Choose the Right Keywords for Your Website

October 17th, 2011 Nick Stamoulis Posted in Keyword Research, keyword selection No Comments »

Arguably the single most important thing you can do for your site, keyword research and selection form the cornerstone of the rest of your SEO campaign. The keywords you choose will affect you can find your site and with what search phrases. Your keywords will also help shape the content you write, as you need to incorporate your target keywords into all the content you produce.

Here are 5 tips for selecting the right keywords to best help your site and SEO:

Go after the long-tail
Long tail keywords may produce less traffic, but they are used by a much more targeted visitor who is often near the end of their buying cycle. Visitors who arrive on your site by using long tail keywords are more likely to convert because they know exactly what they are looking for and your site has been optimized to help them find it.

Create your own keywords
HubSpot pretty much created the term “inbound marketing” as a way to create their own niche, something which they were (and remain) the undisputed leaders of. An entire segment of Internet marketing has been built upon their custom keyword. One way to build your brand is to create your own keywords that reflect your product and services and no one else. Keep in mind that you can’t just create your own keyword and incorporate it into the search vernacular overnight. However, once a keyword works its way in, chances are it will stick around for a long time. For instance, people say “Google it” when they want someone to look something up in a search engine.

Incorporate industry specific keywords
There might be some keywords that are industry specific that you can’t afford to ignore. These keywords may produce little to no traffic for your site, but eliminating them from your site would bring your authority into question. Even if no one searches for your company uses those keywords, they expect them to be incorporated into your webpage content.

Keep an eye on your analytics
You site analytics are a goldmine of information. You can look at each page of your site and determine what keywords visitors are using to land on them. Are there any keywords that you aren’t specifically targeting that seem to produce a good number of visitors? Maybe you should replace a poorly performing keyword with your new find.

Test new keywords with PPC ads
The beauty of running a PPC campaign is that you can measure results fast (unlike SEO, which is incredibly long term). PPC ads are a great way to get a feel for what keywords your target audience is responding well to. If you want to test new keywords and don’t have the time to wait for your SEO to mature, running a PPC campaign can help.

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Be Realistic with Your Keyword Research

August 22nd, 2011 Nick Stamoulis Posted in Keyword Research, keyword selection, long tail keywords No Comments »

Keyword research is arguably the most important building blocks of any SEO campaign. The keywords you select will determine what searches your site ranks for and who can see your site. Selecting the wrong keywords means placing your site in front of the wrong audience or, worse, means you won’t be found at all.

That is why it is so important to be realistic with your keyword research and selection.

Let’s say you own a small shoe store and are looking to re-optimize your site. It’s been online for several years, so your site has a good trust factor established with the search engines. You rank extremely well for localized keyword phrases (shoe store Medford, MA), but you want to take it to the next level and go after more general keywords with a high search volume (like shoes, women’s shoes, men’s shoes, and so forth).

I got to be honest with you. It’s not going to happen. You will never rank on the number one page in Google or Bing for something as generic as “shoes.” First off, a word with that high of search volume is also going to have a lot of big businesses trying to “own” that keyword. Your local shoe store is trying to compete with mega-corporations like Payless, DSW and Famous Footwear, not to mention online shopping giants like Zappos. After the corporations come branded shoe sellers like Converse, Nike and Steve Madden. They have the marketing budgets and manpower that you just don’t have.

When it comes to selecting keywords, you want to go after the ones that you have a good shot at gaining ground with. Obviously “shoes” is going to be used all over your website (you are a shoe store after all), but that shouldn’t be your primary keyword. Long-tail keywords are the small business owner’s best friend. They allow you to carve out a very specific niche for your company and give you a fighting chance at building an online presence.

Brick and mortar businesses should definitely target localized keywords (a keyword plus town or zip code). As most brick and mortar businesses rely on foot traffic for most of their business, you want to make sure you rank well when someone does a local search. If I’m looking for a place to eat in Boston, you can bet I’ll search for “Boston Thai restaurant.” That way I know I’ll get results that are relevant to my location. What good does knowing there is a great Thai restaurant in San Francisco do for me?

Don’t make your SEO any harder than it needs to be. Sure, there might be 30,400,000 monthly searches for “shoes” in Google, but trying to go after such a competitive and generic keyword is like fighting an uphill battle. You want to make sure you choose a good mix of broad and long tail keywords so you have the best chance at success.

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

When It’s Time to Revisit Your Keyword Research

July 18th, 2011 Nick Stamoulis Posted in conducting keyword research, Keyword Research, keyword selection, leverage keyword research No Comments »

The Internet is not a static thing. With billions of pages already published and more being created every day, there is more available content that could possibly be consumed in a lifetime (or even several lifetimes). User behavior changes over time as well; mobile search has exploded, social networking has forever altered the way people connect online, and search is getting more and more personalized. A big part of SEO is being able to adapt to these changes and adjust your SEO strategy accordingly.

That is why you should take the time to reevaluate your keywords.

When was the last time your optimized your site? Unless you only recently began your SEO strategy, it was probably a while ago. That means you haven’t conducted any keyword research in a long while as well. How do you know those keywords are still relevant? Hopefully you’ve been keeping an eye on your site analytics, which can tell you what keywords visitors are using to find your site. Does your site target keywords that aren’t producing any traffic? Are you missing any new keywords that seem to pull in visitors? If you find yourself asking these questions, it’s time to do another round of keyword research.

Just because you have to start the keyword research process again doesn’t always mean that you failed the first time. You may have been spot-on with your first series of keywords. However, as user behavior changes, so do their search phrases. What worked two years ago might not be the best available keyword today.

How has your industry changed since the last time you conducted keyword research? What new phrases have been incorporated into the industry jargon? For instance, before HubSpot came along, there was no such thing as “inbound marketing.” Now inbound marketing is a well-known term in the world of online marketing. Sometimes industry specific keywords don’t have a lot of search volume, but it is important they be incorporated onto your site.

You can also look internally to see what kind of new keywords you might need to incorporate. Have you rebranded your company? Launched new pages of content or released new products? Each of these things requires its own set of keywords. Remember, keywords have to be page specific. If the central theme of webpage changed, you need to target new keywords that match it.

It’s important that you give your keywords some time (a few months) before you decide if they do or don’t work. It takes time to rank well for a new keyword, so don’t expect to see immediate success. You could accidentally remove a keyword that was working for you.

AddThis Social Bookmark Button




OK!