As witches descend from their mountainous caves in search of lost hikers to sacrifice to their eldritch gods and the restless dead rise from their dusty crypts hungering for the warmth of human flesh, it’s time to look back at the spookiest and most popular posts from the WordStream blog from October.
And my, were there some spooky stories this month! From major changes to how Google spends your money and how to find your most valuable keywords, to innovative chatbots and duplicate content, there were more than a few scares in October. Grab some of the candy you’ve been “saving” for tonight, secure a flashlight firmly beneath your chin, and catch up with the most popular posts of the month.
1. Breaking: Major Changes to How Google Spends Your Budget
Our top story this month was this emerging news story from Allen concerning forthcoming changes to how Google will spend your ad budget. This change will affect all advertisers regardless of size or spend, so if you haven’t heard about these important changes or how they’ll affect your campaigns, find out everything you need to know.
2. How to Create the Ultimate Facebook Business Page
Creating a Facebook business page is deceptively tricky. Sure, it’s easy to get one up and running, but is it any good?
In our second-most popular post of October, Allen walks you through how to create the ultimate Facebook business page to drive leads and sales via this immensely powerful social platform.
3. How to Find Your Most Valuable Keywords (& Find More)
Newcomers to paid search often mistakenly believe that keywords with high CTRs are their most valuable keywords, but if high CTR keywords aren’t converting, they’re not nearly as valuable as they might appear. In this post, Allen explains how to identify your most valuable keywords – the keywords with high CTR AND high conversion rates – as well as how to consistently find more of these keywords. Essential reading.
4. 8 Ways to Make the Most of Your AdWords Keywords
Once you’ve found your most valuable keywords, it’s vital that you make the most of them – which is precisely what guest author Max DesMarais of Vital Designs shows you how to do in our fourth-most popular post of October.
Max covers a wealth of important topics in this highly actionable guide, including optimizing landing pages, conducting A/B tests, and more.
5. 6 SEO Tests You Need to Try
Speaking of A/B tests, our next post in this month’s spooktacular round-up focuses on testing for SEO. In this comprehensive guide, Brad outlines six SEO tests that you should be running to ensure your site is as tightly optimized as possible. How many of these tests have you already run?
6. How to Pass the AdWords Exam: 7 Tips from Newly Certified Professionals
Achieving AdWords certification is often among the first steps taken by fledgling new account managers – including every single member of WordStream’s rapidly growing Customer Success team – but passing the exam is a whole different animal entirely.
In this post, Margot offers seven fantastic pointers on passing the AdWords certification exam from newly minted AdWords-certified professionals. If you’re planning on taking the AdWords exam, you need to read this post.
7. 10 of the Most Innovative Chatbots on the Web
Love them or hate them, chatbots are here to stay – and some of them are becoming increasingly sophisticated. In this post, yours truly looks at 10 of the most innovative chatbots on the Web, as well as the ways in which conversational agents could further transform the landscape of the Web in the future.
8. The Beginner’s Guide to Duplicate Content
There are dozens of stubbornly persistent SEO myths that, like zombies rising from the grave to exact a terrible vengeance on the living, simply refuse to die – and misconceptions about duplicate content are among the most prevalent. In this post, Jean Frew of Hallam Internet dispels some of the myths about duplicate content and what you should do about it.
9. How to 3X AdWords Conversion Rates Without Touching AdWords
Everybody wants higher conversion rates. Not everybody wants to spend years learning the arcane, mystical rites hidden in the depths of the AdWords interface in order to achieve them.
Fortunately for you, Larry Kim is here to help. In our penultimate post of this month’s round-up, Larry shows you how to triple your conversion rates without touching a single setting in AdWords.
10. Case Study: Google Search Ads vs. Facebook Ads for a Small Local Business
For many small businesses with limited marketing budgets, paid search and paid social is often an either/or proposition. Unfortunately, many newcomers to digital marketing are unsure about which type of campaign is right for their business, which is why this case study by Hallam Internet’s Lauren Ahluwalia is essential reading for small, local businesses just getting into digital marketing.