links can be appealing, keep in mind that users on text-only devices and some search engines may not be able to see or understand these links. Thus, many users prefer text-based links, which are also easier for search engines to crawl and interpret.
User-viewable site map: 59% of our submissions did not have a user-viewable site map. By providing one, you display the structure of your site and give the user easy one-click navigation. If users are having trouble finding specific pages on your site, a site map can help them find their way. Don’t send your users into the wild without a map!

Let’s explore how these features can make a site’s navigation more intuitive by looking at one of our submitted sites, Philanthropedia.

Thanks to this site’s clean navigational menu, users can find all of the site’s important pages within a few clicks. Wherever users end up on the site, they can always click on the “Home” button to return to the main page, or on any of the links in the menu to return to the site’s important subpages. Like all of the links on this site, the links in the navigational menu are text-based links, which make it easier for both search engines and users to access the site’s content. Finally, Philanthropedia has included a user-viewable site map, shown below, in case visitors are looking for a specific page not listed in the main menu.

Concise, descriptive anchor text for links

Anchor text -- the clickable text of a link -- can help users quickly decide which links they want to click on and find out more about. Meaningful anchor text makes it easier for users to navigate around your site and also helps search engines understand what the link’s destination page is about.

20% of our submissions could improve their sites by improving the anchor text used in some of their internal links. When writing anchor text, keep two things in mind:

Be descriptive: Use words that are relevant to the destination page, avoiding generic phrases like “click here” or “article.” Make sure the user can get a snapshot of the destination page’s overall content and functionality by reading the anchor text.
Keep it concise: Anchor text that contains a few words or a short phrase is more attractive and convenient for users to read than a sentence or paragraph-long link.

Let’s take a look at how anchor text played out in two user-submitted examples:

Organization	Anchor Text Examples	Anchor Text Behavior	User Friendliness
The Mosaic Project	Work for Mosaic Order Our Curriculum Guide Outdoor School	Active verb phrases and rich nouns accurately describe the pages that the links are pointing to.	High: Users can get an accurate idea of the content on the links’ destination pages just by reading the anchor text.
Asian Liver Center	Learn more here	Generic phrases give little insight into the pages that the links are pointing to.	Low: The anchor text is too generic and does not give users an idea of what the linked-to content is.

You can learn more about anchor text and internal linking strategies by checking out this blog post on the importance of link architecture.

Unique, accurate page titles throughout the site

Each page on your site is different, so flaunt your site’s diversity by giving a unique title to each page. Giving each page a unique title lets search engines know how that page is distinct from others within your site. In our analysis, over 28% of sites could have improved their site quality by adding unique page titles.

Let’s check out a few more examples to see what a difference unique, accurate page titles can make:

Organization	Page Title Examples	Page Title Behavior	User Friendliness
VAMS International	Upcoming Events \| VAMS International Request Service \| VAMS International FAQ’s \| VAMS International	Concise, rich language joined with the organization’s name accurately describes the corresponding pages. The titles show how each page is unique while also acknowledging that they are all associated with one organization.	High: Each page’s content is relevant to its title, and the user can get a good idea of each page’s unique offerings and functionality.
MHCD Evaluation and Research	MHCD Evaluation and Research	This page title is too general and does not accurately describe the content on each page. The same title is used across all the pages on this site.	Low: This site contains a lot of diverse content and rich functionality; however, the uniform page titles do not convey these strengths.

Wrapping things up

We hope that this blog post has given you some ideas on how to ring in the new year with improved content accessibility, which can boost the user experience and online presence for your site.

To learn more about the features discussed here and in our previous two site clinic posts, check out our SEO Report Card and SEO Starter Guide.

This blog post wraps up our website clinic for non-profits. We send our warmest regards to all the great non-profit causes you are working on, and thanks to everyone who took the time to submit their sites and read our posts!

Posted by Jen Lee and Alexi Douvas, Search Quality Evaluation Team

Contributors: Aditya Goradia, Brandon Falls, Charlene Perez, Diara Dankert, Michael Wyszomierski, and Nelson Bradley

Holiday Source Code Housekeeping: Website Clinic for Non-Profits

Google Grants Team Member — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 19:35:00 +0000

Webmaster Level: Beginner

Co-hosted on the Webmaster Central Blog

As the holiday season comes around, we all have a bit of housekeeping to do. This is precisely why we wanted to focus the second post in our site clinic series on cleaning up your source code. Throughout our analysis of submitted non-profit websites, we noticed some confusion about what HTML markup, or tags, to use where, and what content to place within them, both of which could have significant impact on users and how your website looks on the search results page.

Before you deck the halls, deck out your elements</span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Out of all the submitted non-profit websites, 27% were misusing their <title> elements, which are critical in letting both Google and users know what’s important to your website. Typically, a search engine will display ~60 characters from your title element; this is valuable real estate, so you should use it! Before getting into the actual code, let’s first take a look at how a great title element from one of our submitted sites, <a href="http://www.sharp.com/index.cfm">Sharp</a>, will appear in the search results page:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Ideally, a great <title> element will include the name of the organization, along with a descriptive tag line. Let’s take a look at some submitted examples:</span></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="t1"> <tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" class="td1"> <p class="p1">Organization</p> </td> <td valign="top" class="td2"> <p class="p1"><title> source code</p> </td> <td valign="top" class="td3"> <p class="p1">User Friendliness</p> </td> <td valign="top" class="td4"> <p class="p1">Tag Behavior</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" class="td5"> <p class="p2"><span class="s1"><a href="http://www.sharp.com/index.cfm">Sharp</a></span></p> </td> <td valign="top" class="td6"> <p class="p1"><title>Top San Diego Doctors and Hospitals - Sharp HealthCare

Best

Includes organization’s name and a descriptive tag line

Interieur

Interieur 2010 - 15-24 October Kortrijk, Belgium

Good

Includes the organization’s name and a non-descriptive tag line

VAMS International

Visual Arts and Music for Society | VAMS International

Okay

Includes only the organization’s name

If you don’t specify a tag, then Google will try to create a title for you. You can probably do better than our best guess, so go for it: take control of your <title> tag! It’s a simple fix that can make a huge difference. Using specific <title> tags for your deeper URLs is also important, and we’ll address that in our next site clinic post.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Keep an eye on your description meta tags</b></div><div><a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/09/improve-snippets-with-meta-description.html">Description meta tags</a> weren’t being utilized to their full potential in 54% of submitted sites. These tags are often used to populate the two-line snippet provided to users in the search results page. With a solid snippet, you can get your potential readers excited and ready to learn more about your organization. Let’s take another look at a good example from among the submitted sites, <a href="http://www.aussierescueil.com/">Tales of Aussie Rescue</a>:</div></div><div><br /></div><div></div><div><br /></div><div><div>If description meta tags are absent or not relevant, a snippet will be chosen from the page’s content automatically. If you’re lucky and have a good snippet auto-selected, keep in mind that search engines vary in the way that they select snippets, so it’s better to keep things consistent and relevant by writing a solid description meta tag. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Keep your <h> <h> elements in their place</h></b></div><div>Another quick fix in your housekeeping is assuring your website makes proper use of heading tags. In our non-profit study, nearly 19% of submitted sites had room for improvement with heading elements. The most common problem in heading tags was the tendency to initiate headers with an <h2> or <h3> tag while not including an <h1> tag, presumably for aesthetic reasons.</div><div><br /></div><div>Headings give you the opportunity to tell both Google and users what’s important to you and your website. The lower the number on your heading tag, the more important the text, in the eyes of Google and your users. Take advantage of that <h1> tag! If you don’t like how an <h1> tag is rendered visually, you can always alter its appearance in your CSS.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Use alt text for images</b></div><div>Everyone is always proud to display their family photos come holiday season, but don’t forget to tell us what they’re all about. Over 37% of analyzed sites were not making appropriate use of the image alt attribute. If used properly, this attribute can: </div><div><ul><li>Help Google understand what your image is</li><li>Allow users on text-only browsers, with accessibility problems, or on limited devices to understand your images</li></ul></div><div>Keep in mind, rich and descriptive alt text is the key here. Let’s take another look at some of our submitted sites and their alt attribute usage:</div></div><div><br /></div><div> <style type="text/css"> p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 15.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 15.0px Arial; color: #0000a1} span.s1 {text-decoration: underline} table.t1 {border-collapse: collapse} td.td1 {width: 100.0px; background-color: #c0c0c0; border-style: solid; border-width: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px; border-color: #aaaaaa #aaaaaa #aaaaaa #aaaaaa; padding: 8.0px 8.0px 8.0px 8.0px} td.td2 {width: 95.0px; background-color: #c0c0c0; border-style: solid; border-width: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px; border-color: #aaaaaa #aaaaaa #aaaaaa #aaaaaa; padding: 8.0px 8.0px 8.0px 8.0px} td.td3 {width: 285.0px; background-color: #c0c0c0; border-style: solid; border-width: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px; border-color: #aaaaaa #aaaaaa #aaaaaa #aaaaaa; padding: 8.0px 8.0px 8.0px 8.0px} td.td4 {width: 243.0px; background-color: #c0c0c0; border-style: solid; border-width: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px; border-color: #aaaaaa #aaaaaa #aaaaaa #aaaaaa; padding: 8.0px 8.0px 8.0px 8.0px} td.td5 {width: 100.0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px; border-color: #aaaaaa #aaaaaa #aaaaaa #aaaaaa; padding: 8.0px 8.0px 8.0px 8.0px} td.td6 {width: 95.0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px; border-color: #aaaaaa #aaaaaa #aaaaaa #aaaaaa; padding: 8.0px 8.0px 8.0px 8.0px} td.td7 {width: 285.0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px; border-color: #aaaaaa #aaaaaa #aaaaaa #aaaaaa; padding: 8.0px 8.0px 8.0px 8.0px} td.td8 {width: 243.0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px; border-color: #aaaaaa #aaaaaa #aaaaaa #aaaaaa; padding: 8.0px 8.0px 8.0px 8.0px} </style> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="t1"> <tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" class="td1"> <p class="p1">Organization</p> </td> <td valign="top" class="td2"> <p class="p1">Source Code</p> </td> <td valign="top" class="td3"> <p class="p1">User Friendliness</p> </td> <td valign="top" class="td4"> <p class="p1">Tag Behavior</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" class="td5"> <p class="p2"><span class="s1"><a href="http://www.guidedogsgiving.org.uk/sponsorapuppy/">Sponsor A Puppy</a></span></p> </td> <td valign="top" class="td6"> <p class="p1"> </td> <td valign="top" class="td7"> <p class="p1">Best: the alt text specifies the image is the organization’s main logo</p> </td> <td valign="top" class="td8"> <p class="p1">Uses rich, descriptive alt text to describe images, buttons, and logos</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" class="td5"> <p class="p2"><span class="s1"><a href="http://www.myphilanthropedia.org/">Philanthropedia</a></span></p> </td> <td valign="top" class="td6"> <p class="p1"> </td> <td valign="top" class="td7"> <p class="p1">Good: the alt text specifies the image is a logo, but does not further describe it by the organization or its behavior</p> </td> <td valign="top" class="td8"> <p class="p1">Uses non-descriptive alt text for images, buttons, and logos, or uses alt text only sporadically</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" class="td5"> <p class="p2"><span class="s1"><a href="http://www.coastalcommunityfoundation.org/">Coastal Community Foundation</a></span></p> </td> <td valign="top" class="td6"> <p class="p1"></p> </td> <td valign="top" class="td7"> <p class="p1">Not ideal: alt text not present</p> </td> <td valign="top" class="td8"> <p class="p1">No use of alt text, or use of text that does not add meaning (often seen in numbering the images)</p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table></div></div><div></div><div><div><br /><b>A little window shopping for your New Year’s resolution</b></div><div>Google has some great resources to further address best practices in your source code. For starters, you can use our <a href="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=80407">HTML Suggestion Tool</a> in Webmaster Tools. Also, it’s always a good practice to make your site <a href="http://www.google.com/accessibility/">accessible</a> to all viewers.</div></div><div></div><div><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Alexi Douvas and Jen Lee, Search Quality Team</span></div><div><span class="byline-author">Contributors: Aditya Goradia, Brandon Falls, Charlene Perez, Diara Dankert, Michael Wyszomierski, and Nelson Bradley</span></div> </article> <article> <h1>Introducing Grantspro</h1> <p>Google Grants Team Member — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 21:41:00 +0000</p> We're excited to announce the launch of <a href="http://www.google.com/grants/grantees/services.html">Grantspro</a>, an updated version of the Additional Services Program, aimed at better serving grantees involved in this segment of the Google Grants program.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What is Grantspro?</span><br />Grantspro offers an additional $30,000 per month (for a total of $40,000 per month) to grantees who meet certain requirements. The updated requirements are detailed on<a href="http://www.google.com/grants/grantees/services.html"> our website.</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">How is Grantspro different from Additional Services?</span><br />Grantspros are not required to submit quarterly analytics reports as they were in the Additional Services program. All analytics data is requested on the Annual Survey, which was sent to all grantees this year on November 1, 2010, and is sent annually in Q4.<br /><br />New applicants to Grantspro will first participate in a Grantspro test aimed at setting expectations about the demands of managing your account at the increased budget and requirement levels.<br /><br />Grantspro’s required spend level is higher, but the required period of time for this spend is shorter, to allow for non-profits who experience seasonality and fluctuations in traffic patterns.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What if I’m currently enrolled in Additional Services? </span><br />You’re all set. Just continue to submit your Annual Survey results yearly and follow the <a href="http://www.google.com/grants/details.html#details">Active Account Management requirements</a> to remain active as a Grantspro. You don’t need to reapply for the program or resubmit analytics data (you covered it with your Annual Survey this year).<br /><br />Additional FAQs about Grantspro can be found in <a href="http://www.google.com/support/grants/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1081709">our Help Center</a>. If you’d like to continue discussing the launch of Grantspro, we invite you to start up a conversation in our<a href="http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/grants/label?lid=5698f6fab21b4d3b&hl=en"> Grantspro discussion forum.</a><br /><br />Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team </article> <article> <h1>Introducing Grantspro</h1> <p>Google Grants Team Member — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 21:41:00 +0000</p> We're excited to announce the launch of <a href="http://www.google.com/grants/grantees/services.html">Grantspro</a>, an updated version of the Additional Services Program, aimed at better serving grantees involved in this segment of the Google Grants program.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What is Grantspro?</span><br />Grantspro offers an additional $30,000 per month (for a total of $40,000 per month) to grantees who meet certain requirements. The updated requirements are detailed on<a href="http://www.google.com/grants/grantees/services.html"> our website.</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">How is Grantspro different from Additional Services?</span><br />Grantspros are not required to submit quarterly analytics reports as they were in the Additional Services program. All analytics data is requested on the Annual Survey, which was sent to all grantees this year on November 1, 2010, and is sent annually in Q4.<br /><br />New applicants to Grantspro will first participate in a Grantspro test aimed at setting expectations about the demands of managing your account at the increased budget and requirement levels.<br /><br />Grantspro’s required spend level is higher, but the required period of time for this spend is shorter, to allow for non-profits who experience seasonality and fluctuations in traffic patterns.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What if I’m currently enrolled in Additional Services? </span><br />You’re all set. Just continue to submit your Annual Survey results yearly and follow the <a href="http://www.google.com/grants/details.html#details">Active Account Management requirements</a> to remain active as a Grantspro. You don’t need to reapply for the program or resubmit analytics data (you covered it with your Annual Survey this year).<br /><br />Additional FAQs about Grantspro can be found in <a href="http://www.google.com/support/grants/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1081709">our Help Center</a>. If you’d like to continue discussing the launch of Grantspro, we invite you to start up a conversation in our<a href="http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/grants/label?lid=5698f6fab21b4d3b&hl=en"> Grantspro discussion forum.</a><br /><br />Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team<div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>A Helping Holiday Hand: Website Clinic for Non-Profits</h1> <p>Google Grants Team Member — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 20:40:00 +0000</p> Webmaster Level: Beginner<br />Co-hosted on the <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/">Webmaster Central Blog</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">A New Year’s resolution</span><br />In the spirit of the holidays, here at Google we wanted to take the time to help out those who spend their days making our world a better place: non-profit organizations. A few weeks back, we asked webmasters of non-profits to <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/10/website-clinic-call-for-submissions.html">submit their organization’s site</a> to our Search Quality team for analysis. After some number crunching and trend analysis, we’re back to report on general areas for improvement and to guide you towards some useful resources!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Making our list, checking it twice</span><br />First, we’d like thank all of the amazing organizations who participated by submitting their sites. We got some great results, and are excited about all the diverse non-profit causes out there.<br /><br />Our analysis will take place in the following two posts. The first post will focus on cleaning up HTML tags in your source code, while the second will examine improving user experience via better content accessibility.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Visions of... URLs... dancing in our heads</span><br />The great news is, every single site submitted had at least one or two areas to tweak to make it even better! So this information should be helpful to everyone out there, big or small. Just to whet your appetites, here’s a quick list of items that will not be addressed in our following posts, but that had some room for improvement in a large percentage of submitted sites:<br /><ul><li><i>Keep an eye on proper <a href="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139066">canonicalization</a>:</i> 56% of analyzed non-profit sites could improve their canonicalization practices. You can read more about canonicalization in <a href="http://googleindia.blogspot.com/2010/02/india-site-clinic-part-i.html">this blog post</a> from a previous site clinic.</li><li><i>Make sure your volunteer/support sections are visible:</i> 29% of our submissions could improve their sites by making their support, volunteer, or donation sections easier to find. A great way to accomplish this is to add a donations tab to your navigation bar so it’s just one click away at all times. </li><li><i>Protect your confidential information:</i> Lots of non-profits, especially those in the medical industry, deal with some very important and confidential information. Read up on how to <a href="http://code.google.com/web/controlcrawlindex/">control your crawled and indexed content</a>, and remember to protect confidential content through proper authentication measures.</li><li><i>Make your Flash sites search engine friendly:</i> We saw some beautiful sites running on Flash. Search engines have a hard time understanding Flash files, and we’re working to improve Flash comprehension on our end, but here are some discussion points on how you can <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/06/improved-flash-indexing.html">help us understand your Flash content.</a></li></ul><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Alexi Douvas & Jen Lee, Search Quality Evaluation Team</span><br />Contributors: Aditya Goradia, Brandon Falls, Charlene Perex, Diara Dankert, Michael Wyszomierski & Nelson Bradley </article> <article> <h1>A Helping Holiday Hand: Website Clinic for Non-Profits</h1> <p>Google Grants Team Member — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 20:40:00 +0000</p> Webmaster Level: Beginner<br />Co-hosted on the <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/">Webmaster Central Blog</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">A New Year’s resolution</span><br />In the spirit of the holidays, here at Google we wanted to take the time to help out those who spend their days making our world a better place: non-profit organizations. A few weeks back, we asked webmasters of non-profits to <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/10/website-clinic-call-for-submissions.html">submit their organization’s site</a> to our Search Quality team for analysis. After some number crunching and trend analysis, we’re back to report on general areas for improvement and to guide you towards some useful resources!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Making our list, checking it twice</span><br />First, we’d like thank all of the amazing organizations who participated by submitting their sites. We got some great results, and are excited about all the diverse non-profit causes out there.<br /><br />Our analysis will take place in the following two posts. The first post will focus on cleaning up HTML tags in your source code, while the second will examine improving user experience via better content accessibility.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Visions of... URLs... dancing in our heads</span><br />The great news is, every single site submitted had at least one or two areas to tweak to make it even better! So this information should be helpful to everyone out there, big or small. Just to whet your appetites, here’s a quick list of items that will not be addressed in our following posts, but that had some room for improvement in a large percentage of submitted sites:<br /><ul><li><i>Keep an eye on proper <a href="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139066">canonicalization</a>:</i> 56% of analyzed non-profit sites could improve their canonicalization practices. You can read more about canonicalization in <a href="http://googleindia.blogspot.com/2010/02/india-site-clinic-part-i.html">this blog post</a> from a previous site clinic.</li><li><i>Make sure your volunteer/support sections are visible:</i> 29% of our submissions could improve their sites by making their support, volunteer, or donation sections easier to find. A great way to accomplish this is to add a donations tab to your navigation bar so it’s just one click away at all times. </li><li><i>Protect your confidential information:</i> Lots of non-profits, especially those in the medical industry, deal with some very important and confidential information. Read up on how to <a href="http://code.google.com/web/controlcrawlindex/">control your crawled and indexed content</a>, and remember to protect confidential content through proper authentication measures.</li><li><i>Make your Flash sites search engine friendly:</i> We saw some beautiful sites running on Flash. Search engines have a hard time understanding Flash files, and we’re working to improve Flash comprehension on our end, but here are some discussion points on how you can <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/06/improved-flash-indexing.html">help us understand your Flash content.</a></li></ul><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Alexi Douvas & Jen Lee, Search Quality Evaluation Team</span><br />Contributors: Aditya Goradia, Brandon Falls, Charlene Perex, Diara Dankert, Michael Wyszomierski & Nelson Bradley<div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Sharing Holiday Cheer With Google Maps</h1> <p>Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:57:00 +0000</p> Cross Posted on <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/send-message-of-holiday-cheer-with.html">the Official Google Blog</a> <br /> <br />For me, celebrating the holidays is both about spending time with family, and taking the time to help others. Along with bundling up by the fire and sipping some hot cocoa, the holidays mean taking the time to do something good. <br /> <br />If you want to send directions to a volunteer opportunity, or just want to brighten a friend’s day, we’ve designed online holiday greeting cards featuring Google Maps. In addition to choosing from <a href="http://googlemapsholidays.appspot.com/">ten holiday covers</a> and adding a personal message, you can include specific directions, a Street View image, or a favorite place on the inside of the card. <br /> <br />For example, I can send this card with the map designed as a holiday present, to remind friends about the gift of giving, and share directions to volunteer at their <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=San+Francisco+Food+Bank,+San+Francisco,+CA&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=43.037246,73.125&ie=UTF8&hq=San+Francisco+Food+Bank,&hnear=San+Francisco,+California&ll=37.758434,-122.390785&spn=0.04214,0.071411&z=14&iwloc=A">local food bank</a> to help feed thousands of people over the holidays.<div> <br /><div><meta charset="utf-8"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; "></div><div><meta charset="utf-8"><div style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><i> Thanks to <a href="http://www.christophniemann.com/">Christoff Niemann</a> for inspiration. </i></div><div> <br /></div><div>With all of the holiday decorations around San Francisco, I enjoy walking or biking around and taking in the sights. I can send this card to my friends to get them thinking about environmentally-friendly alternate modes of transportation, and include <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=345+Spear+Street,+San+Francisco,+CA&daddr=INDIAN+OVEN,+San+Francisco,+CA&hl=en&geocode=FWugQAIdA3u0-CnPy_YLcICFgDG24T8JAruZjw;FcFZQAIdxtuz-CE2H3YR8I5BaQ&mra=ls&dirflg=b&sll=32.249974,-97.822266&sspn=45.375169,73.125&ie=UTF8&z=14&lci=bike">biking directions</a> to an upcoming dinner (after all, snow is a rare sight in San Francisco). </div><div> <br /></div><div><meta charset="utf-8"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; "></div></div><meta charset="utf-8"><div><span class="Apple-style-span"> <br /></span>Finally, doing good can also mean just brightening someone’s day, so I will send this cheerful holiday greeting to my big brother in Colorado to let him know that I’m looking forward to seeing him over the holidays. </div><div> <br /></div><meta charset="utf-8"><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><meta charset="utf-8"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "></div></span> <br />You too can share the holiday spirit with these online cards, so start sending them at <a href="http://googlemapsholidays.appspot.com/">googlemapsholidays.appspot.com</a>. Happy holidays! <br /> <br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Kirsten Olsen Cahill, Google.org Team</span></div></div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Sharing Holiday Cheer With Google Maps</h1> <p>Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:57:00 +0000</p> Cross Posted on <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/send-message-of-holiday-cheer-with.html">the Official Google Blog</a> <br /> <br />For me, celebrating the holidays is both about spending time with family, and taking the time to help others. Along with bundling up by the fire and sipping some hot cocoa, the holidays mean taking the time to do something good. <br /> <br />If you want to send directions to a volunteer opportunity, or just want to brighten a friend’s day, we’ve designed online holiday greeting cards featuring Google Maps. In addition to choosing from <a href="http://googlemapsholidays.appspot.com/">ten holiday covers</a> and adding a personal message, you can include specific directions, a Street View image, or a favorite place on the inside of the card. <br /> <br />For example, I can send this card with the map designed as a holiday present, to remind friends about the gift of giving, and share directions to volunteer at their <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=San+Francisco+Food+Bank,+San+Francisco,+CA&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=43.037246,73.125&ie=UTF8&hq=San+Francisco+Food+Bank,&hnear=San+Francisco,+California&ll=37.758434,-122.390785&spn=0.04214,0.071411&z=14&iwloc=A">local food bank</a> to help feed thousands of people over the holidays.<div> <br /><div><meta charset="utf-8"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; "></div><div><meta charset="utf-8"><div style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><i> Thanks to <a href="http://www.christophniemann.com/">Christoff Niemann</a> for inspiration. </i></div><div> <br /></div><div>With all of the holiday decorations around San Francisco, I enjoy walking or biking around and taking in the sights. I can send this card to my friends to get them thinking about environmentally-friendly alternate modes of transportation, and include <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=345+Spear+Street,+San+Francisco,+CA&daddr=INDIAN+OVEN,+San+Francisco,+CA&hl=en&geocode=FWugQAIdA3u0-CnPy_YLcICFgDG24T8JAruZjw;FcFZQAIdxtuz-CE2H3YR8I5BaQ&mra=ls&dirflg=b&sll=32.249974,-97.822266&sspn=45.375169,73.125&ie=UTF8&z=14&lci=bike">biking directions</a> to an upcoming dinner (after all, snow is a rare sight in San Francisco). </div><div> <br /></div><div><meta charset="utf-8"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; "></div></div><meta charset="utf-8"><div><span class="Apple-style-span"> <br /></span>Finally, doing good can also mean just brightening someone’s day, so I will send this cheerful holiday greeting to my big brother in Colorado to let him know that I’m looking forward to seeing him over the holidays. </div><div> <br /></div><meta charset="utf-8"><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><meta charset="utf-8"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "></div></span> <br />You too can share the holiday spirit with these online cards, so start sending them at <a href="http://googlemapsholidays.appspot.com/">googlemapsholidays.appspot.com</a>. Happy holidays! <br /> <br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Kirsten Olsen Cahill, Google.org Team</span></div></div></div></div> </article> <article> <h1>Join Your Favorite YouTube Stars And Charities For A Live Event This Saturday</h1> <p>Google Grants Team Member — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 23:28:00 +0000</p> <a href="http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2010/12/join-your-favorite-youtube-stars-and.html">Cross posted on the YouTube Blog</a><br /><br />Three years ago, the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/vlogbrothers">vlogbrothers</a> Hank and John kick started an initiative called <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4hqWfp3374">Project for Awesome</a>, which called for YouTube users across the world to “take over YouTube” by creating videos that promote their favorite charities and causes. Project for Awesome built on its initial success again in 2008, resulting in thousands of user submissions and a homepage takeover, as people around YouTube took to the web to make the world more awesome for the holidays. Hank and John upped the ante last year by increasing community participation, making Project for Awesome (#p4a) one of the top trending topics on Twitter in December 2009.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6pg2Nxx3FI&feature=player_embedded#!">Project for Awesome 2010</a> officially begins on December 17 at 12:01 AM, when users are encouraged to upload videos for their favorite causes and charities. To celebrate the end of Project for Awesome on Saturday, December 18, join us for a live show on YouTube at www.youtube.com/p4a. We’re teaming up with the vlogbrothers, some of YouTube’s biggest stars like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/daneboe">daneboe of Annoying Orange</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/michellephan">Michelle Phan</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/sxephil">Phil DeFranco</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/whatthebuckshow">Michael Buckley</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/shaycarl">Shay Carl</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/ijustine">iJustine</a>, and prominent nonprofit organizations to broadcast a four hour live show from 4-8 pm PST. The live show invloves a wide array of entertainment: from musical performances to user-generated games to special moments that only YouTube can bring. Moreover, this year, Project for Awesome will focus on raising awareness and encouraging action in four areas: innovation in education, health, poverty and children’s wish-giving.<br /><br />Representatives from eight charities will be in attendance at this next-generation telethon: including <a href="http://www.beatbullying.org/">Beatbullying</a>, <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/">DonorsChoose</a>, <a href="http://wish.org/">Make A Wish Foundation</a>, <a href="http://www.toysfortots.org/">Marine Toys For Tots Foundation</a>, <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/">Open University</a>, <a href="http://www.pih.org/">Partners In Health</a>, <a href="http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6115947/k.8D6E/Official_Site.htm">Save The Children</a> and <a href="http://water.org/">Water.org</a>.<br /><br />And, as in past years, we’re encouraging the global YouTube community to create videos on behalf on these charities and the causes you’re most passionate about. Post them to your site, tweet them, put them on Facebook - do whatever you can to spread the awesome this holiday season. We look forward to seeing what you create and hope you join us online this Saturday for a ton of awesomeness!<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Margaret Healy, YouTube Team</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Keyword Tool Updates</h1> <p>Google Grants Team Member — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 22:09:00 +0000</p> <span class="byline-author"> <title>
The AdWords Keyword Tool has some exciting new features! Please check out the new features below.

There are three new ways to filter and refine your keyword list. With the updates you can:
Choose specific terms to include or exclude from your keyword list
Use the ‘More like these’ button to search for terms that are similar to the specific keyword ideas you’ve selected from the table
Get only results that include the exact words or phrases (and their close synonyms) you’ve typed in the search box

You can also add stars to keywords that you would like to save while you are still searching for new keyword ideas. You can review your starred keywords in the ‘Stars’ panel on the left side of the tool.

The updated Keyword Tool also allows you to view your selected keywords in text form, so that you can easily edit them and paste them in a spreadsheet or AdWords Editor. Simply select the ‘View as text’ button!

We hope you take advantage of these new features. Please provide feedback here so we can continue to make improvements.

Posted by Janelle Kuhlman, Google Grants Team

When Should I Make Changes In My Account?

Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 23:22:00 +0000
After thoroughly following the required steps to create your Google Grants account that is going to aid the hard work of your organization, and after investing time and effort in getting to know the different pages, tabs and terms it encloses, it is important that you don’t abandon it.

Many organizations make the mistake of thinking that once created, their AdWords account should be left to work on its own. However, it is fundamental that you monitor the results that the account is generating for you so that you can adapt it as frequently as it is necessary. Do not base your decisions for introducing change on the amount of clicks that your ads obtain, but rather take a look at the number of conversions that you are getting.

Let your new campaign run for some time so that it generates significant data for you to evaluate and so that its performance stabilizes. After 4 - 6 weeks, monitor the results that you have obtained from your ads and keywords. Use this information to optimize your account and improve your keywords like shown in this short video. Decrease the CPC of the bad performing keywords, increase it for the keywords that are working well and delete those that are not generating valuable traffic.

Do you have a list of negative keywords? If you don’t, you can analyze what words are triggering your ads and include those that are not related to your organization as negative keywords. If you already have a list of negative keywords, review and add to it.

We also recommend evaluating your ad text regularly. Add variations that are similar to the ads that are working well, modify the ads that are performing less well and delete the poorly performing ads.

After introducing and saving the changes, let the campaign run for a reasonable amount of time and review the results again! Molding your campaign is a constant activity and can help you meet your campaign goals. For more information on optimizing your campaigns please check out the AdWords Optimization Center.

Posted by Mireya Semelas, Ad Operations Team

App’y Holidays From Google

Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:53:00 +0000

The holidays are a hectic time for all of us, especially nonprofit organizations that rely on the seasonal spirit of giving to sustain operations throughout the year. As you move into this busy time, we thought you might like a few tips on how using Google Apps and other tools can help you make a change and save some time this holiday season.

To reach more donors: Use these Google Docs templates to attract and engage supporters with newsletters, event invitations, and more.

To improve operations: Try out this project planning template to save time and better organize your staff and volunteers.

To raise awareness: Check out Google Fusion Tables to show impact or add a custom map to your website.

For more ideas of how Google’s tools can help expand your impact and to view cases studies from fellow nonprofits, visit the Google for Nonprofits website. Share your stories by telling us how Google products have helped your organization.

Posted by Anna Bishop, Google For Nonprofits Team

FAQs From New Google Grantees

Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 17:51:00 +0000

We offer grantees educational resources such as the Beginner's Guide and the Google Grants Help Center. We recommend referring to these resources whenever you have questions, but also wanted to share some frequently asked questions that we have been receiving from prospective grantees and newbies.

1. Does our organization already have to be established and with a developed reputation in order to be eligible for Google Grants?

No. Do not hesitate to make full use of this program just because your organization is new. Although your organization's success and reputation are of great value, we also support newly established organizations with a passion for charity. However, please be aware that we ask your organization to have a charity status in your country. (In the U.S., for example, 501(c)(3) status is required.) You can refer to our program guidelines for detailed information around eligibility requirements.

2. We do not have in-depth knowledge of Google AdWords. Should we hire an advertising agency to manage our account?

AdWords is developed to be a self-service product, and with our online resources you should be able to get started comfortably. As a participant in the Google Grants program, we require you to be responsive to our email requests and log in to your account monthly (if not more often) to review campaign performance and improve your account, tasks that do not require you to hire an agency.

3. Within our organization we have multiple projects with different goals. Can we have multiple AdWords accounts to manage these projects independently?

At this time, each organization may only have a single AdWords account. However, your organization can have multiple campaigns within your account, with each campaign focused on a distinct goal or project.

4. Can Google sponsor events organized by our organization, or other aspects of our business?

Google Grants is a program specifically designed to support charitable organizations through providing a free Google AdWords account and does not involve funding other aspects of these organizations.

Posted by Koichi Goto, Google AdWords Team

Google Grants Ad Best Practices And Policies

Google Grants Team Member — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 23:09:00 +0000
One of the key principles of any successful campaign is for it to be based on effective, good quality ads. AdWords advertisers, as well as Google Grants advertisers, have to be particularly focused on solid ad text as they are the main ingredient to make their campaign work. These ads must also comply with AdWords policies. Check out some ad best practices and policies below!

First, if you want to modify an ad we recommend creating a new one and leaving the old one running until the new one is approved. This will ensure that you have an ad running at all times because every time you submit new ads or make changes to existing ads, they are automatically submitted to a new review.

Secondly, it is important to be mindful of our advertising policies. Please take note of our specific ad guidelines to be sure that your ad complies and will be published. See below for some of our most important policies when creating an ad.

Ad creative policies:
• Ad titles are limited to 25 characters.
• The two description lines and display URL are limited to 35 characters each.
• The third line must fit completely within the character limit and cannot lead into the display URL.

Remember to be clear in the way you communicate your message, including all the relevant information and details regarding your organization in order to convey your mission effectively. Avoid common editorial mistakes and do not use inappropriate capitalization or non-standard grammar, spelling, spacing, symbols or punctuation. Check out the AdWords Help Center for examples of the proper use of ad text.

All ads must comply with our URL policies that are listed below. For more details on these policies please refer to this Help Center article.

Link policies:
• Your destination URL must work properly across all web browsers and the landing page for your ad cannot be under construction.
• Your display URL, that is the website that is shown to customers with your ad, must accurately reflect the URL of the website that you're advertising. It should match the domain of your landing page so that users know which site they will be taken to when they click your ad.

Our policies are updated often so please make sure to check this new policy section of the AdWords Help Center on a regular basis.

Now that you have an overview of the main elements to take into account when writing the ads for your Google Grants campaign, remember to be creative and add your personal touch to be sure you communicate the desired message in the most effective way.

Posted by Veronica Diquattro, AdOps Team

Ad Best Practices And Policies

Google Grants Team Member — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 01:39:00 +0000
One of the key principles of any successful campaign is for it to be based on effective, good quality ads. AdWords advertisers, as well as Google Grants advertisers, have to be particularly focused on solid ad text as they are the main ingredient to make their campaign work. These ads must also comply with AdWords policies. Check out some ad best practices and policies below!

First, if you want to modify an ad we recommend creating a new one and leaving the old one running until the new one is approved. This will ensure that you have an ad running at all times because every time you submit new ads or make changes to existing ads, they are automatically submitted to a new review.
Secondly, it is important to be mindful or our advertising policies. Please take note of our specific ad guidelines to be sure that your ads comply and will be published. See below for some of our most important policies when creating an ad.
Ad creative policies:
Ad titles are limited to 25 characters.
The two description lines and display URL are limited to 35 characters each.
The third line must fit completely within the character limit and cannot lead into the display URL
Remember to be clear in the way you communicate your message, including all the relevant information and details regarding your organization in order to convey your mission effectively. Avoid common editorial mistakes and do not use inappropriate capitalization or non-standard grammar, punctuation, spelling, spacing or symbols. Check out the AdWords Help Center for examples of the proper use of ad text.

All ads must comply with our URL policies that are listed below. For more details on these policies please refer to this Help Center article.

Link policies:
Your destination URL must work properly across all web browsers and the landing page for your ad cannot be under construction.
Your display URL must accurately reflect the URL of the website that you you are advertising. It should match the domain of your landing page so that users know which site they will be taken to when they click on your ad.
Our policies are updated often so please make sure to check this new policy section of the AdWords Help Center on a regular basis.

Now that you have an overview of the main elements to take into account when writing the ads for your campaign, remember to be creative and add your personal touch to be sure you communicate the desired message in the most effective way.

Posted by Veronica Diquattro, AdOps Team

AdWords Celebrates 10 Years: Share Your Story

Google Grants Team Member — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 19:26:00 +0000
Google AdWords launched in 2000, just a few years after Larry and Sergey founded the company. In just 10 years, millions of advertisers have begun using the online advertising platform in over 200 countries and representing over 40 languages.

To celebrate AdWords’ 10th birthday we want to share your stories and successes with the world. Please join us by creating a short (3 minutes or less) YouTube video or written piece (750 characters or less) telling us your story: who you are, what your organization is about, how it has grown and the role AdWords has played along the way.

To learn more about how to share your AdWords story (including submission instructions and sample videos) please visit the AdWords 10 YouTube channel. We will post stories on the official Google AdWords blog in December, so be sure to check back!

Posted by Janelle Kuhlman, Google Grants Team

Optimization Best Practices: Tracking Performance

Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 16:48:00 +0000

Monitoring your AdWords account performance allows you to make informed optimization decisions and is an important part of managing a successful account. AdWords provides many easy-to-use free tools that Grantees should take advantage of on a regular basis. Check out a few tips on tracking your account performance below.

Check Account Statistics

You can view your account statistics at the campaign, ad group and keyword levels. These metrics are all good indicators of how well your campaign is performing. Account statistics include clicks, impressions, CTR (clickthrough rate), average CPC (cost-per-click) and average position.

There are several things you will want to consider when reviewing these statistics and evaluating how well your campaigns are performing:
Whether or not your ads are running
Amount of impressions and clicks your ads are accruing
How your campaign’s traffic is converting into meaningful actions such as donations

Create Custom Alerts

An easy way to identify changes in your account is to create custom alerts for metrics you want to measure. Once you create an alert and specify the parameters of what you want to monitor, you will be automatically notified when certain changes occur within your campaigns and ad groups. Learn more about creating custom alerts at the AdWords Help Center.

Run Reports Regularly

You can create reports that tell you exactly what statistics you want to know at the campaign, ad group and keyword level. These reports are available through the Report Center and the Campaigns tab. You can view the reports directly in your account or download them in a variety of common formats. You also have the ability to schedule reports to be sent to you via email automatically.

Check out the following reports:
Account-level reports
Ad reports
Ad group reports
Campaign reports
Destination URL reports
Geographic reports
Keyword reports
Search term reports
Use Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free tool that can help you identify how people found your site, how they explored it and how you can enhance visitor experience. For more details on how to use Google Analytics please check out our past blog post.

For more optimization tips and strategies please visit the AdWords Optimization Center.

Posted by Janelle Kuhlman, Google Grants Team

Annual Survey Announcement

Google Grants Team Member — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:00:00 +0000
Today the Google Grants team sent out a brief, but mandatory survey for all grantees worldwide. We would like to encourage all grantees to please take the time to submit a complete survey so that we are able to confirm your continued interest in the Google Grants program as well as gather information that will enable us to provide better support to our grantees.

We wanted to answer a few common questions about this annual survey up front, but feel free to discuss further in our discussion forum:

Is this survey really from Google Grants?
Yes. The survey sent out today is from our team and is not a phishing attempt. Please note that the Google Grants team will never ask you for your account password or credit card information. Just look for the email in your inbox that has the subject line, “Mandatory Google Grants Satisfaction Survey”.

How do I know if my response was received?
Once you have successfully submitted your survey, you will reach a thank you page with a confirmation message from our team. If you did not receive this confirmation message after clicking 'Submit', we ask that you resubmit your survey.

Who will receive this email at my organization?
The email will be sent to the contact email address listed in your Grants AdWords account. If that information has changed and you need to have the survey sent to another person in your organization, please first go into your Grants AdWords account, update the contact email address and then contact our team via the webform in order to have the email sent to your new contact email address. The contact email address in your account must match the email address to which you’d like the survey sent, so please update that information before contacting our team.

Thanks for taking the time to help us improve the Google Grants program.

Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team

5 Tips To Create Your AdWords Campaign

Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 17:26:00 +0000
Creating a new AdWords campaign? Check out 5 simple tips below that will help you get started.

Identify your primary goal - Why do you want to advertise on Google? What audience are you trying to reach? What sort of action to you want people to take when they see your ad? Do you want them to donate to your organization? Attend your annual event? Or simply be aware of your foundation?

Create one campaign per goal - For each of your goals create one campaign and use the language and location targeting settings to pinpoint your audience. If you have a national organization, but are only looking for volunteers in a certain city/state, location targeting can help reach the audience that is most relevant for you. You can also use language targeting in the same manner, such as targeting Spanish if you would like to reach the Hispanic population in a certain city.

Consider different messages - Consider the different messages you want to get across. These separate messages can be expressed in different ad groups. For example, let’s use the goal of volunteering. You might create three separate ad groups focusing on three different messages: Recruiting Student Volunteers, Recruiting Professional Volunteers, and Recruiting Youth Group Volunteers.

Use AdWords tools - Use the Keyword Tool in the Opportunities Tab of the AdWords interface to help expand your groups of keywords. You should have a list of around 10-35 keywords per ad group. For example, under the ad group Student Volunteers you may want to have keywords such as: student volunteering, student volunteer opportunities, after-school volunteering, etc.

Optimize as needed - Once you fill out each ad group in your campaign with the appropriate number of keywords make sure to check back as often as you can to see how everything is performing. Continue to make adjustments to your campaign, such as adding negative keywords and deleting poor performers, to make sure you are getting the most optimal results.
For more tips on creating your campaigns please refer to the AdWords Help Center. Good luck!

Posted by Alex Moss, Google AdWords Team

Google Grants Mobile Ad Strategies

Google Grants Team Member — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 21:23:00 +0000

Mobile Internet usage is growing at a tremendous pace. By 2013 it’s expected that more people will access the Internet through mobile devices than with desktop computers. Using your Google Grants AdWords account, you can extend your reach and harness this growth to promote your organization.
In your AdWords account, you already have access to a number of mobile ad formats and features. The new location extensions ad format lets users searching for your keywords find the local chapter of your organization by displaying your phone number and address with an expandable map. When people nearby your organization do a search on one of your keywords, the hyperlocal ad feature provides distance information to let them know how close they are to your physical location. Alternatively, if you accept donations via phone you can use phone extensions to drive phone calls directly from your ad. Popular desktop features are also available on mobile. Ad Sitelinks allow you to display additional links to popular content located deep within your site. For instance, you could drive users to your donations or volunteer page directly from the ad.

As you begin to target the mobile audience, remember to follow these guidelines to improve your performance. Create separate campaigns targeted only to high-end mobile devices. This will give you more granular control over bids, budgets and keywords. Also, there is a maximum of five ad units on mobile search pages -- two at the top and three at the bottom. Optimize your bids to aim for the top two ad positions to drive more users. As you optimize your account, keep in mind that user behavior can differ when searching from a mobile device. For instance, users may be more likely to make mobile queries with local intent than they would on desktop. Additionally, users on mobile often make more general queries, so consider using broader keywords to increase impression volume. Lastly, try including a strong mobile call to action in the ad text like the example below:

For more information on targeting mobile devices with full Internet browsers, such as iPads, iPhones and Android-powered phones, and the different mobile ad formats, visit the AdWords Help Center.
Posted by Zack Bailey, Mobile Specialist

Google Grants Workshop Recordings Now Live!

Google Grants Team Member — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:05:00 +0000
We are happy to announce that the video recordings from our recent Google Grants workshop in Mountain View, California are now available on our YouTube channel! Check out our channel to view sessions presented by Googlers and by your fellow grantees. You can dive into AdWords basics, optimization strategies, best practices for tracking account performance, and much more. Additional videos highlight other Google for Non-Profits products, including YouTube for Non-Profits, Google Earth Outreach, and other helpful tools for your non-profit.

We hope that all grantees, whether able to attend the workshop in-person or not, can learn from these resources and put this new knowledge to work for your organization’s Google Grant and for any additional Google for Non-Profit products your group uses.

Posted by Kristie Mun, Google Grants Team

Five Features To Know In AdWords Editor

Google Grants Team Member — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 19:26:00 +0000

Do you manage an AdWords account? Do you use AdWords Editor? If not, you should check out this free application for managing and making mass changes to your AdWords account. The program allows you to download your account, edit your campaigns offline, and upload the edits live in your account.

Essential tasks made easy within AdWords Editor include:
Adding, editing and deleting campaigns, ad groups, ads, keywords and placements
Advanced searches using various filters
Sharing proposed changes with others before uploading along with any comments
Using performance statistics like clickthrough rate and cost/conversion to view certain results and take action on those results accordingly

While the program is easy to use and fairly intuitive, there’s also a plethora of options. Here are five key features to know.

1. ADVANCED SEARCH

Use advanced search to find exactly what you’re looking for. Click on the link at the top right of Editor, and choose from more than 30 criteria. For instance, you can find all keywords with a certain word, or all ads with an exact specific destination URL.

You can also use advanced search to view performance over selected time periods. Choose one to two performance metrics to filter results, like clickthrough rate and conversion rate to identify areas to either delete or optimize. This is an especially great method for identifying underperforming keywords. Note that you can only have two metrics in the filter, but you can sort by columns by clicking on each one within the results to gain additional perspective.

2. FIND DUPLICATE KEYWORDS

Use this feature from the Tools menu to easily identify duplicate keywords across the account so you can leave only one keyword in the most appropriate ad group (with the most relevant ad text for that keyword). You can either look within an ad group or across ad groups or campaigns.

When the duplicates are displayed, there will be a button beside the tabbed navigation called “Select Duplicates By” which allows you to highlight instances based on different criteria. If there is no difference between the keywords (in terms of bids, etc.), you can hit “Order of Appearance > First” and then the “Delete” button underneath the tabs.

3. ADVANCED EDITING TOOLS

Use “Advanced Bid Changes” to make mass changes to keyword bids. Increase or decrease your bids by a certain amount or percentage. You can also set a max or minimum amount so the bids don’t fall below or exceed certain values. You’ll have this option as a small link at the bottom of the Keywords, Placements, & Ad Groups tabs.

Use “Advanced URL Changes” to update display or destination URLs. The great feature here is the ability to append text to each selected URL – most likely, adding a particular external tracking code to all ads within an ad group or campaign. Many people add a tracking URL that contains “google” so they know a particular visit came from AdWords, especially if they do not use AdWords Analytics for deeper insight.

4. REPLACE TEXT

A commonly used feature that is available for keywords, placements, negative keywords, ads and extensions. Found a misspelling across all of your ads? No problem. Need to update your donation related keywords? Change them in seconds. This tool is a very valuable time-saver.

5. EXPORT OPTIONS

Sharing your proposed changes with someone else is one of the greatest features of Editor. To share, view the export options in the File menu. The most common and easiest is the AES file that clearly shows all changes in bold when the person imports the file into AdWords Editor to view it. They would save the file to their computer, then go to File > Import Account Snapshot, and choose the file. Keep in mind that “Keep proposed changes” does NOT make changes to the live account, and they can make any further changes they like.

If they can’t use Editor, you can send the HTML version which displays an overview (will not identify what was changed vs. existing) but can be viewed without any program. CSV (which can of course be formatted for Excel) is also an option for those who prefer a spreadsheet format.

No matter what format you choose, you will export through File > Export Changes For Sharing (AES), and then choose the ad groups, campaign or campaigns you want to share. Also, it’s important that when you’re collaborating on an account, both are using the most current view of the account. For the most recent version, Click Get Recent Changes > All campaigns.

For more comprehensive instructions on how to use this tool visit the AdWords Editor Help Center. Happy editing!

Posted by Carla Swiryn, Google AdWords

Google Grants’ Impact In Israel

Google Grants Team Member — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 19:55:00 +0000

Since launching in 2003 in the US, Google Grants has expanded its reach to 27 countries around the world, including Israel in 2008. The program has helped many Israeli non-profits increase their web presence and allowed them to grow donations to support their causes. The three Israeli organizations below explain how they have benefited from the Google Grants program.

The Aviv Organization for Holocaust Survivors was founded in 2007 to protect the rights of Holocaust survivors. It is the only organization in Israel that trains volunteers, professionals and Holocaust survivors in all aspects of realization of survivors’ rights. Their Google AdWords campaign has contributed to a large number of direct inquiries and offers of assistance for the survivors. In fact, the AdWords campaign accounts for one-third of all the traffic to their website since its creation.

Established in 2003, El Halev is a non-profit organization that effects social change by empowering women of all ages and by reducing violence against women, teens, children, seniors and people with disabilities by means of training in martial arts and self-defense. After launching an AdWords campaign El Halev has seen “a substantial increase in the number and quality of inquiries coming from their website thanks to Google Grants”.

The New Family organization specializes in legal counsel for family issues as well as support for civil marriages, wills and inheritance, same sex marriages and more. The organization has seen "an increase of at least 40% in the traffic to the website since the beginning of our Google supported campaign." Rachel, the organization’s founder, pointed out that the impact of Google's donation has been extraordinary and has allowed them to help a much larger audience, including people who did not know that solutions existed to their problems and that are now enjoying the special services the organization provides.

If you are a registered non-profit in Israel and would like to apply for the Google Grants program please visit this page for more information. For more grantee success stories check out our testimonials page.

Posted by Noam Wolf, Google New York

Optimization Best Practices: Keyword Insertion

Google Grants Team Member — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 18:33:00 +0000

Keyword insertion is an ad text feature that can improve your ad relevancy. This feature inserts a user’s search query into a part of your ad text that you choose, including your display URL. When a user sees your ad with their exact search term in it they will be more likely to click on your ad.

To use keyword insertion in your ads, place the following code into a section of your ad text: {KeyWord:Default Text} where “Default Text” is the backup text you will use in your ad. When your ad shows on Google.com, AdWords will automatically replace that text with the keyword that triggered the ad - unless the search term exceeds the character limit.

For example, if your ad group contained the following keywords: donate online, online donations, donate today and the user searched for online donations the ad below would appear with “Online Donations” in the headline. If the search term exceeded 25 characters, the default text “Donate Online Today” would appear in the headline.
Example:

Keyword insertion can be used with any text-based ad. Use keyword insertion with care and do not use it in place of proper ad group structure. It’s always important to create tightly themed ad groups, even when using this feature. If your ad group has keywords that do not follow the same theme, you can end up with poorly targeted ads.

For more information on keyword insertion please visit the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Janelle Kuhlman, Google Grants Team

Ad Location Targeting: Target The Right Geographic Audience

Google Grants Team Member — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 17:15:00 +0000

Location targeting gives you the powerful assistance to tailor advertisements to the right user. Draw attention to your non-profit’s advertisement by providing tailored ads that were created specifically for a user’s region.

You can access the interactive map targeting tool under the settings tab, and under the “Locations and Languages” section. With the tool, there are several ways to specify your location targeting:
Search or browse for countries, territories, regions and cities
Select a preset bundle of locations
Choose a point on the map and specify a radius around it where your ads will appear
Target a custom shape on the map
Exclude areas within your selected locations
You may change these location settings at any time.

For each of your campaigns, you can select the countries or regions and the languages for your ads. The targeted ads will appear only to users located in those areas and who have selected one of those languages as their preference. This can be useful in many circumstances such as recruiting local volunteers for a fundraiser.

For more information on location targeting please refer to the AdWords Help Center.
Posted by Phill Park, Google Ann Arbor

Google Content Network Converts To Google Display Network

Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 19:08:00 +0000

The Google Display Network is the new name for the “umbrella” of all the media solutions Google offers on YouTube, Google Finance, Blogger, Google Maps and Google’s Display ad partners. The Google Display Network will offer all ad formats including text, image, rich media and video ads. Advertisers will run their ads the way they always have, by placing bids or making reservations on YouTube and Google Finance.

Please note that this update does not affect Google grantees directly as grantee accounts only run on our Google Search Network. For more information on the Google Display Network please check out the this website.

Posted by Laura Engel, Google Netherlands

Google Analytics: Better Understanding Your Website’s Visitors

Google Grants Team Member — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 18:09:00 +0000

Whether it’s prospective volunteers, donors or individuals interested in your organization’s cause, better understanding your visitors and their actions on your site can help achieve your goals. Fortunately Google Analytics can take the guesswork out of the equation, bringing you key trends, rich data and actionable insights. The following reports under the ‘Visitors’ tab in Google Analytics are a great place to start.

Map Overlay: From countries to states and cities, this report shows from where in the world your visitors are accessing your site. The darker the shaded color on the map, the higher the concentration of visitors coming from that location. Hover your mouse over an area to quickly access the metrics associated with that geography. Best of all, you can use the tab at the top to change what metric is used for the map. Have an active goal for donations and want to see what states drive the highest donations per visitor? Interested in learning what cities drove the highest number of volunteer sign-ups after a recent event? Just swap out the metrics and get your insights in seconds.

New vs. Returning: This report shows you a breakdown of your visitors into two categories - returning users (those who have been to your website before) and new users (those who have not been to your site before). You can view those two visitor groups through a variety of lenses - total visits, bounce rate, conversions and more. Diving into this report can let you know if your recent publicity efforts are paying off (do we have more ‘new’ visitors this month versus last month?), or if you are getting larger average online donations from your returning users versus those who are looking at your site for the first time.

Visitor Trending: Check these reports for a great overview of what your visitors are doing over a period of time. Do my visitors tend to spend more time browsing my site during the week, or on the weekend? Has my bounce rate changed at all since I redesigned our website? Whether you’re measuring average pageviews, bounce rate or time on site, these reports all give a high level picture of how your site is doing in relation to key metrics.

The overview and insights provided by the reports above can help you make informed decisions about how to manage your Google Grants account and your website. For more information on features and reports available through Google Analytics, be sure to check out our Google Analytics Help Center.

Posted by Geoff Stirling, AdWords Team

AdWords Online Classroom: Free Tutorials Online

Google Grants Team Member — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 19:21:00 +0000

Whether you’re a new grantee wanting to learn AdWords basics or you want to take your AdWords account to the next level, the AdWords Online Classroom is a great resource for all things AdWords! The AdWords Online Classroom offers both on-demand and live courses that can help set you up for success.

The courses cover a wide range of topics such as improving your account performance and expanding your reach. The on-demand courses are only 15-20 minutes long and the live courses last up to 60 minutes, which includes a question and answer session.

Anyone with an AdWords account can sign up and attend these courses. If you would like to receive regular emails about on-demand courses and live upcoming courses, you can join the Google group. For more AdWords resources please refer to the AdWords Help Center or Google’s Business Channel on YouTube.

Posted by Janelle Kuhlman, Google Grants Team

Conversion Tracking: Meeting Your Goals to Help Volunteers Reach Theirs

Google Grants Team Member — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 18:08:00 +0000

Volunteers are online, searching for a worthy cause that will provide the opportunity to donate their time in a fulfilling way. How does your organization’s website convert a casual visitor into a committed volunteer? Conversion tracking allows you to see the path that potential volunteers have taken to either briefly stop-over your site, or to turn their inquiry into a dedicated sign-up. By monitoring conversion statistics, you can identify:
which keywords invite prospective volunteers to request more information versus keywords that compel registration before leaving your site
what pages of your site encourage further click through to other important landing pages (donations, newsletter sign-ups, memberships, storefront) before visitors decide to become volunteers
areas within your website that visitors leave because content or design could be improved
the geographic distribution of volunteers who sign-up for activities and where you can bolster your recruiting efforts
As volunteers narrow down their choices online, your organization can utilize the metrics conversion tracking provides to focus your outreach efforts. You’ll be converting queries into action and connecting volunteers to your deserving organization. For details on how to implement conversion tracking please see our Help Center or watch our instructional YouTube video.

Posted by Brandi Andrews, Google Engineering

Learning With The AdWords Small Business Center

Google Grants Team Member — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 22:58:00 +0000
We’re excited to share a brand-new educational resource with our grantees: the AdWords Small Business Center! While this site has been designed for all advertisers (not just our non-profit grantees), it can be a very valuable resource for any AdWords advertiser, including grantee organizations. This resource provides the opportunity to explore beginner, intermediate or advanced AdWords strategies and tips on writing effective ads, selecting the most relevant keywords, improving your site, tracking results, and more.

When using this educational site, keep in mind the differences between your Google Grants account and a regular, paid AdWords account, as some of the tips may not apply to Grants accounts. You can find a handy list of these differences here in our Help Center.

Be sure to check out this great new resource for tips to make your Google Grants account even more effective for your organization.

Posted by Kristie Mun, Google Grants Team

Recapping The 2010 Google Grants Workshop In Mountain View

Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 01:00:00 +0000
Last week, the Google Grants team hosted over 50 grantee organizations at the Google campus in Mountain View, California for a two-day workshop focused on Google Grants and other Google for Non-Profit products. The event brought together non-profit grantees from across the country, with a few participants from as far away as Spain. Both large and small organizations attended the workshop, and organization focus areas included disaster relief, the environment, poverty, children’s rights, and much more.

The first day of the workshop focused on maximizing your Google Grant to meet your organization’s mission and goals. Several grantees shared their experiences with AdWords, first in a case study and later in a grantee panel. Then AdWords specialists presented their expertise on account strategies and tips to the attendees, who were broken out into beginner and advanced tracks.

The second day centered on additional Google for Non-Profits products and tools, including the YouTube Non-Profit program, Google Earth Outreach, and Google Apps for Non-Profits. Best practices and strategies for landing page optimization and webmaster tools were also shared. As on the first day, grantees were able to hear from their fellow non-profits on use of these tools via two case studies.

Throughout the two-day workshop, our attendees were heavily engaged in learning more about Google Grants and other Google products for non-profits, and we are so glad that we were able to offer this educational session to those who could attend.

For all other grantees and interested non-profits, we are pleased to announce that we will be posting the videos from the workshop, including the case studies, from which all can benefit. We hope to have these sessions live on our YouTube channel within the next several weeks and will post to this blog once those sessions are available. We will also be posting several follow-up articles to this blog, sharing strategies and advice offered at the workshop, both from Googlers and from your fellow grantees.

Thanks again to all who made this workshop a success! We are especially grateful to our case study and panelist grantees who shared their firsthand experiences with the audience.

We are already looking forward to the 2011 workshop. Hope to see you then!

Posted by Kristie Mun, Google Grants Team

Optimization Best Practices: Wonder wheel

Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:50:00 +0000
Looking for new ad group themes? If so, check out our Wonder wheel tool that can be found within Google Search Options. Wonder wheel visually presents connections between related searches and your search term as an interactive diagram. This tool can be an incredibly powerful resource for creating new ad groups.

To access the tool, do a regular Google search and click ‘Show options’ at the top of the search results page. Then click ‘Wonder wheel’ under the navigation bar on the left side of the page.

Although the Wonder wheel suggestions are a great guide, you know your organization best. If a logical ad group theme is missing from the suggestions, add it. If the tool suggests themes that are not relevant, don’t add them. Once you have a list of new ad group themes you can use the keyword tool to identify keywords for each ad group. Input each ad group theme into the tool and select ‘Search’ and then sort by ‘Global Monthly Searches’ to refine the list to those with the most search traffic.

For more information on optimizing your campaign check back for our monthly tips and refer to the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Janelle Kuhlman, Google Grants Team

Get Your Non-Profit Started With YouTube

Google Grants Team Member — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:20:00 +0000

Getting started with the YouTube Non-Profit Program only takes 3 simple steps:

1. Create an account with YouTube under your charity’s name: www.youtube.com/create_account

2. Register for the YouTube Non-Profit Program (US, UK, CA, AU only): www.youtube.com/nonprofits

3. Get your videos online!

Building a really effective channel that attracts subscribers takes a little longer. Here are some tips on getting the most out of your YouTube Non-Profit Channel:

Customize your channel wisely - The brand channel wide frame illustrates which images can be customized under your channel. The channel banner for example can link externally and is the first image to grab your visitor’s attention. Make sure your logo is clearly shown to present a trusted front for your non-profit.

Add Call-to-Action overlays - A major benefit of this program is that Call-to-Action overlays are made freely available across all of your uploads. These instructions will help you get these configured. Calls-to-action provide a powerful prompt that should be used to engage your video viewers into performing an action that will support your non-profit’s cause.

Upload content regularly - It can be hard to keep your content updated, but even low quality footage from the field can be a powerful driver of engagement and trust with your audience. In fact, it is best to focus on authentic and original content as this will best communicate your message amongst the large amount of competing content on YouTube.

Share your content - Enabling auto-share by linking your YouTube channel to your Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader accounts makes it easy to keep your subscribers up to date no matter which channel they follow. Auto-share combined with regular uploads and comments will prompt your subscribers that you are still actively engaging your area of focus. Also, make sure you embed your videos on your website.

Video is an incredibly powerful tool as it can convey emotive and visual messages more effectively than any other media. YouTube not only provides you with this channel of delivery, but also an important feedback and engagement channel with your audience. For more information on YouTube please visit the YouTube Blog.

Posted by Scott Savage, Google Australia

Convert Website Visitors Into Donors

Google Grants Team Member — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:40:00 +0000
Encouraging your website visitors to make donations can be a challenge and can directly impact the success of your organization or cause. Fortunately there are several steps you can take to influence visitors to your site to make a donation. First, examine your site with free tools such as Google Analytics and Website Optimizer. These tools will help you identify areas for improvement, diagnose what causes visitors to leave your site and test changes that you have implemented to drive results. In addition to these tools there are a few best practices we recommend that you test to promote donations.

Landing Page
Bring visitors to the right page - your donation specific ads and keywords should link to this donation specific page.
Make it easy to donate online and don’t ask for unnecessary details. Reduce the number of fields and steps in your donation process.
Show transparent steps - use a status bar to show the stage that the customer is in. This sets expectations and makes the process seem manageable.

Navigation
Make your site easy to navigate. Use clear labels and titles so visitors can easily find where they can make a donation.
Highlight where to go next. Help visitors understand how they can get from A to B in the easiest way possible.

Site Security
Reassure your visitors that their personal information is safe. Make sure your pages are secure and include known symbols to indicate this.

Please refer to the following post for additional information about improving your website’s donation process.

Posted by Lotem Lev-Ari, Google AdWords Israel

Free Keyword Research Tools

Google Grants Team Member — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:09:00 +0000
AdWords supports advertisers with a variety of free tools to optimize their accounts and help them to display relevant and targeted ads to users. If you have already read previous posts on optimization, you know how important it is to include very relevant keywords in your AdWords campaign. Sometimes, it can be difficult to anticipate user behavior and confirm which keywords are relevant to user searches. In today’s post, we’ll look at how you can use Google’s free tools to build an effective keyword list in no time.

Keyword Tool
The Keyword Tool helps you generate keyword ideas related to the product you are offering. You give the tool hints about what your products and services are like and it generates synonyms, related terms and other searches. You can select and add these terms to your keyword list and also decide on the match type before adding them to your account. With the advanced options, it’s easy to streamline keywords based on location, language and devices (Mobile search). While generating keyword ideas, the tool also gives competitive analysis on each keyword, local and global monthly searches for the keyword, and local search trends. And even without entering any words or phrases, you can look at potential keywords by category.

Traffic Estimator
If you struggle to decide what an ideal cost-per-click (CPC) bid could be for your keywords, the AdWords Traffic Estimator can give you estimates in a matter of seconds. If you click “check estimates” in the Keyword Tool, you go directly to the Traffic Estimator, where you can check several metrics such as estimated average CPC, estimated ad position, estimated daily clicks and estimated daily cost. Since Google Grants accounts have a max CPC bid of $1, you can define that bid before generating estimates.

Search-based Keyword Tool
As you might already know, the Quality Score of your keyword is often higher if the search query matches the keyword exactly. In order to make sure your keywords are the actual terms users enter while searching on Google, you can use the Search-based Keyword Tool to pull up the exact search queries users enter pertaining to a particular product or service. Apart from helping you get more keyword ideas, this tool gives you ideas about negative keywords if you see any irrelevant search queries triggering your ads. Learn how to optimize your account with negative keywords. In addition to showing users’ search queries, the tool shows top keywords across all categories. Read about a case study with the Search-based Keyword Tool.

Google Trends & Insights for Search
If your campaign is about a seasonal product or event and you want to make the most of a specific period by using very relevant seasonal terms, then Google Trends is the place for you. This tool can give you suggestions about keywords rising in popularity, search trends from specific target locations, and the time period during which you might run a campaign. Read a case study on using Google Trends. And see what the world is searching for with a video on Google Insights for Search.

Posted by Rasika Saikia, Learning & Development Strategist, Hyderabad

Crisis response for Pakistan floods

Google Grants Team Member — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 00:02:00 +0000
If you are a Google Grant recipient providing relief to those affected by the floods in Pakistan, there are a few things you can do to make your Grants AdWords account more effective and get your message to the widest audience possible:
Prioritize your budget so that the majority is going to your disaster campaigns
Build a targeted keyword list with words specific to Pakistan’s floods
Send visitors to the most useful landing page on your website, probably one that accepts donations
If you’ve exhausted these strategies and have questions about managing your AdWords account efficiently to scale with the traffic generated by the disaster, please contact our team so that we can make sure your information reaches those in need and those who can help.

Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team

Google Grants Program Feedback

Google Grants Team Member — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:56:00 +0000
Is Google AdWords making a difference for your organization? We enjoy sharing grantee success stories and would love to hear from you. Whether your AdWords account has led to an increase in website visits, volunteer sign ups or amount of donations, sharing your experience will inspire the non-profit community as well as our volunteers.

If you would like to share how your grant of free AdWords advertising has had an impact on your organization please fill out this form. You may share your experience with only the Google Grants Team or choose to make the information available to other organizations through a testimonial. To read about how Google Grants has helped non-profits from all over the world with unique challenges check out our grantee testimonials page. You can read testimonials that are relevant to your organization by sorting by goal and/or industry. Many testimonials share best practices, so we encourage all grantees to use these as a resource. Share your organization’s story today!

Posted by Janelle Kuhlman, Google Grants Team

Optimization Best Practices: Negative Keywords

Google Grants Team Member — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:52:00 +0000
Negative keywords play a significant role in your campaign’s success. Adding negative keywords to your ad groups or campaign means that your ads won’t show for searches containing that term. In other words, negative keywords filter out unwanted impressions to help you reach the most relevant audience. For example, an organization targeting women may want to use the negative keyword -shoes, which tells the AdWords system not to show their ad for any search containing the term ‘shoes’.

The process to add negative keywords to your ad group is just like adding any other keyword. The only difference is that you put a negative sign (-) before the keyword. Adding a negative keyword at the ad group level means that the term will only affect the ads in the ad group. You can also add negative keywords at the campaign level, where they will apply to all ads in all ad groups in that campaign.

It’s easy to identify negative keywords for your account! Use the Keyword Tool and Search Query Performance report to find potential negative keywords for your ad groups. Using these tools to add negative keywords on a regular basis is recommended to ensure you don’t accrue unwanted clicks and, with a limited budget and a maximum CPC of $1, negative keywords will ensure you effectively utilize your budget.

For more information on optimizing your campaign check back for our monthly tips and refer to the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Janelle Kuhlman, Google Grants Team