My Insight with SEO and Keyword Research

My Insight with SEO and Keyword Research

This article is just a few of my meandering notes on why I started looking into the possibility of making my web pages more SEO friendly, i.e. I wasn’t getting any hits.

What Keyword Research?

When I first started doing keyword research, I naively focused on finding keywords which best described the product or service I was trying to promote. Over time, I’ve learned that, no matter what results are obtained from the likes of Wordtracker or Google AdWords, keywords are worthless if no one is typing them into search engines in relation to the article or product promotion.

Why a Customer-Centric Approach?

The solution to this keyword dilemma is to change from a product-centric approach to a customer-centric approach. I think of it this way, am I trying to attract everyone who searching on a particular keyword or target only potential customers who are frequently using those keywords. In other words, if I’m promoting wallpaper, the keyword would not necessarily be ‘wallpaper’ but ‘beautiful homes’. Think laterally, is the person really looking for ‘wallpaper’ or a beautiful home? Think, buyer persona. Ask, what are their objectives?

This approach can lead to difficulties, it can also lead to a few surprises. I discover that in some cases, very few of the target audience were searching for the product directly. This could be because prospects don’t even know the product (or the category) even exists, in which case even more lateral thinking is called for.

What is a Keyword?

A keyword is simply a word or phrase that describes the main concepts of a topic.
The keywords should capture the essence of the topic.

Think of a keyword as an index term, subject term, subject heading, or descriptor in an information retrieval system such as a catalogue or indeed, a search engine.

What is Keyword Optimisation?

The next term we need to understand before doing any Keyword Research is Keyword Optimisation. Keyword Optimisation is simply the process of ensuring the popular keywords are included in your web pages. This means you find the most popular keywords for the subject you are covering and make sure those Keywords are included in your web pages.

What is Keyword Research?

Keyword Research is simply the process of discovering which words your potential visitors will be using to find the type of topics you are promoting. These words will be the most profitable words for you. Keep in mind that your offer may be a freebie you use to begin a conversation with your customer.

What are the Main Benefits of Keyword Research?

The main benefits of keyword research are in discovering those keywords to target for your search engine marketing campaigns. A little time spent on keyword research will save hours or days later when optimising your website or AdWords campaign for search engines.

What are the Secondary Benefits of Keyword Research?

The hidden benefits of keyword research include the opportunity to discover adjacent markets for your target audience. Using a customer driven keyword research process, you may uncover new products and services your target customer is actively seeking.

What are My Favourite Keyword Research Tools?

I use Wordtracker, Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools to discover the keywords which are already driving traffic. KeywordSpy, SEMRush and SpyFu are wonderful tools to reveal competitors’ AdWords and organic keywords. Finally, I use Google’s Adwords tool to perform keyword expansion, pull search volume and grab cost-per-click data.

What Prevents Keyword Analysis?

Many traditional marketers don’t fully appreciate the value of keyword research. It’s easy to target the keywords that you believe best describe your product or service and skip the difficult, time consuming work required to dig deeper. A typical keyword research project might take 20 to 30 hours or more depending upon the complexity and target niche.

What are the Best Keyword Analysis Tips and Tricks?

The best tip is to identify competitors, especially those scoring well in search engine marketing (SEM) and identifying the keywords they are targeting. Competitor’s keywords can be found relatively easily using tool like KeywordSpy, SEMRush and SpyFu. Also, don’t overlook the obvious, view their homepage and squeeze page HTML code for “meta keywords” meta tags. Many webmaster will list their target keywords in this meta tag for all to see.

What’s the Best Advice for Those Just Starting with Keyword Research?

For those just starting with keyword research, just remember the goal of keyword research:

discover what potential clients are typing into search engines.

With this knowledge you can then optimize the content on your site to target those keywords.

If your business is primarily a ‘local business’, become intimately familiar with the terms used in the niche you serve. Write about them on your website.