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Planning A Keyword Strategy

Keywords are the most important decisions an SEO must make when starting out. Choosing the right keywords will determine the overall SEO strategy and can make all the difference, saving both time and expense in the campaign.

The core of most Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, work is good planning. Virtually all future efforts will be based on the initial choices made about goals and strategies. Chief amongst these choices is that of keywords. The keywords chosen will determine how much of a struggle the SEO efforts will take and what kind of strategy will be used. This is why careful analysis is required in the choice of keywords. Choose poorly and the consequences in terms of time and money can be steep.

Building The List

The keyword choice process is one of elimination. The first step is the easiest, brainstorming as many candidate keywords as possible. The hard part is taking that big list and picking out the truly worthwhile entries. When brainstorming, think in the broadest terms possible about the products, services, and industry in which the business operates. The object is to create a very broad list, as it will be more likely to contain the terms best suited to the overall SEO strategy chosen.

Process of Elimination

With the list prepared, it is time to start eliminating choices. Keep in mind the following basic SEO rules when doing this. First, any one page, including your website's homepage, can only be effectively optimized for 2-3 keywords or keyphrases. This number can be higher, but that depends on the use of fairly obscure keywords and phrases. Though not usually ideal, one should not entirely discount obscure words and phrases. They can be useful and will be touched upon later. With a 2-3 max in mind, make a short list of what is considered "ideal" in terms of the business or products being offered. One can always optimize internal pages for additional terms if the homepage cannot support all the most highly prized keywords.

Doing The Homework

Research the chosen keywords. This can be accomplished through a variety of ways. First, and most rudimentary, check them in the search engines. View the listings and get a feel for the "competition." Some keywords are more hotly contested than others, though, and this might not be apparent by a mere glance at the results. This is where some deeper analysis is warranted. Various tools exist to gauge the popularity of keywords. Most well known is, perhaps, "Wordtracker.com", a keyword analysis tool that requires a monthly fee to use. Many marketers consider its information invaluable, though, providing a good idea of how many people are likely to be searching on a particular keyword or keyphrase. As a general rule of thumb, the more searches, the more competitive it may be. Alternatively the Overture Keyword Selector Tool provides similar information at no charge. Both tools are also useful as suggestion tools, as they will provide a list of related searches that might provide more valuable keywords than were already chosen.

Two Strategies

The data from Wordtracker or Overture, or both, will provide an good idea how much effort will be required to appear in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for a particular keyword or phrase. The more searches, the likely more competitive. More general searches are more common, and these can be the hardest to successfully optimize. This is where more obscure terms and phrases can be useful. Depending on the business or products being sold, some kinds of more obscure phrases can be very useful.

For instance, someone searching on "cars" could have any number of reasons for doing so. "Cars" is very popular term, and trying to optimize for it would require a great deal of time and money. Whereas someone searching for a particular type of car, or, better yet, a particular type of car in a certain area, is far more likely to be looking to buy that kind of car. There will also be far fewer people doing that search than for "cars", perhaps making it easier to optimize a site or product page for that keyword instead. The traffic from the specific, individual search is also far more highly targeted and far more likely to click through and make a purchase.

It is important not to lose sight of the purpose of the SEO campaign, that of driving potential customers to the business's website so they will purchase a product or service. Optimizing for very broad, general terms can drive large amounts of traffic if successful, but a far smaller percentage of that traffic is likely to buy. Optimizing for more targeted keywords might not bring as much traffic, but that traffic is more likely to make a purchase. Finding the right balance is important. For some companies, the broad, large amount of traffic may still be preferable and create more sales than the smaller, targeted traffic.

Conclusions

Keyword choice is one of the most important to be made in SEO. What keywords are chosen will determine whether the overall strategy is broad and directed at a large amount of traffic, or small and directed at smaller, more targeted audiences. Each has their merits, though one will generally be more expensive than the other. Always research keywords and know their value before proceeding. Optimizing for poorly chosen keywords is a mistake that takes a lot of time to overcome.

About the Author:

Mr. Lester has served for 4 years as the webmaster for ApolloHosting.com and previously worked in the IT industry an additional 5 years, acquiring knowledge of hosting, design, and search engine optimization. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, vps hosting, and web design services to a wide range of customers.

Established in 1999, Apollo prides itself on the highest levels of customer support.

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