One of the many great pieces of news stemming from the Yahoo-Microsoft Search Alliance is that Yahoo’s canonicalization of keywords – that is, the grouping or collapsing of similar keywords like “truck”, “Truc”, and “Truks” or “Ski”, “skiing”, “skier” and “skiers” – will be replaced by Microsoft’s normalization of keywords.

Might we be the one of many to say YAAAAHOOOO! This is great news. With Microsoft’s normalization, we can now be more precise in our keyword strategy. After all, someone searching “skiing” is undoubtedly looking for results different from someone searching “skier,” so why not be able to bid separately on those keywords and view each keyword’s performance separately?

Another thing to keep in mind is the long list of punctuation marks, non-alphabet and extraneous characters that are removed from each query. For example, if you are bidding on “bike repair” and someone searchers for “bike-repair,” Microsoft will remove the hyphen and your ad will be displayed. That means you don’t need to bid on both “bike-repair” and “bike-repair” in your keyword list, as adCenter would consider these two identical and keep only “bike repair” (the normalized term).

Normalization of keywords will mean greater control over keyword strategy and bidding.

Ok, and what about Yahoo’s Standard & Advance Keyword Match options? Good-bye! Microsoft’s Broad, Phrase & Exact Keyword match options will stay, though. So on top of the normalization of keywords, we’ll have further control over keyword strategy and bidding.

So what should you expect after all these changes? Well, with the ability to expand your keyword list and set match types, expect large fluctuations of CPCs and increase budget spend. There could also be more competition for keywords that previously had little or no competition at all, along with increased spend due to the expansion of your keyword list.

Remember, you’ll no longer be bidding on the keyword “Ski,” which covered “skier”, “Skiing” and other versions; you now need to bid on those terms as well. Make the preparations now: build out your keyword list, set bids, expect more competition, TEST, TEST, TEST and most importantly, monitor your performance closely until the new search market stabilizes.

And find out if your PPC is ready for the upcoming alliance with our Transition Checklist. It’s free, and it’ll help make sure you’re on the right track as the market changes.