More is Better

Excluded keyword limits have increased from 50 to 250 to help relevance

Velvet Rope Although the word “excluded” may sound negative, especially if you were someone who was left out of the prom, the Excluded Words feature is definitely a positive when you need help blocking unwanted searches you believe may not be relevant. (And yep, excluded keywords are also called negative keywords—but they’re still positive.)

If you’re using the Advanced match type, you should definitely use Excluded Words to help you refine your matches.

Sometimes, rejecting words that may not be relevant to what you are selling is a good strategy. Whether rejecting words is supposed to feel good or not is between you and your therapist. In the past, the maximum for the Excluded Words list was 50. Well, we recently increased the maximum to 250 words at both the account and the ad group level to give you more control.

Why use Excluded Words?
• Excluded Words may provide you with more control over Advanced Match traffic.
• This feature helps block unwanted and irrelevant searches.
• You may block searches not related to what you are selling, helping you to receive more targeted leads.

Identify the keywords that do not apply to your business but may be commonly used by potential customers. If you are a travel company selling cruises exclusively to Acapulco, if you use the Advanced match type for the keyword “cruise,” you may want to exclude keywords like “Caribbean” and “Alaska.”

Finding Excluded Words in Your Account
Excluded words can be set at the account level in the Administration tab of your account. You can also activate or change excluded words (up to 250) at the ad group level in the Ad Group Settings page. Here’s how:

• Go to your Ad Group Settings page.
• Click on “Tactic Settings.”
• On the “Tactic Settings” page the “Excluded Words” feature is displayed.
• Click on “Excluded Words” to open the entry field.
• Add your excluded words but do not to use any commas or semicolons after each word.
• Click “Save Changes,” to process the Excluded Words list.

Now you’re ready for more potential relevancy.

Whether you’re selling only new electronic consumer goods and want to exclude keywords like “used,” or you give music lessons only to children and want to exclude words like “adult,” we recommend that you consider adding excluded words to help guide the right kind of searchers to your ads.

For more information on Excluded Words, visit the Help center.

—Roger Park, Manager, Marketing Communications

Velvet Rope photo, copyright Jolene Oldham/OldhaMedia

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13 Comments Add your own

1. » Yahoo! Goes Negat&hellip | February 23rd, 2008 at 6:19 am

[...] Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog is trumpeting a new keyword policy. Well, it’s not really new, but it’s negative. And [...]
2. Mark | February 23rd, 2008 at 12:20 pm

Thank goodness! This was a serious shortcoming for Yahoo search that has been finally addressed. Thank you for the improvement!
3. Yahoo Excluded Keywords a&hellip | February 25th, 2008 at 7:24 am

[...] Yahoo announced Friday that they upped the limit from 50 to 250 for excluded, aka, negative keywords: Excluded keyword limits have increased from 50 to 250 to help relevance • Go to your Ad Group [...]
4. SEO Company | February 25th, 2008 at 9:29 am

That’s a very good news!
5. Pay Per Click Advertising&hellip | February 25th, 2008 at 5:19 pm

[...] More is Better - Hooray! There is an increase in the negative keyword limit from 50 to 250. [...]
6. woozor weather | February 26th, 2008 at 12:28 am

as you said, more is better
7. (EMP) E-Marketing Perform&hellip | February 27th, 2008 at 9:01 am

[...] week Yahoo posted a blog about how using the negative keywords helps increase relevance. Where they did provide a list of steps, I thought I’d take that a [...]
8. Mark | February 28th, 2008 at 3:56 pm

is it at all possible that they make it easier to find that specific feature? Everytime I dig the GUI for the feature I spend almost 30 minutes looking for it.
9. How to Use Negative Keywo&hellip | April 5th, 2008 at 6:07 pm

[...] From there, you’ll see a box to show “excluded keywords” (negative keywords) and you can now implement them. Keep in mind this is done at the ad group level. Here is some newer information on excluded keywords, straight from Yahoo. [...]
10. Humidifier | April 30th, 2008 at 2:13 pm

Negative keywords, or excluded keywords are very helpful in my business as I only sell furnace humidifiers, not point of use.
11. Yahoo Sponsored Search ab&hellip | April 30th, 2008 at 2:34 pm

More excluded keywords will definitely aid my ppc campaign results.
12. SEO Outsourcing | January 20th, 2009 at 4:13 am

A very good news.
13. SEO | February 24th, 2009 at 12:42 pm

Yahoo needs to remove the negative keyword cap entirely; Google already does this. How else are you supposed to streamline the paid traffic sent to your site without applying negative keyword filters. Unfiltered traffic is just drives non-converting traffic, bloats your ad expense and increases your bounce rate. Yahoo needs to get a clue.