The conundrum of choosing search words and phrases for prospective customers that don't know your company exists (yet) can be a challenge. Before the commercial use of the internet, much thought went into understanding your prospects' needs and planning a strategy to get your name in front of them. A huge advantage of using the internet to test marketing strategies is that this can be a less expensive medium than print advertising, and that you can launch mini split-test campaigns and get almost instant results.
Your existing local clientele are going to use search engines differently than someone outside your region. It is still a challenge attracting new, non-local business. Using your server's website analytics data will make it possible to assess how your website is coming up in search engines and look at terms used by people who found you. Your analytics will also record your visitors' ISP addresses and the countries the traffic originated from.
Keywords Selection is Your Foundation
The twenty-first century phenomenon of portable online devices and wireless internet access now satisfies our desire for immediate gratification at home, at work, and everywhere in between. Surfers of all ages and professions use the google.com search bar and a search term as a starting point on the web. Google, Bing, Yahoo, AOL, and YouTube rank webpages according to the relevance and authority of content surrounding keywords and phrases, and higher ranked links are displayed among the first results.
Search engines silently deploy searchbots that crawl the text on your pages, visible to your eyes or those appearing in the page code. Keywords are extracted from your on-page text, headers, page titles, inbound links, image descriptions and other factors. Choosing the right keywords is often the difference between getting found in search and not getting found. Keyword research is the foundation of an effective online marketing strategy.
Guidelines for Keyword Selection
Selection of keywords is the first step in composing headlines and text in your web pages, the first step in search engine optimization (SEO), and a major factor in planning your marketing strategy. The words and phrases used to describe your company or products should be prioritized according to their relevance and competitiveness, and ensuring your keyword terms/phrases have sufficient search volumes.
Thinking Like A Customer
Make a list of your initial keyword and phrase selections. List root brands and product/service names (e.g. "dentist"). Does one service set you apart from the rest ("children's dentistry" ), or do you wish to highlight your most lucrative specialty ("cosmetic dentistry" )? Think about the local prospects who might need your products or services, and consider where they live. Be certain to list geographic variations and work those regional descriptions into the search phrases. The prominent neighborhood (Federal Hill ), section of town (Back Bay ), the geographic corner of a state, or a particular region of the country in which local clientele might begin searching for your business, must be included in your list.
Add descriptive modifiers or brand names to describe your specialty or your best product. Look at the search terms your competitors are using, and try to find specific words and phrases that will give your website the advantage.
Ask your customers and clients how they would look for you. Take all the suggestions into consideration, then enter your keywords into the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, which will suggest numerous other variations.
Vetting Your Keywords
Filter out the lower quality keywords by looking closely at relevancy. Your aim is to get high quality leads from the traffic you bring in. Your website title, internal navigation link names, article text, section headings and descriptions should include the highest quality descriptive words and phrases you can work in. The trick is to gain an advantage with natural search terms, make your content seem valuable to the consumer as well as search engines.