On a small site, it’s fairly easy to research keywords for all of the products and services found there. But when a site is large, it can be far too time consuming to do the kind of in-depth research that you’d like – and yet, you don’t want to miss out on any golden opportunities. What’s the solution?

Thanks to the great quality of today’s keyword research tools, you can quickly get a high-level look at possibilities for a product or service.

Let’s say that you want to research keywords for a site with hundreds of branded products. You don’t want to guess which brands have the most traffic – or which have the best longtail keyword opportunities. So, what do you do?

With keyword research tools such as Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery, to name two of the most well known, you can quickly enter in “brand name” followed by “product” to check to see the scope of what’s available. You can then prioritize brands based on what you find in your high-level search and choose brands that have:

• Keywords with high traffic and reasonable competitive numbers or
• Keywords with decent traffic and low competing numbers and/or
• A large number of good keyword choices

Let’s say that you’re researching keywords to decide which pages you’re going to optimize on a site. How many brands do you think you’ll write about over the next six months? Ten? Twenty? If you pick twenty, then create a list of the twenty most promising brands, based on your preliminary research.

Before you begin more in-depth keyword research, take these steps to ensure that you’re creating a solid strategy for your SEO copywriting.

If you’re writing copy for your own company, determine which of the brands on your short list are good ones to spotlight from a business perspective. If you’re writing for a client, then ask your client to review your list.

Do the brands on your list have a good profit margin? Are they brands that you (or your client) plan to continue to carry? Do they seem on solid financial footing, unlikely to go out of business any time soon?

If the answers are yes, then conduct in-depth keyword research on those brands. If the answer is no for some brands, select the next most promising brands from your high-level keyword research and then use those branded products in your search engine optimization strategy, including your SEO copywriting strategy, for the year.

When was the last time that you conducted keyword research on your site? If the answer is a year – or more – then it’s definitely time to repeat the process. First, rerun all the keyphrases that you’ve been using. (The Search Guru provides links to terrific free keyword research tool options.)

What changes do you notice in your keyword research results? Why do you think those changes are occurring? What do they mean to your business?

For example, perhaps you’ve been featuring the luxury version of your product, because keyword research had previously indicated that there was significant interest in that product line. Perhaps, in today’s more uncertain economy, fewer people are searching for the luxury version of your product – but there is much stronger search traffic now on another product line of yours. How will this change your business – and search – strategies?

If you decide to change the focus of your product promotion, you’ll need to do more than just switch out keywords in your web page content.

If you’ve been touting the exclusive, prestigious nature of your luxury products, you’ll need to change the benefit statements included in your content when you start focusing on more mid-line products. Perhaps you could revise one of your main benefit statements to read this way:

Pamper yourself with the competitively-priced Product A that will make you look and feel great without putting a damper on your budget!

Or, as the economy is improving, the reverse may be true; you may notice that MORE people are wanting a luxury version of your product. So, again, when choosing keywords and revising web page content, keep that in mind.

What about local traffic? Should you be choosing keywords with a geo-targeted focus?

When you first optimized your web page content, you may not have included geo-targeted keyphrases. If your audience largely comes from specific geographical areas, though, you’ll want to revise your text to include appropriate geographical references.

Remember that Wordtracker has a question-based keyword research tool that allows you to see what questions your prospects are asking.

Use this keyword research tool to brainstorm topics for the new editorial you’ll also be adding to freshen up your site.

Watch The Search Guru blog for ways to freshen up your online reputation management strategy – and for some great technical tips, too.

Wordtracker provides a free keyword research tool called Keyword Questions that is quick and easy to use. You simply enter a phrase and, in return, you get a list of questions that people have asked about that phrase.

Let’s say that you’re an accountant. This time of year, people are starting to organize material for their income taxes and are looking for helpful information online. If they find the information that they need on your site – in other words, if they find the answers to their questions – then you’ve got an excellent opportunity to also sell them on your services.

So, how do you find out what questions they’re asking?

By entering “income taxes” into the Keyword Questions search box, you can quickly discover that there are 5,311 searches on “How long does it take to get tax refund back?” So, you could write an article about that, ending with your contact information so that people could contact you for your income tax services.

There are also 2,998 searches on “When will my tax refund be mailed?” and 267 searches on “Am I entitled to working family tax credit?” You could write articles on those subjects, as well, along with many other questions that show up when you use the Keyword Questions keyword research tool.

If you’re interested in more in-depth keyword research services, contact The Search Guru today by calling 440-306-2418 or find out more about our free gift session.

Also ask about our advanced keyword research services!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is a mantra for those who are environmentally aware. But it should be a mantra for those who do SEO as well. When you check a website for keywords, you should also occasionally recheck the old keywords.

Knowing how to pick keywords for a site is important, but you need to make sure that those keywords remain useful to your site. Your sites’ keywords supply and demand can rise and fall in relation to trends and seasonal changes. The ideal amount of keywords found in summer may not be as effective in winter or if you check a website for keywords one year, a year later they may not be as effective.

Reduce: Sometimes a keywords supply and demand wanes over time, and you should remove it.

While the ideal amount of keywords may have included a particular keyword, later on, that keyword may not be as effective. It may be that competing sites have also taken the time to check a website for keywords and now the keyword is no longer as easy to rank for. Or that the keyword may have fallen out of use in your niche.

Reuse: Know how to pick keywords and keep in mind the trends they may follow.

Pay attention to the ideal amount of keywords, but also the right time to use certain keywords on your site. Use both your knowledge of your site and online tools like Google Trends to plan for how your site’s keywords supply and demand may look in the future. Tools like Google Trends will allow you to see how to pick keywords that may be in low demand now but historically have performed well.

Recycle: Check a website for keywords related to keywords you already use.

Is there a keyword that performs well for your site? The ideal amount of keywords is not limited by a finite number but rather is defined by how many effective words you can find. There is no better place to look than words that are already working for you.

Keeping your site “green” means keeping your keywords’ supply and demand in mind.

How to pick keywords is important. Knowing how to keep them relevant and important in the long term is even more important. When was the last time you checked your keywords and what did you find?

Maybe your company sells excellent software specifically created for accountants. One key benefit is that it helps accountants in multiple areas of their job. So, throughout your website, you talk about your “seamless business applications for accountants.”

You’re frustrated, though, because you aren’t getting enough online traffic and nowhere near enough sales. But, you’re sure that the right customers are out there! Somewhere…

You are not ranking well for particular keywords that your customer uses.

Let’s imagine your ideal customer. He’s searching Google; keyphrases he uses are what he thinks will find the right accounting software.

After typing in “accounting software package” into a Google search box, he checks the top 10 or 20 search engine results. For each one, he reads about features and costs, and then he orders some software.

He quickly becomes frustrated, though, because the software he chose is just okay. He’s sure the perfect software is out there – somewhere – but it sure isn’t in the top search engine results provided by Google.

Would carefully choosing keywords – the best keywords – really make a difference to your company?

Absolutely!

From a search engine spider’s perspective, you’re selling “seamless business applications for accountants,” while Ideal Customer wants to buy “accounting software packages.” To a spider, these two phrases are dissimilar and so your product does not appear high in the search engine results pages of your potential customer.

When you select the best keywords for your website, you’re giving the search engine spiders the cues they need to understand the content of your site. When the spiders understand the theme of your website, your site will have a much better shot at ranking well for particular keywords.

So, carefully choosing keywords is the first step to increase conversions, sales and ROI. Why wait?

Increase targeted web site traffic by imagining yourself at the keyboards of your customers.

Let’s say that you sell shoes. You should conduct keyword research to determine if potential buyers search by:

• Brand name (Nike or Birkenstock),
• Price (affordable designer shoes),
• Demographics (shoes for teens),
• Geography (shoe stores in Michigan) and / or
• Product (athletic shoes or matching shoes and handbags).

They probably search in more than one way. When you craft your expert SEO copywriting and professional SEO strategies, keep your customers’ search strategies in the forefront of your mind.

As you increase targeted web site traffic, ensure that every web page is created to boost online conversions.

You might hear this professional SEO advice: make sure that every web page is an effective entry page to online conversions. What, though, does that mean?

Remember that, when people use search engines to find web sites, they frequently find pages other than the home page – and, if that page isn’t enticing enough, then the browser / prospective buyer will just look elsewhere. Every page that your customer might see is worth keyword research and your best SEO copywriting and professional SEO online conversions work. Have any of you had good – or bad – experiences with second or third tiered web pages? Post below.

Professional SEO techniques guide potential customers to your web site and lift you above your online competition.

Think of professional search engine optimization as a modern day version of Hansel and Gretel leaving breadcrumbs as navigational tools. There are countless web sites out there and SEO experts make the trail between your potential customer’s needs and wants and your products and services as straight and clear cut as possible. Hansel used the tools available to him – breadcrumbs and white pebbles – while we use our own sets of tools, including:

• keyword research
• SEO copywriting
• link exchange management, including one way links and foundation niche directories
• and much more

Over the next few months, we’ll take the mystery out of these tools and keep you up to date with cutting edge SEO news.

Wait a minute! How can you compare professional SEO tools to Hansel’s breadcrumbs and white pebbles?

Good question! And, really, it’s simple:

• keyword research lets us know what words potential buyers use to find your product so
• these keywords let us know which verbal breadcrumbs to place on the web;
• effective SEO copywriting lets search engines such as Google see the breadcrumbs and
• boost your rankings on the search engine results pages so that
• the breadcrumb trails are readily visible to your customers
• while link exchange management increases the places where this path can be followed.

Call us at 440-306-2418 or email us today for more information about how your potential customers can find you.