HOW TO DO KEYWORD RESEARCH

The Essence of Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is keyword research and link building with those keyword. 

I am going to show you how to drive more traffic and sales by pushing your site to the top of search engine rankings and using the right keywords to do it. Search Engine success starts with selecting the appropriate keywords that internet users are inserting into search engine query boxes.

The first area to concentrate upon in any search engine optimisation project is analytics and web intelligence.
Keyword research is the second step in the process of optimising your website. This process called Search Engine Optimisation or SEO for short. This diagram shows the other steps in the SEO process.
In ths post I'm detailing the process steps within Keyword Research.  Website owners who want search engine success need to figure out which phrases their potential customers are actually searching on. These phrases or keywords can be found with Google keywords tool and is one of the best FREE tools for finding keywords or keyword phrases. You can mine  the Google Database to pinpoint the exact keywords used by people who are looking for products just like yours. Here’s how we do it:

KEYWORD SELECTION

The topic of the page will determine the primary keyword or keyword pgrases and synonyms to use as secondary keywords of the page. In my example I’m choosing ““keyword research”.

BROAD MATCH VERSUS EXACT MATCH

Follow this step to find Google FREE keyword tool. In the Google query box type: “Google keyword tool”. In the word or phrase box type iin the keyword, from the left column Match Types select Broad Match, in the Advanced Options and Filters select the country and language of your target market. Then press the Search Button. If you have an Adwords account with Google you can access the same data but with 800 suggestions and search volumes for the last 12 months. This data will be useful later in the research phrase.

LEVEL OF COMPETITION

Enter the keyword phrase in Google query box. Google shows you a page called search engine results page, detailing 9 paid search results (top and left side of page) and 10 organic search results (Nov 2012), and says it results 116.000.000 (116m) web pages in less than 034 seconds. The numbers are important. 116m represents web competitors for your select keyword and the numbers of paid search ads indicates a highly competitive keyword.

FIND SYNONYMS

Choose alternative like keyword phrases or synonyms from the list of suggestions given by Google and repeat the instructions in the paragraph LEVEL OF COMPETITION to find the number of competitors.

KEYWORD EFFICIENCY INDEX

Calculate the KEI or keyword efficiency index by squaring the search volume for each keyword (SV2) divided by the number of competitors ( C ). Expressed as sv2/c. You should Choose the keyword with the highest KEI. In my example “keyword Research”.

ANALYSE THE STRENGTH OF THE COMPETITION

My goal is to get the web page on Google first page for the keyword “ keyword research” and to do that we need to access the strength of the competition. I use the page rank of websites as a crude but easily accessible measure of strength.

Note down the page rank (PR) of each website (from the Google Toolbar) on the first, second and third pages of your SERP for your keyword. If the total of PR is over 50 that indicates huge competition as each website has an average of PR5 and the range of PR values might be between PR 3 – PR 7. Do this for all your keywords for all search values and for the search values for the last 12 months, if you have them.

ANALYSE YOUR WEB COMPETITORS

Repeat step 2 for exact match of the keyword to establish the numbers of web pages competing for the keyword. Also find the numbers of competitors that place the keyword in the title of their website pages by inserting this command in the Google query box. Intitle: keyword research. In my example this reduced the number of competitors to 13.800.000 rather than 116.000.000. For these competitors also calculate the sum of the PR strength of the competition. You will need all these numbers to calculate the KEI.

ANALYSE SEARCH VOLUMES OVER TIME

It frequently happens that seasonal fluctuations occur in search volumes. You can use Google Trends to establish likely future volumes and, if trends can be predicted, this will help you change your keyword strategy and create pages for other keywords that are much stronger in certain periods of the year. In my example the keyword “keyword research’ is strong from January to March but during the summer months the keyword phrase “ Researching Keywords” were very popular. So you must find other keywords that are more popular to liven up the campaign.

TWO WORD, THREE WORD OR FOR WORD KEYWORD PHRASES

I have chosen a two word keyword as an example but research shows that three word and four word keyword phrases have better conversion results. So bear this in mind when selecting keywords to research.

KEYWORD PLACEMENTS

Placing the Keyword Phrase in the content and code of the website is the next important step to perform. I have used the keyword: “Keyword Research” as it’s the topic of the page. So you should do the same. You should place the keyword phrase in the URL, title, description and Meta Tags H1 Headings and Image Alt Text of the web page;

• URL -The top level domains uniform resource locator or URL for short, of this web page is: http://www.seosynovation.com/seo-keyword-analysis.php

• Title - of the web page in Google’s search engine results pages is: Keyword Research by SEO Synovation.

• Description – contains the keyword “keyword research”.

• H1 Heading – is “Keywords Research”

• Image Alt Tag – image of researching keywords.

• It is very important to use synonyms of keyword phrases and the Goggle suggestions give some good examples of this.

INBOUND LINKING

A linking project completes the Search Engine Optimisation SEO project with the keywords you have optimise your web pages for. Remember to vary the anchor text – the keyword phrase unlined to link back to your website – can be the keyword itself but also synonyms of it relevant to the pages. Mix up the linking strategy to about half to the HOME, Branding and direct URL and the other half to keywords and synonyms.

SUMMARY

Using Google’s Keyword Tool (free) find out the search volume for the keyword phrase in the language and market you want to reach. In our case it’s the English language in the UK market. Google most of the time will return broad matches for your keywords as well as paid results, YouTube videos and other websites that match the keyword phrases. So performing a balanced, regular and systematic keyword research activity will benefit your business.

Website Optimisation After SEO

It seems a little strange to optimise your website after a search engine optimisation project but you must remember that is a never ending process.  If you have completed your SEO, engaged in inbound marketing in all its elements and haven’t achieved your goals now you should  concentrate on Conversion Optimisation.

Off Page Search Engine Optimisation Part Two

This post is the first in three separate posts explaining more on website optimisation after you have completed a SEO. In a previous post called "Off Page Search Engine Optimisation" I described how Google ranks website, how search engines return search queries and gave a few tips on inbound marketing tactics.

Now is the phase in the project to explore what happens next continuing along this never ending journey of website optimisation. The most important topics now to focus upon after you’ve completed your SEO project and engage in communicating with your customers are:

• Conversion Optimisation
• Revenue Generation
• Engaging with Customers.

 Conversion Optimisation

 The rest of the post is concerned with Conversion Optimisation. I take a different standpoint when I look at conversion optimisation. I focus upon a holistic view of the process path. A taditional approarch might be this:

While the traditional approach may centre upon analysis of the sales funnel and the leaks that exist from the moment a prospect enters the funnel and then drops out at various stages in the cycle, I focus upon four tactics when I review a conversion optimisation and these are:

 

Tactic 1 - Craft your marketing messages around your value proposition.

Tactic 2 – Maintain cognitive momentum in every step of your sales process.

Tactic 3 – Never underestimate the power of a value based headline.

Tactic 4 – Use testing as a means to developing your customer profile.

 Tactic 1 Craft your marketing messages around your value proposition.

The essence of marketing is the message. The essence of the message is the value proposition. And unless you’re able to articulate your value proposition clearly, concisely and forcefully you’re lost in the crowded market place. The goal of a message on a website or in an email is to get a click to a sign-up form, to the buying process or to a newsletter and in so doing you need to stress value in the click.

How do you craft a forceful value proposition?

Scientifically, a value proposition can be expressed in a formula that simply says the net force of a value proposition is the perceived gross force of the perceived value less the gross force of the perceived cost.

pNf = pNv - pNc

 

It is in the mind of the prospect his/her perception of value exceeds the perceived cost.

pNv > pNc

There are subsets of this to consider. We are dealing here with perceptions, human nature and individuals with different attitudes and values. However there are common attributions that we, as humans, share about perceptions of value.  These common attributes are:

• appeal
• exclusivity
• clarity
• credibility 

If the value is appealing and exclusive, and it has been expressed with clarity with credible language, as humans we will probably convert and buy. If you then combine these factors with incentives and high motivational factors but lessen the anxiety and or frictional factors in the buying process then you have a winner strategy. Not easy but can be applied to your marketing message.

Tactic 2 – Maintain cognitive momentum in every step of your sales process.

Conversion optimisation must be looked at as a holistic process from the moment the prospect visits your website to the moment he leaves it after buying or not. The process steps of a visit to your website may be defined as:

• Clicking on a paid ad or entering the site
• Reading the landing page or the Home page
• Clicking on the buy button or call to action
• Completing the buy form
• Processing the purchase procedure

 Your value proposition must be re-said, re-emphasised, and repeated at every steps of the process to confirm the buying decision. That is what I call emphasising the derivative level values of the central value proposition, the perceived value of the prospect, the product level proposition and the process level proposition.

In each and every step of the buying process there's a series of micro Yes’s that lead through the buying process to the ultimate YES of paying for the product or service or sign-up form or whatever the goal was. These series of micro Yes’s occur at different levels in the process, for example, on entering the site (central value proposition must be expressed), on clinking to move forward in the site (prospect level perceptions of value and incentive are working here), on clicking to purchase (product meets perception and anxiety is reduced) and at the buy stage (process levels are easy and friction is reduced). The value proposition must be stated at each level and this is to maintain the cognitive momentum.

Tactic 3 – Never underestimate the power of a value based headline.

There are two principles that every marketer must be aware of.

1. For every action you desire a prospect to make (a click or sign up) there must be an immediate promise of value that outweighs the perceived cost of that action.
2. Like the central value proposition, the derivative value propositions can be measured by its: appeal (desirability), exclusivity (availability), credibility (believability) and its clarity (understand ability).

 Webmaster should optimise websites for thought sequences of the visitors that manifests itself in appeal, exclusivity, creditability and clarity of the value proposition.

When crafting a headline there are two principles to remember:

1. All marketing messages must be centred primarily on the interests of the customer. Therefore when it comes to crafting headlinesemphasise what the prospects gets rather than what he must do.
2. The goal of an headline is similar to the opening scene of a film and thai is to arrest the attention and get them into the first paragraph. There utilise a point first structure that means place the value at the front of the headline.

Tactic 4 – Use testing as a means to developing your customer profile.

 

 

The internet is the biggest laboratory there is. It has billions of users to test all plausible scenarios.  However there are key principles to testing on the internet.
Key principle #1 – the goal of a test is not to get a lift but to get learning.
Key principle #2 – to achieve the maximum of learning your test should be designed around two key elements;

• A research question (always starts with “which” – e.g. which ad gets most clicks).
• A theory question (what does this test tell me around the behaviour of the prospect).

To assist you to formulate a good test it helps to remember the value proposition question: If I am your ideal customer why should I buy from you and not from one of your competitors? 

 Conclusion

Employing these four tactics will assist you in reaching a greater understanding of why you’re getting a series of micro Yes’s along your optimisation path of greater conversions. The process begins with a value proposition that should state what you do, what the benefits are and how you do it to enhance your prospects goals.

About the Author

Vincent Sandford is an SEO expert at SEO Synovation a web marketing agency for small and medium sized businesses in European markets. he may be contacted by email:  info@seosynovation.com.

 

 

 

 

 

How to Research Keywords

Getting traffic to your website, article or blog means choosing the roght keywords in the title and in the content. Google in July 2012 let it be known that they only "give out the most commecial keywords" when users use any of their tools.  therefor by deduction there are many more keyword permutations in the market than you realise.

How to Research Keywords

Researching keywords for your web page, article or blog is fundamental in getting traffic to your submission. Keywords have a direct influence on the type of traffic a website will receive and will determine the level of profitability. Paying attention to what people are searching for is critical to keyword research.

Fundamental Concepts on How to research Keywords

Before I delve into the nuts and bolts of how to research keywords we must consider two fundament concepts:

• how Google returns query results
• and user behaviour.

Search Engines

When users insert a query into search engines they are not actually searching the entire web. They are scanning websites, articles, blogs and other documents that search engines have found, crawled and indexed. Search engines use the users query to scan all the words they have indexed (actually referenced) using hundreds of data centres and return the best match in an authoritarian order. Search engines are re-activating to past search queries and new queries are unlikely to be included in any result. Google can only return search results powered by past queries, in other words they are reacting to past historical data.

User behaviour

Users are unpredictable in the manner in which the create search terms in queries. Studies have shown that over 80% of users will re-create a search query if they don’t find what they are looking for on the first page. If you combine this with th fact that over 55% of users use more that three terms in their search queries and that 25% of all search terms have never been used before , that is they are unique. This means there are more keyword permutations exist than any keyword is giving you.

Tip 1

If you focus on multiple but low volume search terms you may get better conversion results than focusing on high volume competitive keywords. Publish web pages, articles and blogs often as each submission is a keyword net.

Tip 2

Look deep in your analytics for keywords that have found your website and use those terms for blog titles, article titles webpage titles, webpage descriptions, and starter ideas.

Keyword Analysis

Use these 4 ideas to create your own keyword list for a specific webpage, article or blog, Put yourself in the shoes of an internet user who is looking for the solution to a problem that your document may provide. Think about:

Use 3 or more terms in your query ( long tail keywords) - single keywords tend to be generic and thus don’t convert into sales. They are also very competitive as companies and marketers with large budgets bid very highly for them. Long tail keywords are therefore more specific and have less competition which means that they are cheaper and convert better.

Use appropriate terms in your keyword query for your niche market - It is useful to use keywords that best describe the product or service being marketed. Avoid gargon oor industry terms that are not widely known. Use location in the keyword like – toy shop in Long Island – as will target a précised local niche market for toys.

Use popular keywords as starter ideas - Using popular terms is one of the most important pointers of how to research keywords. You have to find out what terms people are using to find the kind of product or service you are marketing. You can use free tools like

• Word Tracker

• Google keyword research tool

• Google trends

• Google Insights

Use each of these keyword research tools with the same keyword phrase and dump the results into a spreadsheet, eliminate duplicates phrases, and then calculate the keyword efficiency index (KEI) . Perform  SEO the page .
Use low competitive terms - After finding popular, specialized and long tail keywords, you should drop those that are highly competitive and focus on low competitive and low volume keywords.

This post was brought to you by SEO Synovation a web marketing company.  To learn more on what they can do for you visist their website.

Levels of Web Page Optimisation

Every webpage should and must have an objective. It may be to introduce the visitor to the services you are offering to him to solve his problem. It may be to optimise his website to get traffic or to defend his online reputation or to increase his brand awareness. Whatever it was that brought the visitor to your website you must satisfy that desire.

Levels of Web Page Optimisation

Your webpage is about presenting your first impression. Research tells us you have seven second to capture the visitor’s attention: the first seven seconds of a visitor landing on your page are critical and must answer the visitor questions. Webmasters should optimise webpages of a website for thought sequences of the visitor to gain better results. The content should answer these three fundamental questions:

• Where am I?
• What can I do here?
• What do I do next?

 Also very page of the website should seek to answer this question:
If I am your ideal customer why should I buy from you and not your competitor?
The forth fundamental to design website pages is this:

• State a value proposition that solves propects problems
• State a clear call to action
• Encourage the prospect to navigate where you want him to go

The fifth and final fundamental to design website pages is design elements of eye path:

• size
• motion
• colour
• position
• shape
• paths of familiarity
• attraction
• relevance
• acceptance
• motivation

Types of Webpages

There are three types of web pages: home pages, inner website pages and landing pages. The goal of a home page is not to get the visitor to it but to get the visitor through it on a desired path to reach a desired goal. Inner website pages are usually an extension of the home page and compliment it to reach a desired goal: buy product, get an email address or subscribe to a newsletter.  Landing pages are usually an extention of pay per click campaigns and are specific to one product or services and to obtain a positive follow up or objectove
The goal of all web pages is to achieve the highest conversion rate possible. Achievements of the perfect website are constrained:

1.  by the broader initiatives of the organisation; 
2.  by your organizational capabilities; 
3.  by your overarching strategy.

 A useful model to apply when optimising web pages is depicted in this image Courtesy of Bruce Clay:

Seven Levela of Optimisation

 1. Element optimization. The most important elements on the search engine results page are the title and description. These are seen first by the searcher and entice him/her to click on your website. So these elements must conOther elements are image alt tags, bold important words and relevant content.
2. Page Optimisation. This is of course the most important element to consider. Creating unique content will enhance the visitor’s experience and favour search engines. This section considers design and layout of the page. On home pages there are competing actions for the products but you should consider promoting one principle product, service or actions which will be tied to the maximum profit generating factor. All other considerations are major but not the principle. Headings and sub headings become vitally important to encourage the visitor to stay on the page and read the compelling content you’ve written. Inner pages and landing pages are similar in design as their objective is singular to get the visitor to perform an action.
3. Path optimization. A page is merely a single step along a path It may start from the home page, or an email. Optimizing the path is more to do with matching the message and expectation of the visitor than anything else. Optimising at this level lets you leap ahead of competitors.
4. Segment Optimisation. Optimising for market segments is the domain of the landing page. Recent statistics released by Google show that 40% of keywords are unique. To construct a home page or an inner page that caters for multiple keywords or keyword phrases is a challenge that’s not always successful. Different respondents arrive with different needs and varying frames of reference. At this level up, you start optimizing different paths to cater to those different audiences. With this optimization, you can reveal tremendous insights about who your customers are andhow they view themselves and their interest in your company. These discoveries not only improve your conversion rate for specific paths — they can help optimize our segmentation strategy at a higher level too. Creating landing pages for specifi market needs will bring you greater conversions.
5. Campaign Optimisation. In 2012 there is a more fluid marketing environment; there are still different initiatives in the field that connect certain messages, offers, audiences, and tactics with common threads. At the campaign level, web page optimisation is matching the pages and paths with the right messages of the campaign, and using the front-line results to inform and improve overall campaign effectiveness. It requires coordination and continuity.
6. Operations Optimisation. Maximizing the efficiency of your overall landing page capabilities is the key here. The personal skills required in operations of web page optimisation are design, production and construction. Increasing the reaction speed of changes to web page alteration can dramatically increase conversions. Monitoring social media chatter may reveal shifts in demand that if acted upon swiftly will increase conversions.
7. Strategy optimization. At the very top of the pyramid, the focus is on optimising marketing strategy. At this level of web page optimisation there are directions that must be considered and are namely: which strategic segments do we follow and which segmented market has the largest growth.

To learn about what Vincent Sandford of SEO Synovation can do for your business email him or visit his website on web marketing.

Driving the Right Traffic to Your Website is the Key To Success

The purpose of this article is to illustrate the difference between website traffic versus targeted traffic and provides tips on web design and web marketing. It is often manifested that lower volumes of traffic in uncompetitive markets have higher conversion rates than in higher traffic markets. Less is more in some circumstances if you focus your marketing on targeted traffic and excellent webpage design. You'll quickly appreciate that the hits your getting on your website they'll be potential customers and, more importantly, convert to sales.

Driving Traffic To Your Website

Driving traffic to your website traffic is the single most important factor when it comes to the success of a website but what kind of traffic do you need: traffic that converts to sales and income. Although it's true that a constant stream of traffic is the lifeblood of a website, the quality of the traffic is far more important than the quantity.

Getting Traffic

The success of any website depends upon getting the right traffic and getting visitors that are looking for the products or information you have available on your site. The most common ways to drive traffic to your website and promote your product or service are:

1. SEO. Optimise existing website and website pages with keywords or keyword phrases that users are searching the web with.

2. Guest Blogging. Participate in blogs to positively promote the brand

3. Social Networking. Engage in social networks to positively promote the product or service.

4. Video Marketing. Create a video to promote your services on YouTube.

5. Informational Marketing. Create presentations and post them on Slideshare.

6. Image/ Info graphic Marketing. Create images and post them on image sharing website like Flicjkr to promote the product.

7. Article Marketing. Write articles detailing the performance of the product.

8. Link Building. Create linking strategy and obtain links to increase visibility of product and brand

9. Public Relations Marketing. Create press releases to increase visibility of product and brand and decrease the effects of negative comments.

10. Blogging. Engage bloggers to promote your product or services.

It’s exciting seeing high volumes of traffic getting to your website but if your visitors are looking for something other than what you are offering, for the most part, your website traffic is not reaching the business goals.

Prerequisites to Targeted Traffic

It’s not only necessary having a great website design, compelling copy, the lowest prices and fantastic special offers but all your efforts will be useless unless your website is drawing traffic that is interested in buying from you.

What you need are visitors specifically interested in your product or service -- you need targeted traffic. Before you start promoting your website using the ten most commons ways of getting traffic you should learn about the inhibitors to increasing conversions.

Inhibitors to Increase Conversions.

Moments of disorientation (two or three seconds) where users need to know where they are and have they clicked on the right website. You tell them by providing a title, description, heading and sub-heading that satisfies their need.

Moments of conversation (one or two seconds) where users need to know the benefits what can I do on this page. You tell them with calls to actions – contact us by email or subscribe to our newsletter.

Moments of Exchange (two or three seconds) where users are looking for the benfits of your product or service. You tell them by provided a bullt points list of benefits.

Objectives of Your Webpage

Most successful websites are tightly focused on their niche market and their marketing tactics are focused on driving people to their site that are looking for what they offer – that’s the power of targeted traffic.

The objective of the home page is NOT to get visitors to it but to get visitors through it to visit the inner pages of a website. There are three categories of objectives of a home page:

a. The primary object of the home page is to meet the key performance indicators of the business. These are generally long term and connected to the business model and marketing plan.

b. The major objectives of a home page are just as important but are not primary. They are usually long term in nature and may or may not be connected to the business plan.

c. Minor objectives of a home page are those which are functions of the website – site navigation, legal disclaimers etc.

Web pages need to be designed to fulfil each objective.

Tips for Targeted Traffic

Here are a few tips to help you prepare your website for targeted traffic:

a. Design your website to promote one particular product or service as your main item.

b. Determine the type of audience that will be interested in your product or service and adjust your website to be attractive to them. Insert keywords phrases in appropriated places.

c. Establish the items or services that are related to what you're promoting on your website. provide and or offer link building exchange facility to benefit a fuller user experience.

d. Offer free content to engage the visitor. Provide a stream of content, that your visitors will find useful, on your website and add new content and information often. Email strategy will invite your visitors back to your site to see the new material you're constantly adding.

e. Keep in mind, a website that's focused on a particular niche item or service lends itself to targeted traffic simply because there is something specific to target and the more targeted traffic your site receives, the more productive your site will be.

f. There are only three ways to increase business:

• Get more customers. Follow tips a – e and 1 -10 above
• Get customers to but more often from you. On first visit get their email address by offering something valuable they want.
• Get customers to increase the average sale value at time of purchasing. At point of sale offer discounted value items. Say ,for examples, others also have bought this product and offer it at a discount.

For more website traffic and web marketing tips visit www.seosynovation.com or http://seosynovation.blogspot.com

Author Bio

Vincent Sandford of SEO Synovation is the author of numerous articles and blogs on search engine optimisation, online reputation management, web marketing, wine and real estate. He has a passion for website marketing and helping professionals, small and medium businesses grow. Learn what Vincent can do for your website by visiting http://www.sesynovation.com