Search Engines and Keywords
Search engines are the vehicles that
drive potential customers to your websites. But in
order for visitors to reach their destination - your
website - you need to provide them with specific and
effective signs that will direct them right to your
site. You do this by creating carefully chosen keywords.
Think of the right keywords as the Open Sesame! of
the Internet. Find the exactly right words or phrases,
and presto! hoards of traffic will be pulling up to
your front door.
But if your keywords are too general
or too overused, the possibility of visitors actually
making it all the way to your site - or of seeing
any real profits from the visitors that do arrive
- decreases dramatically. Your keywords serve as the
foundation of your marketing strategy. If they are
not chosen with great precision, no matter how aggressive
your marketing campaign may be, the right people may
never get the chance to find out about it. So your
first step in plotting your strategy is to gather
and evaluate keywords and phrases. You probably think
you already know EXACTLY the right words for your
search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven't followed
certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG. It's
hard to be objective when you are right in the center
of your business network, which is the reason that
you may not be able to choose the most efficient keywords
from the inside. You need to be able to think like
your customers. And since you are a business owner
and not the consumer, your best bet is to go directly
to the source.
Instead of plunging in and scribbling
down a list of potential search words and phrases
yourself, ask for words from as many potential customers
as you can. You will most likely find out that your
understanding of your business and your customers'
understanding is significantly different. The consumer
is an invaluable resource. You will find the words
you accumulate from them are words and phrases you
probably never would have considered from deep inside
the trenches of your business. Only after you have
gathered as many words and phrases from outside resources
should you add your own keyword to the list.
Once you have this list in hand, you
are ready for the next step: evaluation. The aim of
evaluation is to narrow down your list to a small
number of words and phrases that will direct the highest
number of quality visitors to your website. By "quality
visitors" I mean those consumers who are most
likely to make a purchase rather than just cruise
around your site and take off for greener pastures.
In evaluating the effectiveness of keywords, bear
in mind three elements: popularity, specificity, and
motivation.
Popularity is the easiest to evaluate
because it is an objective quality. The more popular
your keyword is, the more likely the chances are that
it will be typed into a search engine which will then
bring up your URL. You can now purchase software that
will rate the popularity of keywords and phrases by
giving words a number rating based on real search
engine activity. Software such as Word Tracker will
even suggest variations of your words and phrases.
The higher the number this software assigns to a given
keyword, the more traffic you can logically expect
to be directed to your site by search engines. The
only fallacy with this concept is the more popular
the keyword is, the greater the search engine position
you will need to obtain. If you are down at the bottom
of the search results, the consumer will probably
never scroll down to find you. Popularity isn't enough
to declare a keyword a good choice. You must move
on to the next criteria, which is specificity. The
more specific your keyword is, the greater the likelihood
that the consumer who is ready to purchase your goods
or services will find you.
Let's look at a hypothetical example.
Imagine that you have obtained popularity rankings
for the keyword "automobile companies."
However, your company specializes in bodywork only.
The keyword "automobile body shops" would
rank lower on the popularity scale than "automobile
companies," but it would nevertheless serve you
much better. Instead of getting a slew of people interested
in everything from buying a car to changing their
oil filters, you will get only those consumers with
trashed front ends or crumpled fenders being directed
to your site. In other words, consumers ready to buy
your services are the ones who will immediately find
you. Not only that, but the greater the specificity
of your keyword is, the less competition you will
face.
The third factor is consumer motivation.
Once again, this requires putting yourself inside
the mind of the customer rather than the seller to
figure out what motivation prompts a person looking
for a service or product to type in a particular word
or phrase.
Let's look at another example, such
as a consumer who is searching for a job Asian IT
manager in a new city. If you have to choose between
"Seattle job listings" and "Seattle
IT recruiters" which do you think will benefit
the consumer more? If you were looking for this type
of specific job, which keyword would you type in?
The second one, of course! Using the second keyword
targets people, who have decided on their career,
have the necessary experience, and are ready to enlist
you as their recruiter, rather than someone just out
of school who is casually trying to figure out what
to do with his or her life in between beer parties.
You want to find people who are ready to act or make
a purchase, and this requires subtle tinkering of
your keywords until your find the most specific and
directly targeted phrases to bring the most motivated
traffic to you site.
Once you have chosen your keywords,
your work is not done. You must continually evaluate
performance across a variety of search engines, bearing
in mind that times and trends change, as does popular
lingo. You cannot rely on your log traffic analysis
alone because it will not tell you how many of your
visitors actually made a purchase.
Luckily, some new tools have been invented
to help you judge the effectiveness of your keywords
in individual search engines. There is now software
available that analyzes consumer behavior in relation
to consumer traffic. This allows you to discern which
keywords are bringing you the most valuable customers.
This is an essential concept: numbers alone do not
make a good keyword; profits per visitor do. You need
to find keywords that direct consumers to your site
who actually buy your product, fill out your forms,
or download your product. This is the most important
factor in evaluating the efficiency of a keyword or
phrase, and should be the word you wield when discarding
and replacing ineffective or inefficient keywords
with keywords that bring in better profits. Ongoing
analysis of tested keywords is the formula for search
engine success. This may sound like a lot of work
- and it is! But the amount of informed effort you
put into your keyword campaign is what will ultimately
generate your business' rewards.
About the Author:
Martin Maier is the Author of this Articles,
he is a well known Internet marketer. For Best Search
Engine Optimization Company he recommends www.seoberatung.net
they are the best SEO Services company Visit
here to get answer about your search engine optimization
Search Engine Optimization Company for SEO Consulting
and services for Internet Marketing by Seoberatung.
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