Posted on January 29, 2003
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1. Compiling a keyphrase list:
Usually, companies are sure that they already know their ideal
keyphrases. Often, they are wrong. This is typically because
it is very hard to separate oneself from a business and look
at it from the perspective of a potential customer (rather
than an insider). Compiling a keyphrase list should not be,
despite common practice, a strictly internal process. Rather,
it is best to ask everyone outside of your company for their
input, especially your customers. People are often very
surprised at the keyphrase suggestions they get- and sometimes
dismayed to realize that an average customer doesn't speak the
same language that they do. Only after you have put together
a list of likely phrases from external sources do you add your
own. As a last step, try to add variations, plurals, and
derivatives of the phrases on your list.
2. Evaluating keyphrases:
Once you have compiled a master keyphrase list, it is time to
evaluate each phrase to hone your list down to those most
likely to bring you the highest amount of quality traffic.
Although many individuals will base their assessment of
keyphrase value based only on popularity figures, there are
really three vitally important aspects of each phrase to
consider.
Popularity
By far the easiest of the three to judge is popularity, since
it is not subjective. Software like KeywordDiscovery gives
popularity figures of search phrases based upon actual search
engine activity (it also gives additional keyphrase
suggestions and variations). Such software allows you to
assign a concrete popularity number to each phrase to use when
comparing them. Obviously, the higher the number, the more
traffic that can be expected (assuming you are able to obtain
good search engine positions). However, this number alone is
not good enough reason to pursue any particular keyphrase,
although too often keyphrase analysis stops here.
Specificity
This is more abstract than the sheer popularity number, but
equally important. For example, let's assume that you were
able to obtain great rankings for the keyphrase "insurance
companies" (a daunting prospect). Let's also assume that you
only deal with auto insurance. Although "insurance companies"
might have a much higher popularity figure than "auto
insurance companies", the first keyphrase would also be
comprised of people looking for life insurance, health
insurance, and home insurance. It is very likely that someone
searching for a particular type of insurance will refine their
search after seeing the disparate results returned from the
phrase "insurance companies". In the second, longer
keyphrase, you can be reasonably sure that a much higher
percentage of visitors will be looking for what you offer- and
the addition of the word "auto" will make it much easier to
attain higher rankings, since the longer term will be less
competitive.
Motivation of User
This factor, even more abstract than specificity, calls for an
attempt to understand the motivation of a search engine user
by simply analyzing his or her search phrase. Assume, for
example, that you were a real estate agent in Atlanta. Two of
the keyphrases you are evaluating are "Atlanta real estate
listings" and "Atlanta real estate agents". Both phrases have
very similar popularity numbers. They are also each fairly
specific, and your services are very relevant to each. So
which phrase is better? If you look into the likely
motivation of the user, you will probably conclude that the
second is superior. While both phrases target people looking
for real estate in Atlanta, you can infer from the second
phrase that the searcher has moved beyond the point where they
are browsing local homes or checking out prices in their
neighborhood- they are looking for an agent, which implies
that they are ready to act. Often, subtle distinctions
between terms can make a large difference on the quality of
the traffic they attract.
3. Evaluating Keyphrase Performance:
Until recently, judging the performance of individual
keyphrases was a dicey proposition. Although it is possible
to tell from your log traffic analysis how many visitors are
getting to your site from each keyphrase (valuable
information, but unfortunately not enough to do much with), it
was very hard to decipher which phrases were bringing you the
most quality traffic. Recently, however, some sophisticated
but affordable tools have been developed that allow you to
judge the performance of each individual keyphrase based upon
visitor behavior. This new software makes it possible to
periodically analyze which keyphrases are bringing your site
the most valuable visitors- those who buy your products, fill
out your contact form, download your demo, etc. This type of
data, rather than the sheer number of visitors from each
search phrase alone, is invaluable when you are refining your
search engine marketing campaigns, since you can discard and
replace non-performing keyphrases and put increased effort
toward the phrases that are delivering visitors that become
customers. This kind of ongoing analysis is the final piece
of the keyphrase puzzle, and allows you to continually target
the most important phrases for your industry, even if they
change over time.
Conclusion:
Keyphrase compilation, evaluation, and performance are all
vitally important to any search engine marketing campaign.
While high rankings in search engines are an admirable goal,
high rankings for poor keyphrases will consistently deliver
poor results. Integration of this keyphrase process into your
overall search engine marketing strategy can dramatically
improve your website performance (and thus your bottom line).
Scott Buresh is Co-founder and Principal of Medium Blue Internet Marketing . For monthly tips on how to get the most out of your internet presence, sign up for our Internet Marketing Newsletter .
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