Choosing Quality Keywords
This article shows how to effectivily choose keywords when looking to market your
website. This specifically relates to using Google Adwords, but applies to all Search
Engine Marketing.
Google Adwords makes billions of dollars each year from their advertising revenue.
The reason Google Adwords is so popular is because when it is used correctly Google
Adwords can be one of the most affordable ways to promote your business online.
In this article we intend to shed some light on how to choose keywords that will
give you the best return on your investment. We are going to do this by focusing
our attention on just 10 keywords, place our keywords into 2 categories and write
a separate landing page for each category. By placing the keywords into categories
we will clearly be able to see what information is being searched for and write
effective landing pages giving the visitor their information.
Keyword Selection
Before you even begin thinking about what you would like your Ad to say you need
to be thinking about what keywords you would like to advertise under. In case you
don’t already know, “keywords” are the search terms that people will type into Google
in order to find your product or service.
We have found the best process when getting started with Google Adwords is to choose
just 10 keywords and monitor their performance closely. Once you have optimized
these 10 keywords you may choose to expand your list. However, you will find that
usually the best return will come from just 10 keywords.
How to find the 10 best keywords
The best way to find the 10 best keywords is by creating a list of all the keywords
that are related to your product or service and then narrow the list down. When
narrowing the list down you will want to look for 3 main factors: How popular is
this keyword, How much advertising competition is there, and How specific is this
keyword to my business.
Create a large list:
- Grab a pen and paper and place yourself in your customer’s shoes. Simply sit down
and think about what you would type into the search bar if you were looking for
your product or service. Make the list as long as you like, we will narrow your
list down later.
- Next, visit your competitors’ Websites. Go to Google and type in a broad keyword
that is related to your product or service. Then, look at the page titles of your
competitors Websites (The page title will be the blue link text.) The page titles
from your competitors likely contain some of the more popular keyword search terms.
This will give you some more ideas to add to your list.
- Use a keyword research tool. A keyword research tool is a program where you are
able to submit a keyword search term and it will return to you related keywords
along with how often each of the keywords are searched for. This is one of the most
useful tools to help you choose good keywords. We will return to this tool later
to narrow down our list. There is a large selection of keyword research tools available
to you. We have listed 2 of our favorites below.
Additionally don't forget about long keywords containing 4 or more words. These
long tail keywords are often overlooked by large advertisers and have reduced competition.
This will allow you to have a low bid and still show up on top! For example if I
were to advertise my Website Design Company I would use Website Design,
but may also use Florida Professional Website Design Company. The latter
keyword will have less competition.
Narrow Down the List
Now that you have a large list of keywords you will want to choose only
the best 10. There are 3 major factors that will help you choose the 10 keywords
that are going to give you the biggest return on your investment.
- What is the search volume? Use your keyword research tool to get a good estimate
of the overall search volume. You will want keywords that have a lot of search volume.
By having a large search volume there is more opportunities for someone to see and
click on your Ad.
- How much competition is there? The best way to find out how much competition there
is for a keyword is to use the Google Keyword Tool. Using this tool will save you
a lot of time during the keyword selection process. With the Google Keyword Tool
you can see how popular the search term is and the advertising competition side
by side. However, if you do not want to use the tool an alternative method is to
simply type your keyword into the Google search page and look at how many Ads are
listed on the right hand side of the page. If there is a link at the bottom of the
list that say "more sponsored links" then there is likely a large amount of competition.
Obviously, if there is a lot of competition for the keyword then you are going to
pay more per click to be listed within the top 10. If you are not able to bid high
enough to be listed within the top 10, then we suggest you choose another keyword.
Additionally, even if you are able to bid high enough to be listed within the top
ten still research alternatives. You may find other keywords that are just a popular
that have less competition.
- How relevant is the Keyword to my business? When deciding on this keyword you need
to ask youself, "How likely is the person using this search term going to become
a customer?". After all, that is the end result we are looking for, not just to
drive traffic to our Website. For example if I was a Website Design Company that
focused on Small Business I may choose to advertise under Small Business Website
Designers instead of Website Designers. Even though the keyword
search term gets less traffic, the persons searching for that keyword are much more
likely to be looking for the services I provide.
If you were a Website Design Company your top 10 may look something like this:
- Florida Website Design Company
- Professional Website Development
- Standards based website design
- Search Engine Friendly Websites
- Website Development Company
- Best Website Design Companies
- Florida Professional Website Design Company
- Small Business Website Designers
- Website Design Company Reviews
- Choosing a Website Design Company
Keyword Categories: The key to success
From looking at this list you will be able to clearly place each keyword into one
of 2 categories: Those who are ready to hire a Website Development Company and Those
who are researching Website Development Companies. You should now be able to do
this same thing with your list of keywords.
Making this distinction is the key to improving your conversion rate. We will be
able to send individuals who are researching Website Development Companies relevant
articles and statistics on our Website. Individuals who have already done the research
and are ready to hire a Website Development Company will be sent directly to a page
that has a strong sales pitch for our company and information on how to order our
services. By doing this we are able to fill our landing page with information the
person conducting the search is expecting to find. When we do this we benefit both
ourselves and the individual conducting the search.
Following these steps closely is sure to improve the return on your investment with
Google Adwords. If you would like specific information on how we can help you manage
your Google Adwords campaigns giving you significantly improved traffic and a better
return on your investment contact our sales department and we would be happy to
help you.
