You may have noticed that Google has recently made some changes to the keyword tool in Adwords and one of the things that has gone AWL is the negative keyword tool. I really used to love that little bugger too as I found it very useful in quickly finding keywords that may be generating excessive impressions.

Fortunately there is no need to panic… not yet anyway I thought I’d shoot off an email to Google and see what was happening and what I could do now to find negative keywords quickly. According to Google the negative keyword tool is going to be rolled out again in a bigger better and shinier version which some adwords accounts would have seen during a trial of the keyword tool having a negative keywords tab.

I’m not really sure why the old negative keyword version had to go before the new rollout but I guess that’s how it goes sometimes. Here is Google’s suggestion as an alternative whilst the new keyword tool is rolled out.

You may have noticed that your AdWords account’s Keyword Tool no longer has a ‘Negative Keywords’ tab. We
have intentionally removed this tab from all AdWords accounts. Please be assured that the Keyword Tool is otherwise unaffected.

In our commitment to bring you the latest innovations in online advertising, we often release features that are still under development. One of these features was the ‘Negative Keywords’ tab, which had appeared in a certain percentage of AdWords accounts. As often happens with new features, we are going to make a round of adjustments based on the performance data that we have collected. The tab will be unavailable during this time.

We’re eager to re-release the ‘Negative Keywords’ tab in the future. In the meantime, we recommend using the Search Query Performance report to identify any irrelevant search queries that have triggered your ads. Then, add these terms as negative keywords per the instructions at https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6635&hl=en_US.

Learn to run a Search Query Performance report at https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=68034&hl=en_US.

If you have additional questions, please visit AdWords Support at https://adwords.google.com.au/support, where you’ll find the answers to many of our frequently asked questions.

We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.

I’ve tried the suggested method and I don’t really like it. It might be a short term fix but I find it time consuming and not as effective. You’ll have to hold your breath while the new negative tool is being rolled out which hopefully isn’t too long.

I mentioned this earlier in this post about Googles keyword analysis tool. Well it’s been rolled out here in Australia. It’s a nice addition by Google to add this which will make lighter work of improving your campaign and understanding what is causing you any issues.

Here’s what happens now when you rollover the magnifying glass icon. It gives you a more detailed overview that what we had before with links to more detail.

Here is the ad showing link details. It has all your keyword details and gives some indications of quality score for keyword relevance and landing page relevance.

He is the ad showing details link. Again more detail than Google used to provide and is much easier than having to go to the tools menu to trouble shoot your keywords and ads problems.

As an SEO consultant, I receive the Google Agency Newsletter which is a new thing that Google is pushing to help agencies sell more Google services. One area of improvement that is being rolled out in Adwords is a new tool called the Keyword Analysis page. This keyword analysis page will give a deeper look at the quality score of your keywords. If you’ve never used Google Adwords, your keywords are ranked for quality depending on how relevant they are to your landing page, ad text and other keywords in your ad group. The keyword analysis page tool will identify what key areas are causing the keyword to be poor quality so that it will be easier to improve it. This is what Google says it does in the agency newsletter

The Keyword Analysis page is a new feature within AdWords that provides information and recommendations about a keyword’s Quality Score. For example, the Keyword Analysis page can tell an advertiser that their keyword’s Quality Score is low because of landing page, ad text, or poor performance.

Now I’ve tried everything to find this page but for the life of me I just couldn’t find it using Google’s instructions again from the newsletter.

This page can be accessed using the magnifying glass next to each keyword within an AdWords account. After clicking through to the new page, advertisers will see two tabs: “Ad showing?” and “Quality Score.” Clicking on the
“Quality Score” tab will show helpful information on the keyword’s Quality Score and recommendations on how to improve it if necessary.

I don’t know if this has been rolled out anywhere else in the world but it’s not in my Adwords account here in Australia, however I am looking forward to seeing how to get the most out of this tool which should make it easier to make the best changes to your campaign and drive your click costs even lower.