You’ve written an excellent post, checked it for grammar and spelling errors and now you’re all ready to publish… but STOP… will what you’ve written get listed on the SERPs (search engine results pages? A recurring issue I see, when discussing website content, is that people tend to write from their perspective — not from their audiences!
E.g. if you needed a hip riplacement would you search for ‘hip replacement’ which produces search results of about 2,420,000 and is clearly aimed at everyday people, or search for ‘innominate replacement’ which produces search results of about 99,800 clearly aimed at doctors or academics…? Hmmmm.…..
Identifying the right keywords or search terms that your audience uses takes time, but you should be reviewing them on an on-going basis. You’ll find the process invaluable, provides further understanding of your market and is a key part of SEO (search engine optimisation).
So to help you get started, the following six step process will help you begin to identify what search terms your audience uses:
Keyword six step selection:
- Mind-Mapping Keywords
Have a think about all the potential keywords users would/could use when searching for your products or services.
- Are there unique words or phrases people identify with your brand or market?
- Remember different markets may have words with different spellings (i.e. optimisation or the American spelling optimization.
- Add these words and phrases to a list in a spreadsheet
Note: If you need mind map software you can download ‘Free Mind’ for free — Mac and PC versions
- Review your competitors
Think about who your competitors are — either from your knowledge or by entering a keyword on Google, Yahoo or MSN. Then find their websites and add the words they are targeting to the list. You do this by looking at page Titles (which appear right at the top of your browser) and the Meta tags (by viewing the ‘Page Source’) then add these search terms to your spreadsheet
- Finding alternative keywords
Google has a great tool called AdWords Keyword Tool that’s really easy to use. Either enter one keyword or search term or multiple (one per line), select ‘use synonyms’ and enter the CAPTCHA code, then click the big ‘Get Keyword Ideas’. Very quickly you’re presented with a long list of possible keywords
- Identifying how popular each keyword or key phrase is
The results are then ordered by popularity by clicking ‘Avg Search Volume’ and downloaded to an excel spreadsheet
Remove any keyword search terms that aren’t relevant. TIP: Selecting a not so popular search term may bring valuable business for you, especially if it addresses a niche market
- …and finally
Incorporate these keywords into your site content.But don’t overuse them as Search Engines will think that your spamming… But I’ll write a post in the not so distant future to help you on that.
Hope the above helps. But please note that this post is not a decisive list — instead it is intended as an introduction only. There is so much more that can be/must be done but if you have any questions post them in the comments below and I’ll be happy to help out