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First, A Quick Review on the Meaning of "Keyword"
Search engines have the ability to reduce the meanings of a web page's content down to single words or short phrases. They do this by analyzing the text on the web page and by comparing that text to the text on all other analyzed web pages across the web.
They do this because, as searchers of information, we tend to use single words and short phrases to find the information we're looking for online. This boiling-down of content and meaning to align with our "keyword" or "key phrase" searches, is the goal and natural evolution of search engine algorithms.
In order to create effective landing pages that get ranked highly in the search results and get traffic for a desired keyword, the optimizer constructs content in such a manner that the search engine's own rules condense it down to a pre-determined keyword or phrase. The better the content on the page develops and supports the concepts surrounding the keyword, the higher the page will rank in a search using that keyword.
Creating Your List of Keywords
Mining search engine data starts with a trip to your favorite keyword service:
With a tool like NicheBot, compiling an initial list of several thousand to forty or fifty thousand--or more--extremely relevant potential keywords is quite easy and quick to accomplish.
Secondarily, the analysis of competitive sites is important in order to see if they're targeting any words that haven't yet made it to the list. "Secondarily" is emphasized because untold millions of sites have chased each other's tails over keywords that are just plain unproductive. (It goes like this: Competitor Two sees that Competitor One is ranking for a particular word so Competitor Two feels they must rank for it as well--without investigating whether there is even any traffic for the word.) Ultimately, the raw list of keywords should exhaust all possible variations of words that might be used to describe the targeted focus of your page.
If the project is a PPC campaign then in addition to the keywords themselves, we'll need to get information on the number of searches performed with each keyword on a daily basis. If the list is to be used for an organic search engine optimization project, then besides the daily search numbers, we'll also need competitive data on each of those keywords, i.e., how many other websites have incorporated optimization-type changes in an effort to increase their rankings for these keywords. This is where a tool like NicheBot comes in very handy.
Refining Your Keyword List
The Balance Between Competitiveness, Sufficient Traffic, & SEO Skill
In sorting the raw keyword list(s) based on competition and frequency of use, there will be keywords that appear more competitive than others, ones that appear to get more traffic than others, ones that get less traffic than others, and ones that are less competitive than others. There will also be a good number of keywords in that raw list that don't apply to your products/services. Your first step is to toss those words out and the ones that indicate traffic levels below your threshold.
The keywords that you think may be the best ones to target are likely to have the most competition trying to rank for them. While there is nothing wrong with targeting super-competitive keywords, you should know that the scale of your project increases exponentially as competition for your target keywords increases. This means success will require a greater understanding of search engine optimization, more time, as well as more resources and/or money. The payoff is that the increase in raw traffic can be substantial. On the other hand, achieving high rankings for more niche keyword can be quite a bit easier. Even with top rankings, traffic increases may be small for niche keywords, but the advantage is that the traffic you do receive will be highly targeted traffic and will convert much better than traffic that comes from more broad keywords.
For a Pay Per Click management campaign, the refining process also includes determining the negative keywords that will make your campaign more targeted and cost effective. For an organic optimization project, the refinement is through determining keyword competition levels that are in line with your time and/or SEO budget, combined with acceptable predicted traffic levels for those keywords
Making the Final Keyword Selection
Lets say you've been working on your site for a year and you've done everything you can think of to get it to rank for your keyword term but it just won't. What does that tell you? Fundamentally, it means that your skill level or the time you've devoted to the project (or both) is insufficient to bring your site to the top for a keyword with that amount of competition. You probably want to add a qualifier or choose a less competitive keyword, get some additional SEO training, and/or spend more time on the project. (or call us).
Lets say you've read-up on the topic of SEO, chosen your keywords, included them in your written web page copy and the next thing you notice your sitting pretty at the top of the rankings. But six months down the road, while you are still patting yourself on the back, you begin wondering when the traffic is going to start flowing in. Truth is, if it doesn't start as soon as you reach the top of the results, there is not going to be any. It means you've pick a keyword that nobody is searching for and it wasn't worth the time and resources you put into achieving high rankings for it. (You may want to call us to get things turned around for you.)
There are relatively few hard and fast rules in SEO and besides the correct keyword choice, other factors are involved in your rankings. Factors such as the age of the site, overall strength of the site, perhaps any penalties levied by the search engines, or the search engine's ability to crawl the site, all impact your rankings.
For this and other information such as how to integrate your keywords into your page and your site, please give us a call.
1. Use a keyword service like METAPILOT's keyword consulting or NicheBot. 2. Develop an exhaustive list of words that people use to relate to your products and services. 3. Narrow down your keyword list based on the strength of your site, your skill level, timeframe for profitability, project scope, and keyword competition. 4. Use your final list of keywords in creative descriptions, information, and stories about your products and services. 5. Support your descriptions, stories, and information with a liberal injection of terms closely- and broadly-related to your keywords. 6. Track you keyword rankings and traffic progress using METAPILOT's web site statistics.
"Landing pages are not wandering generalities. They are specific, measurable offers. You can tell if they're working or not. You can improve the metrics and make them work better. Landing pages are the new direct marketing, and everyone with a web site is a direct marketer." Seth Goodin, New York Times and Wall Street Journal best selling author of Purple Cow.
While we're on the topic of optimization, have you thought about optimizing your local search listing?
In order to improve your landing page conversions, Yahoo recommends: "As you develop and refine your web site, keep this simple principle in mind: make sure your landing pages are about the customer, not about your company. Providing users with the information they're seeking enhances the customer experience and improves conversion rates." |
