One of the most important choices you’ll make when building your website marketing plan is the choice of keyword phrases you’ll target. Choose a keyword phrase that is too competitive and you’ll often end up frustrated when trying to break the top 25 results. Choose a keyword phrase that’s too unique and you may find that no one actually uses that for their searches.
Below is the process by which I go about determining a keyword phrase. This process has served our clients well. Remember, the key to a successful website is driving targeted traffic to your website for a specific reason and then, once the traffic comes, achieving your goal at the highest level possible. This means that rankings mean nothing if they don’t drive users that convert. Your keyword phrase has to relate to what you are actually trying to accomplish or people will just click on the back button and go away.
When analyzing keyword phrases start by trying this:
Write down your goal. Phrase it as the response to a question. People who are using the search engines are looking for an answer to their question. When someone has arthritis pain, for example, they don’t type in ‘arthritis pain’ they most likely type in ‘relieving arthritis pain’ or ‘arthritis pain relief’. What are people asking when they are looking for you?
Create 5-15 terms that reflect the above. Then go to a few search engines and type in these terms. Review who comes up and then pick out the companies that are your competition. In your browser, view their source and see what keywords they target (this doesn’t mean that you should use those terms – you’re just looking to make a complete list).
Print the top 25 search results for the top 5 to 15 terms you have. Then review the total number of sites that are returned, the number of your competition present in the top 25 and your ability to convert users who found you and came to your site using that term.
Other things to consider:
If you are selling on the Internet consider longer and more specific keyword phrases. Research shows that people who buy from websites often found the site using a four to five word keyword phrase. People who use shorter phrases are often just browsing. You do not have to make just one keyword phrase choice. However, each choice that you make needs to have its own page dedicated to it. This is because it should be reflected in the metatags.
Don’t try to do too much with one page. Content is what matters. If you want to be found for a certain keyword phrase then you need to use it within your content. However, if you are trying to target multiple keywords on one page you may end up not ranking for any of them.
How do you know if it is working? It is vital to track the traffic statistics for your website. Most good website reporting tools can now tell you where your users came from and even what search terms they used in the search engines. There is always the traditional way as well. Survey the users who turn into customers about how they found you. Those results are the ones you want to build on. Don’t forget to put the question, “How did you find us” on any of your forms used in your website!
