Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
How accurate is the Geo-Targeting of Google and Bing/Yahoo PPC ads?
-
I have a client who serves a local market and who has had trouble in the past with people out of her service area clicking on ads. She asked how accurate the geo-targeting option is. I know it's not possible to be completely accurate resolving the location of IP addresses, but was wondering if there are any recent statistics out there regarding how accurate or inaccurate geo-targeting is. I did some quick searches but did not see any current numbers.
Many Thanks!
-
Keep in mind it goes based on the location of the isp and not users real address.
-
FYI, this may help filter out some of those inaccurate results:
http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/03/location-targeting-on-adwords-now-with.html
-
Thanks, that was real close to my own estimates. Would be interested if anyone had done any actual research into the accuracy lately though.
-
I've read in the past that geo-targeting is about 85% to 95% accurate. That's the short ball park answer.
While search engines are getting better at geo-targeting, I'd say that right now it depends on how specific of a market you're targeting. Done on a national, state or (major) city level and it's going to be pretty accurate to about 95%. If you're narrowing down on specific zip codes, or using custom shapes you will see clicks from non targeted areas.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Redirect Management on Headless Wordpress w/ React Front End
Hello everyone, As Headless Wordpress becomes more and more popular, it becomes more complicated to manage and track 301 redirects. I'm reaching out for advice on this. Our main issue right now, is that after migrating from Drupal to a Headless Wordpress/React platform we lost the ability to track, manage, and view traffic analytics for users hitting those redirects. This was something we were able to do in Drupal. Example: If we have a redirect in place we could see how many times in the past x number of days that redirect was hit by users attempting to access the old URL. Unfortunately, Yoast Premium, has been helpful with other SEO needs, but this is one that it is not able to manage. Anyone have any ideas, experience, or thoughts on this issue? Thanks for your time
Conversion Rate Optimization | | culturefoundry1 -
Overlay / modal for product pages - bad or good for SEO?
Hi all, I am considering using full overlays/modals for an e-commerce site for all our product pages (category/listing pages will be "normal", the product page will come over the listing page as an overlay/modal when you click on the product). Those “product overlays” will also be accessible directly with own URL (if need to be linked to for ex.). All the literature I find out there treats overlays and modals as “marketing” ones (ads, sign-ups, etc.) and is generally critical to overlays when it comes to SEO, while also saying that an overlay that has to do with good UX should not hurt the SEO of our site. What do you think? Will all product pages as overlays be considered as good UX by the search engines and therefore not be negatively impacted, SEO speaking? Or should we stay clear of overlays and create “normal” product pages? Thanks in advance! Arnaud NB: The reason we want to create those overlays are for design and UX purposes, and try to increase our conversion rate.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Arnaud_Fo0 -
Tracking a Deposit Page Through Google Analytics: Which is a better way?
Good day to all, I do have game download website (Works like Google Play and Steam) and currently working on the deposit page which is payable by fund transfer and Paypal. The thing is I do not have a confirmation page that I can use to track all incoming successful and unsuccessful conversions for this deposit page. My question is, which is better to use for this kind of tracking a goal in Google Analytics? Are we going to use a virtual page or and event tracking method? How can I track users that visit the deposit page that weren't able to do a deposit attempt? Thanks for answering this question. Have a good day ahead.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Francis.Magos0 -
Server-Side A/B Testing - Okay for SEO?
Hey Moz Community! I've been digging into the differences between server-side testing and client-side testing and had a generic question. Is it safe to run server-side A/B testing? For example, if I want to Split Test the home page of a site and show 50% of my traffic one home page, and show 50% of my traffic a completely different (read: new template, new content, new CTAs, etc) home page, are there any implications to SEO and organic search? I've spent about five hour researching and from what I can find A/B testing is acceptable as long as you don't show Googlebot different content or run A/B tests on Googlebot. Matt Cutts, head of Webspam at Google, has stated that A/B testing does not impact search rankings. "A/B or split testing or other forms of testing web sites is okay by Google as long as you don't test GoogleBot or don't treat GoogleBot differently." The biggest concerns for SEO cloaking, so from my understanding, for server-side testing, you'd need to do user-agent based redirection so that Googlebot (or any search bot) gets the normal version of the home page. The bots shouldn't be part of the test. Technically that is cloaking, but intention-wise, we're not trying to be sneaky. I've also read through this article about experimentation from Google developers here. Am I missing anything here or is there a definitive answer? If we serve a “B” as a different site for user testing, just exclude google bot by user-agent and we’re good? THANKS!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | andrewmeyer0 -
How can I track the traffic source/keyword of form submissions?
I'm using Google Analytics on www.nhfinehomes.com and would like to track the source of leads submitted via form submissions. Ideally, I could track if the lead originated from organic search (and what keyword phrase), PPC, referral links, etc. Is this possible with Google Analytics and if so, can anyone point to some documentation on how to do this or better yet someone who can help me set this up? This site is running ASP.NET and uses JQuery so there is not a 'traditional' thank you page that I can reference. I'm not a programmer and do not pretend to be one! Thanks in advance. Link
Conversion Rate Optimization | | LinkMoser0 -
Have Google Shopping show site listings instead of Amazon and eBay listings
An e-commerce site I'm currently working with also has storefronts on eBay and Amazon. When searching Google Shopping, their Amazon and eBay product listings come up but NOT their primary site's listings. Can anyone shed some light on how to a) feed the main site's products to Google Shopping and subsequently b) have Google remove the eBay and Amazon listings? Obviously, this would be a boon to business and hey wouldn't have to pay the Amazon and eBay fees associated with each sale. Thanks for any help!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Nobody15330770827561 -
When is it good to use target="_blank"
Hi! Just wondering about user experience and when to use target="_blank" in links on the website. Let's take homepage, for example. Is it better to have social media icons (for Facebook page or Twitter or Google+ page) open in a new window on homepage? When is it appropriate to use target="_blank" and when using it is too much for a user to handle? Am I right to say that target="_blank" should be used when you don't want that link to get on the way of what visitor is doing? What's best for conversion? If you have some resources on the subject - feel free to share them. Thanks! I appreciate all responses!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | MaxMinzer0
