Using online optimisation requires deciding on the right keywords for your target audience. Google recommends that keywords should be relevant to the customer, specific and that there should be the right number (Google, 2015).
This blog will look into the process of finding the right keywords and give a few examples for illustration purposes.
(Shih, et al., 2012) have identified an implementation process for keyword research and selection which in my own experience I found really useful so we’ll start with that!
We’ll use the example of a holiday business catering for 18-30 year olds providing cheap, clubbing package holidays. (Not mentioning any names)
Step 1 – find keywords.
There are many ways to find key words, the most common being Google trends, Google Adwords and Keyword planner tools. However, as times change I think it is important to use innovative ways that make the most of resources available to you, after all this could give you an advantage over competition. (Patel, 2014) identified using Google autocomplete, Google related searches or looking at competitiors keywords.
Step 2 – create a keyword table
Below are some anticipated broad search terms for the youth holiday market. Keywords need to be ranked by value, for example; number of visitors and conversion rates. This then clearly shows the expected return on investment and can help deciding which ones are the most valuable. As can be noted from the table, the keywords that are more specific and ‘long tail’ may have fewer number of visitors but a higher conversion rate.
This is just a snippet of possible keywords, as you can imagine there are lots more to choose from. Which leads me nicely on to step 3!
Step 3 – Decide on keywords
Keywords should provide a return on investment specific to the target audience. (Joshi & Motwani, 2006) identified two main strategies which could be used. Selecting many non-obvious keywords at a lower cost or selecting only a few obvious and more expensive keywords.
In an ideal world, you’d want a keyword that has high searches and low competition. So, based on the example table above we shall choose ‘What are the best party holidays’and ‘cheap party holidays’ because they are relevant to the product and provide the best conversion, visitors ratio.
Step 4 – Decide where to place your keywords
This is something that (Shih, et al., 2012) doesn’t pick up on in his framework but something I believe is incredibly important to page rank.
(Green, 2003) states that the most important keywords should appear near the top of the page, or in bold, or as hyperlinks. Search engines index according to the location and frequency of terms, so such words receive a higher weighting than plain text words further down a web page. The locations to consider are:
- Headings
- Content
- URL
- Meta tag
- ALT text
So with the two keywords we selected previously we shall decide where each would be appropriate.
Cheap party holidays would work well as a heading & it’s something users would expect to see. It could also work as a URL, for example: www.holidays4u.co.uk/cheap-party-holidays.
‘What are the best party holidays’ in contrast would work well as a rhetorical question in the actual content.
Step 5 – Observation and Maintenance
Search volumes and search terms are dynamic and change regularly. So in order to keep on top of your keywords game the table must be regularly monitored and updated with correct figures.
(WordStream, 2015) states keyword research should be an ongoing and ever-evolving part of marketing to evaluate old keywords and to find new ones.
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So that’s the end of my guide to choosing your keywords. I hope you’ve found it useful, check out the references below for further reading.
References
Google, 2015. How to build the best keyword list. [Online]
Available at: https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2453981?hl=en
[Accessed 11th April 2015].
Green, D., 2003. Search Engine Marketing: Why it benefits us all. Business Information Review, Vol. 20(No. 4), p. Pg. 195–202.
Joshi, A. & Motwani, R., 2006. Keyword Generation for Search Engine Advertising. Hong Kong, IEEE.
Patel, N., 2014. Back to Fundamentals: 6 Untapped Keyword Sources that Will Boost Organic Traffic. [Online]
Available at: http://moz.com/blog/untapped-keyword-sources
[Accessed 25th January 2015].
Shih, B.-Y., Chen, C.-Y. & Chen, Z. S., 2012. An Empirical Study of an Internet Marketing Strategy for Search Engine Optimisation. Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries., Vol. 23(No.6), pp. Pg. 528-540.
WordStream, 2015. SEO Keywords: How Better Keyword Research Gets You Better Results. [Online]
Available at: http://www.wordstream.com/seo-keyword
[Accessed 12th April 2015].