Keyword Research

Keyword Searching, Tracking & Selection is Critical

Keyword searching, tracking and reporting is critical to implementing a successful search engine marketing campaign.  The first step in search engine optimization is to search for keywords – the right keywords. Most SEO experts will tell you that this is where most people go wrong. If the wrong keyword phrases are selected as primary targets, and the people searching for your product or service do not use them, you won't get traffic and your campaign is worthless!

If you select the right keywords, your Search Engine Optimization program is well on its way towards obtaining higher rankings and increasing qualified visitors to your website.  If the incorrect keyword and key phrases are picked, the entire SEO Campaign could be impaired beyond a repair point.

Keyword Analysis is about identifying the obvious and unforeseen keywords that will increase the ‘call to action’ conversion ratio. This essentially means determining the correct keywords for your industry.  These keywords will then be used for creating pertinent, search engine friendly page copy and identifying ad words for Pay-Per-Click and Paid Inclusion programs.

Keyword Phrase Popularity and Daily Search Activity

For our purposes, the terms keyword or keywords include "keyword phrase" or "keyword phrases".  Prime Visibility will perform keyword research services and find the daily search activity for all the keyword combinations that bear a relation to your business or service - many of which you might never have considered.  There is a fine line between keywords that are popular and keywords that are too popular and too general to be useful.

The industry has a number of software tools that can be used to assist the SEO Analyst in their keyword search for the most relevant terms.  One is the Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool.  This is an excellent tool for locating new keywords and determining the frequency that individuals type in the phrase. 

Google AdWords Keyword Suggestions is also provided to help advertisers determine the best keywords for their sites. This tool does not display the frequency of searches for each keyword; however, it does provide a detailed listing of keyword suggestions based on the keyword you entered [depending on the willingness for cost-per-click (CPC), maximum day-spend AdWords will forecast traffic].

Search Engine Related Matches are provided by many search engines and directories including Yahoo!, Teoma, AltaVista, MSN, and AllTheWeb.  They contain keyword suggestions after you conduct a search.  These are usually shown at the bottom of the page, in the "similar queries" section that displays four or more keywords that are similar to the one searched.

Keyword Placement Strategy

Now that the list of keywords has been developed and verified, the next step in the website optimization process is to place these keywords in the various locations throughout the web page’s visible content as well as in the HTML code.

There is a definite keyword importance ranking that needs to be followed.  It is then essential to place these keywords and key phrases throughout the appropriate page for the search engines to index and properly rank the relevancy of the content.

Once you identify your keywords, it's time to put them to work. Search engine spiders read the HTML code on your page and score the page based on established criteria. If the search engine finds keywords in specific locations throughout the document, it will assume that your page is very relevant to that keyword. 

Make sure the text on your page sounds natural, not artificially stuffed with keywords. Remember, you have to please human visitors to your site as well as search engines.  Effective Search Engine Optimization is both an Art as well as a Science.

URL Naming

Through our years of experience, we have found that the websites with higher rankings, generally have keywords in their url, domain name and file names.  Once we determine your top targeted keywords, we’ll suggest ways in which to incorporate the keywords into the url and on the different pages of your site. 

To increase the visibility of every page on your site, each page name should contain a keyword and the page’s content should be focused on that keyword.  Not only does this organize your content and make it more user-friendly, but it encourages the search engines to do a deep crawl on your site, that is, visit many of your internal pages rather that just the home page.  This technique significantly expands the way the visitors can locate your site.

You can still have a high ranking site without using keywords in your url.  For instance, if you are a well-established brand, it would be in your best interests to keep your current url.  Changing your url may cause your site to drop in rankings, an unwelcome scenario.

Conversion Statistics

Once we have incorporated keywords into your website or PPC ad copy, we can begin to evaluate their effectiveness.  Prime Visibility provides our clients with traffic reports featuring keyword conversion statistics.  These detailed reports show which keywords are bringing the most traffic to your site, broken down by search engines. We’ll learn which keywords are working to draw in visitors and which are not.  We may also discover that visitors are locating your site using new, previously untargeted keywords.

Reports & Revisions

In addition to keyword conversion statistics, our clients receive monthly keyword ranking and summary reports.  These reports will show your company’s search engine position for all of your targeted keywords and the urls that appear for each one.  You’ll find out if your position has moved up or down over the past month and on which search engines.

Having access to this kind of information is vital to maximizing the success of your search engine optimization campaign.  By analyzing your keyword rankings every month, we’ll know which pages need further optimization.  From there we can start revising copy or using other search engine optimization techniques that will boost your rankings for that particular keyword.

Learn More About Keyword Research

Contact Prime Visibility today to learn more about Prime Visibility's Website Copywriting Services, to obtain answers to any questions you may have or to request your FREE Internet Marketing Information Kit. Prime Visibility is a full-service Internet marketing firm offering a broad array of services.

If you would like to receive a FREE PRIMEVIEW^sm (an analysis showing you what the search engines “like and don’t like” about your website) including a Keyword Domain Ranking Report (showing you how well your website currently ranks in Google, Yahoo! and MSN using keywords for which you would like to be found) and an analysis of your website through the "eyes" of four search engines (an $895 Value), please click here.