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negative keywords

seo glossary from digital now gmbh

What are negative keywords?

Negative keywords are also referred to as excluding keywords. If the negative keywords are entered, an ad should not appear. Negative keywords are relevant in the area of Google Adwords optimization.

What significance do negative keywords have for SEO?

Webmasters and website operators use Google Adwords to place ads. However, you should always carefully consider in advance which keywords are relevant and which keywords are nonsensical. Only those who implement a campaign optimally can avoid irrelevant clicks and unnecessary impressions.

But why should optimizers actually define negative keywords? If many less relevant impressions are generated, the quality factor of an ad decreases significantly. These unnecessary impressions also increase the click price. Defining negative keys greatly reduces wastage in campaigns, which is also noticeable in terms of costs.

How can negative keywords be used?

Negative keywords work slightly differently to normal keywords. They are divided into the areas of exact match, phrase match and broad match.

If you book negative keywords and want exact match, you need to know that only the exact term is used as an exclusion factor. If only "screws" is specified as a negative key and there is a search query for "screws on the Internet", the Adwords ad can still be displayed.

If the negative keyword "screws on the Internet" is specified as a phrase match, an ad will only not appear if the exact phrase is entered. If a user writes "I am looking for screws on the Internet" in the search query, this ad will not be displayed. If the word order is changed (example: "I am looking for screws on the Internet") or other words are inserted in between, the ad will appear as it is not the exact phrase.

Broad Match, on the other hand, offers several options for exclusion. Ad delivery is prevented in different constellations. If the excluded keyword is "I am looking for screws on the Internet", the ad is not only prevented from appearing in this combination. If "I am looking for screws on the Internet" is entered in the search engines, the ad will also not appear. Individual words must also be excluded.