Keyword Research
"In writing advertising it must always be kept in mind that the customer often knows more about the goods than the writer", said John Wanamaker.
But grand websites are often constructed with no regard to what people actually want. What they want is laid out in a public record called search data.
The internet takes much of the guesswork out of marketing, but only if the premise of your website is not based on a guess.
Planning
- A keyword is a single word or short phrase that is searched for.
- It is an expression of a visitor's needs from a search.
- Search engines rank web pages on "relevance" to search queries.
- The actual and related keywords must be in a site's content and code.
- The sum of the related keywords are called the 'theme'.
- Sites with a high density of related keywords are judged to be superior.
- Without the presence of keywords, sites cannot get search traffic.
Process
- Obvious keywords are often too competitive to rank for.
- There are many more 'one-off' search keywords than obvious ones.
- This is called the 'long-tail' and is the Holy Grail of search strategy.
- Long tail keywords are more specific and may relate to a location.
- It is much easier to rank in a City than a State or a Nation.
- Keywords must be wrapped in a geographic overlay to get ranking.
- They are equally essential in #social-media as your website.
Pitfalls
- Making assumptions about keywords based on personal experience.
- Trying to take on the world, when a city or suburb will do.
- Targeting too few keywords or too many unrelated keywords.
- Misusing past data as a future predictor of search behaviour.
- Using black-hat 'search engine optimization' services and software.
- Not creating keyword-rich content and social conversations.
- Failing to select keywords that imply an intent to act.
Ready to consider the 3 P's? (Planning, Process and Pitfalls). It's time to start your plan: