Posts Tagged ‘keyword’

The difference between a good website and a great one is the proper use and execution of effective SEO techniques, in particular the implementation of keywords. Keywords are the very heart of the Internet and are what keeps it alive and well. Without them, your website… and your entire online business… are sure to die.

I am about to share with you the #1 mistake most people make when approaching keywords: They take a quick fix approach.

It’s that simple. Too often, people spend less than 20 minutes developing their list of keywords and move on. This is the most common and most detrimental mistake you can make! In fact, developing your list is the most critical part of your keyword SEO efforts. This quick list should only be the very beginning of your work. What follows should be extensive research into the popularity of these keywords, how realistic they are to top, and what other related terms might work for you as well.

Now, this is not to diminish the importance of that original keyword list that you develop. However, while some of those keywords will in fact be critical keywords, some may not work at all. That is why you will need to employ a keyword research tool (like Google, WordTracker, etc.) in order to truly understand how these words may or may not be right for you.

If you are a large business with multiple locations and already have an established brand, you may be successful going after more broad keywords. But if you are small, start-up, then you will have to focus your efforts on a niche. Anything in between takes careful planning and a strong balance of both broad and specific keyword phrase combinations to truly target your audience.

Thanks for sticking with me this long.  I hope you take this information to work for you.  Let me know how it goes.

Of course it is helpful to use a keyword generation tool to help you complete your keyword list. Not only will it help you round out your list with keywords and phrases you may not have thought of, but it also gives you ideas on what others may be searching around your topic.

Take the keyword “copywriting” as an example. A copywriter might think of obvious keywords to optimize for, like “copywriter” and “copywriting” but may not think to optimize for “copy writer” and “copy writing”. Believe it or not, people often search for products and services by using common misspellings and because they are misspelled so often, the search engines recognize them as actual searches. This requires creativity and know-how on your part.

So, for these reasons and more, keyword generators can be and are very useful tools. However, they are not meant to do your SEO work for you. In other words, they are there for guidance and word generation. They are not meant to serve as keyword managers nor do they have the ability to create entire SEO campaigns for your business.

Only you can create the best, most effective list of keywords for your website and it should be completely unique. Why? Because your business, although it may be one of many in its field, is one of a kind. Therefore, you should optimize it as such. After all, that is what sets you apart and will continue to set you apart as you gain new customers from well planned and effectively executed keyword optimization.

Well almost down to the wire now. Are you using keyword generators in moderation? Tomorrow is the last day of the series.  I’ll share a tip on the #1 mistake to avoid with keywords.

In many ways, market research is the same as it has ever been – and people are still getting it wrong.  For one thing, they’re confusing “market research” with “keyword research”… and skipping the whole market research stage.  Then they wonder why their keywords bring piddly results.

Here’s the secret:  You can’t do effective keyword research until you’ve invested the time in thorough market research.

That means using offline methods, as well as online.

It means checking out:

Where your market hangs out

What they spend money on – and are not only willing but eager to pay for

Who your competition is

There’s simply no shortcut to getting to know your potential customer better than you know your best friend.  But fortunately, there are ways to get to that stage without having to invest 30 years into a relationship.

Here’s the true paradox of the sort of market research needed to dominate a niche… You’ve probably heard people tell you that you need to focus on the individual, and not on a group:  But most marketers find they don’t truly understand that individual until they have gained a large enough amount of market research data to start easily picking out:

• Patterns
• Trends
• Statistics

What these group demographics do is help you gain a quick overview of your target market. But the danger rushing demographic data, or relying solely on it, is… it can be wrong.

Yes, you should absolutely use it in your market research… but don’t stop there. Use it as a jump-off point.  Use surveys, questions, forum discussion and contests to double-check the accuracy of any “suspect” figures.

Client Attraction Tip:  What problem does my customer have?  What complaint?  (Use keywords plus the word “complaint” in WordTracker or Google’s search engine).

What is your biggest challenge with keyword research?