Keyword Research is the process used by online marketers to determine which keywords people are using when searching. - Wikipedia

 

This is the basic definition at Wikipedia. We actually take this a step further by not just determining what a user is searching for but actually looking at the relevance of these searches to your companies products and services. We ask probing questions like:

 

Is someone who types in this keyword search someone with commercial intent?

Does your company have the range of products and services to convert this person into a paying customer/client?

Does this prospective client/customer sound like someone that would invest in your product or service. Is your price point too high or to0 low to target someone like this?

 

Then if the answer is still unclear we will test this and find the correct answer. Either way we are direct about which keywords are likely winners, which keywords are likely losers and which keywords requiring further testing to be sure.

Keyword research in this context does not only help us optimise your pages to bring traffic but also helps us to optimise your pages to drive conversions too.

Keyword Research is one the cornerstones of our operation. We believe it is too important to leave to chance and risk the possibility of not targeting the right audience.

Imagine this scenario. You set up a traditional media campaign, invest in developing great ads and fantastic offers and then go ahead and target the wrong demographic. The campaign would be a disaster.

Simply put it is too important to leave this to chance.

At SEOTech when we evaluate a clients needs this is one of the first things we like to do so we can give clear and relevant SEM advice

We have a number of processes we use to research keywords at SEOTech. These include:

Studying your competitors and your marketplace. What keywords are they optimising for? What can we do better? What are keywords they missing out on?

Researching the existing traffic levels using specific tools. We have highly detailed tools and databases available that enable us to research how many people searched for your phrases and make sure that we focus on the right phrases.

Using Google's own tools to determine the most important phrases.

Brainstorming new relevant phrases that are available by thinking outside of the box.

We are then able to present our results and what they mean to your organisation. For example, certain keywords are vital for your online presence where as certain other keywords are less important. Sometimes there will be keywords uncovered we think need to be tested before we can give a surefire answer.

Generic keywords are the phrases that usually have the most traffic but also the most competition. In high competition areas such as finance and online gambling competing can be expensive but if done correctly can be very lucrative too.

Examples of Generic keywords include:

 

Car Insurance

Mortgages

Poker

Online Casino

Plasma TVs

Laptop Computers

 

Long Tail keywords are keywords that usually have lower levels of traffic but often have less competition too. It is usually possible to optimise for long tail keywords pretty quickly and generate good results.

 

Examples of Long Tail Keywords include:

Car Insurance for 2003 Ford Mondeo

Mortgage Consultants in Vejle

Online Poker for Beginners

Online Casino with Rakeback

Sony FWD50PX1 Plasma TV

Cheap Acer Laptop Computers with Intel Dual Core

 

Generic Keywords often convert at lower ratios than more specific long tail keywords. An example of this is:

 

Generic Phrase: Car Stereo

Specific Phrase: Kenwood KDC-W4537UA Car Stereo

 

With the generic keyword car stereo, a searcher could have a lot intentions:

Buy a car stereo that you have in stock

Buy a car stereo that you do not have in stock

Find out information about car stereo installation

Find out about the history of the car stereo industry

 

With the Specific Phrase Kenwood KDC-W4537UA Car Stereo a searcher is more likely to be looking to buy that specific model. If you have this model number in stock and rank well for it then you should look to rank well for this keyword.

 

At SEOTech we would devise a strategy to enable you to rank strongly for Generic and Long Tail Keywords in the organic search results.

As a PPC strategy, we would recommend focusing on targeting all relevant Long Tail keywords whilst also including more relevant Generic keywords and monitoring the ROI so we can make educated long term decisions.