Search engines are the vehicles that drive potential customers
to your websites. But in order for visitors to reach their
destination - your website - you need to provide them with
specific and effective signs that will direct them right
to your site. You do this by creating carefully chosen keywords.
Finding the right keyword
Think of the right keywords as the Open Sesame! of the Internet.
Find the exactly right words or phrases, and presto! hoards
of traffic will be pulling up to your front door. But if
your keywords are too general or too over-used, the possibility
of visitors actually making it all the way to your site -
or of seeing any real profits from the visitors that do arrive
- decreases dramatically.
Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing
strategy. If they are not chosen with great precision, no
matter how aggressive your marketing campaign may be, the
right people may never get the chance to find out about it.
So your first step in plotting your strategy is to gather
and evaluate keywords and phrases.
You probably think you already know EXACTLY the right words
for your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven't followed
certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG. It's hard
to be objective when you are right in the center of your
business network, which is the reason that you may not be
able to choose the most efficient keywords from the inside.
You need to be able to think like your customers. And since
you are a business owner and not the consumer, your best
bet is to go directly to the source.
Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of potential
search words and phrases yourself, ask for words from as
many potential customers as you can. You will most likely
find out that your understanding of your business and your
customers' understanding is significantly different.
The consumer is an invaluable resource. You will find the
words you accumulate from them are words and phrases you
probably never would have considered from deep inside the
trenches of your business.
Only after you have gathered as many words and phrases from
outside resources should you add your own keyword to the
list. Once you have this list in hand, you are ready for
the next step: evaluation.
Evaluate your keywords
The aim of evaluation is to narrow down your list to a small
number of words and phrases that will direct the highest
number of quality visitors to your website. By "quality visitors" I
mean those consumers who are most likely to make a purchase
rather than just cruise around your site and take off for
greener pastures. In evaluating the effectiveness of keywords,
bear in mind three elements: popularity, specificity, and
motivation.
Keyword Popularity
Popularity is the easiest to evaluate because it is an objective
quality. The more popular your keyword is, the more likely
the chances are that it will be typed into a search engine
which will then bring up your URL.
You can now purchase software that will rate the popularity
of keywords and phrases by giving words a number rating based
on real search engine activity. Software such as WordTracker
will even suggest variations of your words and phrases. The
higher the number this software assigns to a given keyword,
the more traffic you can logically expect to be directed
to your site. The only fallacy with this concept is the more
popular the keyword is, the greater the search engine position
you will need to obtain. If you are down at the bottom of
the search results, the consumer will probably never scroll
down to find you.
Popularity isn't enough to declare a keyword a good choice.
You must move on to the next criteria, which is specificity.
Keyword specificity
The more specific your keyword is, the greater the likelihood
that the consumer who is ready to purchase your goods or
services will find you.
Let's look at a hypothetical example. Imagine that you have
obtained popularity rankings for the keyword "automobile
companies." However, you company specializes in bodywork
only. The keyword "automobile body shops" would rank lower
on the popularity scale than "automobile companies," but
it would nevertheless serve you much better. Instead of getting
a slew of people interested in everything from buying a car
to changing their oil filters, you will get only those consumers
with trashed front ends or crumpled fenders being directed
to your site. In other words, consumers ready to buy your
services are the ones who will immediately find you. Not
only that, but the greater the specificity of your keyword
is, the less competition you will face.
Consumer motivation
The third factor is consumer motivation. Once again, this
requires putting yourself inside the mind of the customer
rather than the seller to figure out what motivation prompts
a person looking for a service or product to type in a particular
word or phrase. Let's look at another example, such as a
consumer who is searching for a job as an IT manager in a
new city. If you have to choose between "Seattle job listings" and "Seattle
IT recruiters" which do you think will benefit the consumer
more? If you were looking for this type of specific job,
which keyword would you type in? The second one, of course!
Using the second keyword targets people who have decided
on their career, have the necessary experience, and are ready
to enlist you as their recruiter, rather than someone just
out of school who is casually trying to figure out what to
do with his or her life in between beer parties.
You want to find people who are ready to act or make a purchase,
and this requires subtle tinkering of your keywords until
your find the most specific and directly targeted phrases
to bring the most motivated traffic to you site.
Evaluate your keyword performance
Once you have chosen your keywords, your work is not done.
You must continually evaluate performance across a variety
of search engines, bearing in mind that times and trends
change, as does popular lingo. You cannot rely on your log
traffic analysis alone because it will not tell you how many
of your visitors actually made a purchase.
Luckily, some new tools have been invented to help you judge
the effectiveness of your keywords in individual search engines.
There is now software available that analyzes consumer behavior
in relation to consumer traffic. This allows you to discern
which keywords are bringing you the most valuable customers.
This is an essential concept: numbers alone do not make
a good keyword; profits per visitor do. You need to find
keywords that direct consumers to your site who actually
buy your product, fill out your forms, or download your product.
This is the most important factor in evaluating the efficacy
of a keyword or phrase, and should be the sword you wield
when discarding and replacing ineffective or inefficient
keywords with keywords that bring in better profits.
Ongoing analysis of tested keywords is the formula for search
engine success. This may sound like a lot of work - and it
is! But the amount of informed effort you put into your keyword
campaign is what will ultimately generate your business'
rewards.
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Jeremiah O'Connell has put together a work from home blog jammed
packed of useful hints and tips on Getting more Traffic and
Making Money with Your Website.
http://www.ThePlugInProfitSite.net/blog
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