SEM, SEO, RSS, Web Marketing, Google Adwords, Overture, PPC, Podcasts,Website Traffic Tips: February 2005

Google recently had some problems with the code they generated for conversion tracking. Hey, we all make mistakes, but the thing that is really frustrating from my perspective is that they did not alert adwords users until the 17th of February. That's 20 DAYS! You would things that they would have known this and had a solution quicker.

My suspicion is that they made some changes and it was then that they realized they had a bug in the system. What they fail to tell you is if it added conversions, deleted conversions, did not work at all, or if it was just buggy and intermittent and they don't know. Luckily for my clients, we had not added tracking code during this window. I do feel bad for all the people that did add conversion tracking during this time.

Now they have to go back and change pages in their websites, major hassle for some people, relatively minor hassle for others.

You would think they could track what code was created during this time and then alert customers as to which campaigns had conversion tracking created. If you are like most people; they can't remember what they did a week ago; let alone a month ago. Google drops the ball on this one.

Here is an excerpt from the email:



"You may need to update your AdWords conversion tracking code in order for you to receive accurate conversion data. Google's engineers have identified an error in the conversion tracking code snippet provided in AdWords accounts from January 18, 2005 (PST, US) through January 27, 2005 (PST, US).



The conversion tracking code has been fixed; however, our records show the code recently implemented on your website might have been affected. To ensure conversion tracking is working properly for your site, you'll need to log in to your account and generate new code snippets to replace any code you may have generated during the timeframe listed above.

To generate new conversion tracking code, please visit https://adwords.google.com/select/convtrackingsignup. (You may need to sign in to your AdWords account to access this page.) Follow the setup steps, making sure to click 'Continue' to complete the process"

All this being said, I still love adwords... Hey, what choice do you have when you want to reach your target market in a cost effective manner?! Google is the choice & still delivers great results.

Rodney