Chapter 2 - Keyword Phrases

Developing or Expanding Traffic Potential - Keyword Phrases

Successful communication with the search engines starts with finding the words and phrases that people might type into the search boxes to find your company products and services.

Remember, you must start with determining clearly who your audience(s) is. What products and services do you have and what are the exact audiences who would want those products and services? What words would your audience(s) likely to use to find you.

To gain high traffic to your site, you begin with traffic-generating keyword phrases for all of your target audiences. The search engines are already determining the keywords on your site to understand how to list and rank you. Most companies have not made a conscious decision about what those keywords should be. Having a poor marketing strategy, they aren't being found by the best traffic generating keyword phrases.

Two variables need to be considered in determining keyword selection, what to include and what to exclude:

Primary Selection Variables, making sure...

• Keyword terms/phrases have sufficient search volumes.
• The keyword terms are relevant.
• The level of relative competition.

Prioritization of Keywords is insuring that selected keywords...

• Have a competitive advantage for your product/services.
• The products/services are profitable ones.

Make a list of keyword phrases for each of your target audiences, there may be some overlap.

Think in terms of a 2-3 word keyword phrase, not individual words. Individual words are too general and yield unfocused results for searchers. Consider your product and brand names, relevant generic terms of your services or business, and any localization such as regions or cities. Generally, the more specific you can be, the better. For example [Half Moon Bay real estate] is much better than [real estate].

You may not target all the keywords you find, but you need to brainstorm and find as many potential keywords as possible and then decide which will drive the most traffic and be possible to target on your site. When you get to implementing these keywords you won't target every page, but for every page of your site you should ask yourself, "Is there a keyword phrase I can focus on for this page?" Don't put any effort into all those pages that are not going to be helpful for keyword phrase findability.

Finally, you will only be targeting for 2 or 3 keyword phrases per page, but since you can get some spill over, it's good to have additional ones in mind for the page.

Here is an Excel Keyword Discovery Worksheet for listing your potential keyword phrases.

1. For each of your target audiences make a list of phrases that describe your business - words that people would type in if they were searching for your product or service.
   
   Did you notice that I keep calling them "keyword phrases"? Why? Because most "single" words have too many Web pages competing for them. If you sell real estate, don't try to get found for "real estate" because you compete with every page on the Web with the words in them. You want "Half Moon Bay real estate," "real estate for sale," "homes for sale in Half Moon Bay" etc.
   
   Put down the first things that come to mind until you have a good independent list for each of your target audiences. Don't worry about how appropriate they are, just brainstorm and keep writing until you are satisfied. These include root brands, products/services.
    
2. Ask your employees, your friends, your clients, anyone wandering down the hall, "What phrases do you think of when you think of my product or service?" and "What words would you use to search on the Web if you wanted to find my product or service?"
    
3. Study your competitors. Search the Web for your competitors, by name and by using the keyword phrases you have selected. What other keywords are they using? Be sure and follow a few links, and see how the sites compare to your Web site.
   
   The best way to see what they might be targeting on their sites is to look at their source code. In Internet Explorer, go to View->Source and the Title, Keywords, and Description tags.
   
   Here is an example of what it will look like.
   <title>Search engine optimization Search Engine Optimizer</title>
   <meta name="description" content="Get search engine optimization with Search Engine Optimizer, the instructional optimization software tool.">
   <meta name="keywords" content="search engine optimization, optimizer, website optimization">
   
   Make a list of keywords your competitors are using.
    
4. Start searching for combinations of key phrases, brainstorming variations of your product/services. Try combining the first two on your list. Try other combinations based on the numbers you got back for each individual word. Try each of your first few phrases combined with other phrases on your list. You'll probably discover some combinations that will give you more of an exclusive listing combination that others haven't considered.

Add geographic variations: city, state, neighborhood etc.

Consider descriptive variations of your products/services.

Using real estate, for example, take [Half Moon Bay real estate] and try [Half Moon Bay homes for sale] or try [Half Moon Bay property]. What different results do you get if you use [real estate in Half Moon Bay] vs [Half Moon Bay real estate]?

If you find certain combinations that (1) would likely be searched for by your prospects and (2) don't return many other URL listings, make note of these. These are called "power combinations."

Use Google to search for additional Keywords. Two ways to do this.

Go to Google and as you start typing into the Google search box they will try to auto-complete your search query, recommending those keyword others have searched for and the keywords Google is recommending new searchers to search for.

Then go to Google AdWords and select the The Keyword Tool. Research each of your keyword phrases and see what numbers come up determine which are the best keyword phrases to drive traffic. Be looking at the same time for other suggestion come up that come up for related terms.

Select out the keyword phrases with the highest potential traffic and add in these in the Traffic Estimator to see stats on potential traffic for each keyword. (Select Traffic Estimator from the Google page above.)

You may want to keep the research information on a separate page so you can cull out the low traffic keyword phrases you included in your Grid earlier, but still have your good traffic list.

HOWEVER,

You don't just want traffic, you want quality traffic that will convert visitors into customers. Eliminate keyword phrases that are not closely relevant to your products/services.

You don't want keywords that you can't be competitive for; if the competition is too great and the companies you are competing with for a keyword phrase are large and more prominent than your site can be, you need to lower those keywords in priority for spending time on.

You may want to use Wordtracker to search for additional Keywords.

The most robust paid tool for determining Keywords is WordTracker. They have a database of 390 Million search terms that are being searched and will give you traffic statistics and competitiveness of each term. There is a free trial But, you can access for a day or for a week.

You should enter into WordTracker all the keywords you have discovered to date. But, when you start, use single words from your phrases so you get the broadest possible search of alternative words and phrases as possible.

There are three things to do with WordTracker: discover more keyword phrases, evaluate all your keyword phrases to discover the kind of traffic you can anticipate for each keyword phrase, evaluate the competition for each keyword and determine which ones you have a possibility for achieving ranking.

Another way of saying it is that you are looking for keywords that are in high demand, with low competition, that are relevant to your Web site theme. Here is a link to WordTracker. Add into your Grid all the keyword phrases you have discovered from all your research.

If you have a current site, or know what pages you will be creating for a new site, enter your Keyword Phrases in your Marketing & SE Focus Excel Workbook Grid; match a Primary and a Secondary Keyword to each page related to a target audience and product/service.

Viewing each Web site page, what do you think is a phrase that reflects what this page is about? How would the search engine recognize it and index it for people to find when they are doing a keyword search?

At this stage of your work, your current Web site pages may not have keywords in the text of your current site. If not, they decide what you think best reflects what the page is about, keyword phrases that it might be possible to include in your text later.

You are now ready to start optimizing your Web site for increased ranking and traffic. Proceed to Chapter 3, Keyword Phrases in Content.