Keyword Research - Picking The Right Keywords

By Mark Sceats

Keyword research is a key part of the work Viz Marketing does for clients wanting to boost traffic to their websites from search engines. The success of any search engine marketing campaign is extremely dependant on selecting the most appropriate keywords and keyword phrases.

If you're not targeting the right keywords and phrases, then even the best rankings are of little value.

The majority of Internet users use search engines to find products and services on the Web. Unless they know a company's exact website address or search by the company or brand name, they will use keywords that describe a product or service's features, benefits or attributes to conduct their searches.

This means that unless your brand name is really, really well know (e.g. Coca Cola) most people will not use it as a search term. (For some marketers who eat, sleep and breath the brand this is a difficult reality to accept).  So no matter how much you love the brand, accept it's probably not going to be a key search term.

Selecting keywords is a balance of choosing phrases that are relevant to your web site (this is essential), are sufficiently popular search phrases to warrant targeting (i.e. people are actually using these search phrases) and, where possible, have a low number of competing sites.

The ideal scenario is finding a keyword phrase that is relevant to your site, often searched on, but for which there are few competing web sites.

The reason for targeting keyword search phrases rather than single keywords is because this is how real people search. Single keywords generally are not specific enough and return far too many results.

For this reason the majority of searches conducted consist of a phrase made up of 2 - 4 words. A phrase consisting of several words refines a search and delivers more specific results.

Single word search traffic will click in and click out again because it’s unlikely the site provides the information being sought. This wastes the visitor’s time, may possibly undermine your brand, and certainly costs you money in terms of unproductive traffic charges.

You must ensure your site is optimised for the most appropriate keyword phrases (search terms).

Getting this wrong is a common mistake. Don’t fall into the trap of guessing what keywords might be used to find the site. The wrong keywords will bring the wrong visitors, and keywords that are too broad will bring less qualified visitors than focused keywords.

Another trap is choosing unpopular keyword phrase. Your site may well rank number 1 in Google for the keyword phrase “blue widgets” – but what benefit is that if few ever search using this phrase? High rankings alone in search engines won’t pay your bills. You want rankings that generate traffic – specifically, traffic that converts into sales.

If you want more information about keyword research we recommend you download this excellent keyword research guide. It's free and particularly helpful. Instead of just providing theoretical 'how to' information it features a case study for a fictional company that sells vegetarian dog food online (really!). Worth downloading.

Next topic: SEO copywriting

| Why search engine marketing | key search engines & directories | search engine optimisation  | link building | PPC pay per click | search engine marketing - do it yourself |

This page last updated May 04, 2010