David Alpern's blog
Getting Internet Exposure - Select Your "Key" Words
The Importance of Keyword Research
Marketing your business online means taking steps to ensure that your site gets visited by customers and prospects. This means addressing search engine optimization (SEO). The first and foremost ingredient in an SEO strategy is conducting keyword research for your website. Keyword research can make or break your online exposure.
Every business has several valuable keywords that should typically be assigned separate pages on the site to help with targeting by having decent keyword density (coverage). Similarly, pay per click (PPC) campaigns benefit from having landing pages that are populated with the same keywords being purchased in the SEM campaign. Otherwise, the PPC program is likely to produce clicks (visitors) that find the landing page to be unrelated to the search they just conducted. This will quickly burn through a marketing and advertising budget.
When conducting keyword research here are some things to look out for:
1. Targeting a Niche: Determine what type of group you want to be visible to and determine what types of keywords that group searches for. These keywords need to fit well on your website in synch with your product or service offerings. Find similar keywords and phrases that revolve around that niche. Don't focus just on targeting all the high volume keywords simply because they have large search activity. SEO & SEM traffic that comes from long tail keyword phrases (searches that are much more specific and targeted) often convert the best as these phrases are usually input by searchers who know exactly what they are looking for. SEO is long-term effort, so the impact won't be apparent immediately after implementation.
2. Budget: Determine your marketing allowance for highly competitive keywords. If yours is a small business, it is conceivable that your competition is likely much larger, better funded, and well established. Your marketing budget could thus be quickly consumed so it is important to also target keywords that have lower traffic volumes but are be more targeted.
3. Competition: Study your competition to see what keywords they are utilizing on their websites and in their PPC campaigns. This is one of the most useful forms of keyword research. While competition is the sincerest form of flattery, be sure to use their approach only as a benchmark, not as a playbook.
About David Alpern
David Alpern is a search marketing veteran and Managing Director at http://www.InternetOMG.com, an online marketing consultancy.
Marketing your business online means taking steps to ensure that your site gets visited by customers and prospects. This means addressing search engine optimization (SEO). The first and foremost ingredient in an SEO strategy is conducting keyword research for your website. Keyword research can make or break your online exposure.
Every business has several valuable keywords that should typically be assigned separate pages on the site to help with targeting by having decent keyword density (coverage). Similarly, pay per click (PPC) campaigns benefit from having landing pages that are populated with the same keywords being purchased in the SEM campaign. Otherwise, the PPC program is likely to produce clicks (visitors) that find the landing page to be unrelated to the search they just conducted. This will quickly burn through a marketing and advertising budget.
When conducting keyword research here are some things to look out for:
1. Targeting a Niche: Determine what type of group you want to be visible to and determine what types of keywords that group searches for. These keywords need to fit well on your website in synch with your product or service offerings. Find similar keywords and phrases that revolve around that niche. Don't focus just on targeting all the high volume keywords simply because they have large search activity. SEO & SEM traffic that comes from long tail keyword phrases (searches that are much more specific and targeted) often convert the best as these phrases are usually input by searchers who know exactly what they are looking for. SEO is long-term effort, so the impact won't be apparent immediately after implementation.
2. Budget: Determine your marketing allowance for highly competitive keywords. If yours is a small business, it is conceivable that your competition is likely much larger, better funded, and well established. Your marketing budget could thus be quickly consumed so it is important to also target keywords that have lower traffic volumes but are be more targeted.
3. Competition: Study your competition to see what keywords they are utilizing on their websites and in their PPC campaigns. This is one of the most useful forms of keyword research. While competition is the sincerest form of flattery, be sure to use their approach only as a benchmark, not as a playbook.
About David Alpern
David Alpern is a search marketing veteran and Managing Director at http://www.InternetOMG.com, an online marketing consultancy.