Keyword Research & Optimization Basics
Keyword Research
Keywords and search terms are really the same thing. The former is just an older term that stuck around; the latter is more descriptive since people use both words and phrases to find things on the web.
Choosing keywords should be easy right? You just call up the handy dandy google keyword tool, type in what your site offers, and it barfs up a couple of hundred keywords with approximate search volumes for each. You just choose the ones with the highest search volume, throw those suckers on your pages and start collecting money, right?
If only that were the case! The truth is, choosing keywords/search terms is an intensive, time consuming process if it’s done right. Keywords are chosen according to a bunch of factors. Here are some of the biggies:
The goals of the site
Traffic is a goal yes, but not the only one! Do you sell things, build mailing lists, sign-ups for memeberships or services, collect information, argue an opinion, inform people, or solicit donations? Maybe all of these!
The goals of each targeted page
Various products, services, or information on each page must be targeted separately as well as by the broader terms you might use on your home page and there may be multiple goals for each of these pages. Ask questions like, "Who is my audience? Will they use phrases like ‘rock music event apparel’ or ‘kick butt concert Ts’, or just ‘shirts that don’t suck’?" You may not know until 6 months after your site traffic disappears if you don’t research properly!
Search Volume of each term
Broad terms are generally high volume terms, but that doesn’t mean they will always benefit you. A term like ‘real estate’ will just bounce people off your site unless you truly handle everything associated with real estate-commercial, residential, industrial, rent, lease, buy, agents, training, etc. Terms like ‘condos in St. Augustine FL’ may yield better results with a fraction of the volume.
Search term groups
People use a bunch of terms for the same subjects; any possible way to say something is being used to search. Many times, there will be hundreds of similar terms that can be combined and targeted as a group that yields a lot of search volume even though the individual phrases may look like weak terms by themselves. It's possible in this way to rank well for tens of similar terms that add up to really good traffic.
Competition density, intensity, and type
How many sites are competing for the term you want, and more importantly, how intense is the competition? If you target the word ‘Books’ you’ll be competing with amazon.com for the first page. No problem if Bill Gates is sponsoring your site's marketing campaign, right?. Some terms are magnets for local directories or article sites with large profiles that can be challenging to compete with.
Relevance aperture
Ok, we made this term up, but not the concept. All the terms you find will be relevant in some way, but choosing a term that is too broad or too narrowly focused will not bring the traffic you want. Example: If your transmission shop is located in Troy, Ohio ‘transmission shops Troy Ohio’ is a far better term than simply ‘transmissions' , even though that term might bring more traffic. Conversely, the term 'gears' might be too narrowly focused even though your transmission shop stocks/sells them.
Double meanings
The term ‘exit interviews’ can mean several things, here's two of them:
- Interviews performed to find out why an employee is leaving
- Interviews with each american idol contestant as they are kicked off the show.
The search volume for each of these meanings differs by thousands, so it's important to be aware of double meanings as you target!
Searcher intent
What did someone mean by the search term they typed? It's a little like mind reading even if the term does not have a double meaning. Searchers may tend to type the plural version of a search term if they are planning to purchase something, but they tend to type the singular version if they simply want information about that topic. Example: 'cameras' vs 'camera'. This may not always effect traffic, but it can effect your site's conversion rate.
Optimization
Optimization is a bit more straight forward than keyword research, not as many bends in the road. It’s the process of integrating the search terms we’ve chosen into the visible content and coding on a page. The page title, meta description, meta keywords, page headings, text, hyperlink text and even image text must all be modified with the chosen search terms without ruining the flow or readability.
If the keywords are stuffed into these spots awkwardly, it’ll drive otherwise good traffic out the door, even if it does increase your rankings and traffic. Text marked as ‘strong’ or ‘emphasized’ within the coding can also effect how a search engine weights words within your text. Most of the time spent optimizing will be in copy writing, since it's not always easy to write in a certain search term without it sounding forced. If you are writing brand new copy, we recomend writing that first, then integrating keywords as this will help keep the focus on the content itself.
