getKeywordsFromSite Negative Keywords / Exact Match

[Nick]

It is possible to specify negative keywords at
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal when entering a
website URL, however as far as I can see the API does not support this
functionality - is that correct?

I tried putting both getKeywordsFromSite XML and getKeywordVariations
XML in the same request however ended up with odd results (I ended up
with more results returned when specifying a negative keyword).

Also is it possible to specify "Exact" match for results from
getKeywordsFromSite?

[AdWords API Advisor]

Hello Nick,

No, there's no provision for specifying negative keywords in
getKeywordsFromSite() requests. You can simulate negative keyword
behavior by just running each resulting keyword through a substring or
regular expression match and discarding any keywords that have phrases
in them you're not interested in.

I don't think that specifying "Exact" matches for a call to
getKeywordsFromSite() makes much sense--it's not possible, and I'm not
sure what it would indicate even if there were some way of specifying
the match type. The relevant input to getKeywordsFromSite() is the
site's URL, and something like Broad, Phrase, or Exact matching
doesn't apply to URLs.

Cheers,
-Jeff Posnick, AdWords API Team


On Jan 13, 9:42 am, Nick <nick...@gmail.com> wrote:
> It is possible to specify negative keywords athttps://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternalwhen entering a

[Nick]

Hi there, thank your for the information. My understanding on the
reason for negative keywords on the API side directly is that it would
increase the amount of useful keywords that can be returned (due the
the limit of 200). i.e. so that keywords that are not needed do not
take up a place in the list of 200 meaning their space is filled by
another keyword.

Regarding the use of "Exact" matches, I will check with the end user
however if it does not make "much sense" I am just wondering why it is
an option on https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
when entering URLs. On the URL I entered ( http://bbc.co.uk ), I
tested changing "Broad" to "Exact" and it seemed to affect the search
volume columns.

On Jan 13, 7:18 pm, AdWords API Advisor <adwordsapiadvi...@google.com>
wrote:

> Hello Nick,
>
>  No, there's no provision for specifying negative keywords in
> getKeywordsFromSite() requests. You can simulate negative keyword
> behavior by just running each resulting keyword through a substring or
> regular expression match and discarding any keywords that have phrases
> in them you're not interested in.
>
>  I don't think that specifying "Exact" matches for a call to
> getKeywordsFromSite() makes much sense--it's not possible, and I'm not
> sure what it would indicate even if there were some way of specifying
> the match type. The relevant input to getKeywordsFromSite() is the
> site's URL, and something like Broad, Phrase, or Exact matching
> doesn't apply to URLs.
>
> Cheers,
> -Jeff Posnick, AdWords API Team
>
> On Jan 13, 9:42 am, Nick <nick...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

> > It is possible to specify negative keywords athttps://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternalwhenentering a

[AdWords API Advisor]

Hello Nick,

Yes, specifying negative keywords should allow you to get more useful
variations back, given that there is a cap of 200 returned from the
KeywordToolService's methods. But unfortunately getKeywordsFromSite()
doesn't accept negative keyword filters as a parameter.

Thanks for clarifying what you mean by the match type. We've actually
been getting a number of questions related to this, and I might end up
writing this up in a blog post for wider consumption. For now, though,
here's the general idea:

There are two different scenarios in which you might want to specify
match type. One scenario is that you want to give a hint to the
keyword variation service as to what kind of query you want to use as
the seed. If you're calling getKeywordVariations(), you use the "type"
attribute of the SeedKeyword object to do this. So, for example, if
you want to generate variations based on a phrase match for "baseball
bat", you'd specify "Phrase" for the "type" attribute and "baseball
bat" for the "text" attribute of the SeedKeyword. If instead of a
phrase match you were interested in generating keyword variations
based on a broad match, you'd instead specify "Broad" for the "type"
attribute. The important thing here is that the "type" attribute can
affect the specific variations that are returned. In the "baseball
bat" example, most of the variation keywords that are returned are the
same for the two match types, but there are some differences--for
example, "baseball training bat" is only returned when you specify a
"Broad" match type.

It's hopefully clear now why I said it doesn't make sense to specify
a match type for a call to getKeywordsFromSite()--that method works
differently than getKeywordVariations(), in that the seed isn't a
specific search term for which match types might apply. It's just a
URL.

The second scenario in which you might care about match type relates
to the search volume results for the SiteKeyword/KeywordVariation
objects that are returned from getKeywordsFromSite()/
getKeywordVariations(). The web version of the Keyword Tool, as you
point out, provides a popup menu in the results area allowing you to
select match type and it will update the search volume of each
suggested keyword based on what you select. Unfortunately, there is no
way to retrieve search volumes for different match types from the
KeywordToolService's method (although you are not the first to ask for
such functionality). The search volumes in the results returned from
the API should roughly correspond to what you'd see with the "Broad"
setting for match type in the web tool.

Cheers,
-Jeff Posnick, AdWords API Team

On Jan 13, 5:59 pm, Nick <nick...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi there, thank your for the information. My understanding on the
> reason for negative keywords on the API side directly is that it would
> increase the amount of useful keywords that can be returned (due the
> the limit of 200).  i.e. so that keywords that are not needed do not
> take up a place in the list of 200 meaning their space is filled by
> another keyword.
>
> Regarding the use of "Exact" matches, I will check with the end user
> however if it does not make "much sense" I am just wondering why it is

> an option onhttps://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
> when entering URLs.  On the URL I entered (http://bbc.co.uk), I

[Nick]

Thank you for the clarification.

On Jan 14, 3:58 pm, AdWords API Advisor <adwordsapiadvi...@google.com>

[Sorin]

Jeff,

It's too bad the API doesnt have this feature, it would have been
really really useful. Any plans to include it in the future API
versions?

Thanks,
Sorin

On Jan 14, 5:58 pm, AdWords API Advisor <adwordsapiadvi...@google.com>
wrote:

>  The second scenario in which you might care aboutmatchtype relates

> to the search volume results for the SiteKeyword/KeywordVariation
> objects that are returned from getKeywordsFromSite()/
> getKeywordVariations(). The web version of the Keyword Tool, as you
> point out, provides a popup menu in the results area allowing you to

> selectmatchtype and it will update the search volume of each

> suggested keyword based on what you select. Unfortunately, there is no

> way to retrieve search volumes for differentmatchtypes from the

[AdWords API Advisor]

Hello Sorin,

Unfortunately, I can't comment on whether specific features will or
will not make it into future AdWords API releases.

Cheers,
-Jeff Posnick, AdWords API Team