Make Your SEM Keyword Strategy

In the last this phase of SEO for Google we looked at content and keyword focus. We went on the assumption there was no historical on-site data to review. If you have the chance to look through any historical analytic data before making high-level decisions on keyword strategies; DO IT! Otherwise we are not concerned with the effectiveness of keyword types yet. They are best identified using website analytics after plenty of visitors have move through your goal funnel.

Finding Your Sweet Spot

If you are not looking at your keywords like a mad scientist you are missing out. The concept that is most important to understand is psychology. Each key phrase used to find your website represents a person typing keywords consciously into a search engine.

Questions to Ask Yourself About People Finding Your Website

We have found when you analyze your visitors that use keyword you can learn a lot about which keywords result in desirable actions taken.

  • What is in their minds when they enter keywords into a search engine? (Pages viewed)
  • What is there mood? (Time on Site)
  • Did they arrive from PPC campaigns and what did they do? ( AdWords)
  • Did they use your internal site search engine (if you have one)? (Site search)
  • Did they convert to action? (Funnel Visualization)

All of these questions are answered in web analytics metrics found in Google Analytics (see links above).

Find Sugar Coated Keywords for PPC

Once we review our data we will learn that some keywords are useless while others are more useful. Eventually

Let me give you an example of effective keywords. Suppose you have a website that sells perfume in Canada. It just so happens I have a client that is doing exactly that. My client is a lovely lady who admits she is not that savvy online but has the desire and small budget to sell perfume in Canada online. “What keywords would be best to use to sell my products?” She asks me. Off the top of your head you might think about these terms:

  • perfume
  • fragrance
  • perfumes Canada

Since my client has a nice eCommerce website nicely set up an investigation of landing pages is in order before you make sound decisions on keywords, ads and landing pages. The better question to ask right now is what keywords will we use to drive traffic to selected landing pages?

Helpful Keyword Psychology

  • Who is entering the keyword…Man, woman, child?
  • Does the keyword reveal mood? E.g. “sexy perfume”
  • Are they looking for a business or personal reasons? E.g. wholesale perfumes
  • Are keywords being used for gocking (e.g. perfumes), Product comparison (e.g. perfume reviews) or purchasing (e.g. buy perfume canada)

These are just a few points to consider when developing keyword based campaigns. Yes, keywords are a behavioral science that you can capitalize on with organic and paid traffic. Studies have shown that appealing to emotional senses close more sales when executed in the right instances. Keyword research is a social science that is the backbone of visitor behavior online. Each keyword represents a website visitor when you see them in your logs or analytics. That alone is just cause to examine, carefully select, and promote your big money keywords.

Take advantage of the expertise and resources required to create a profitable, all-encompassing keyword strategies for your website. Your keywords should perform like triggers to the next step in your conversion process. If your site is more of a brand lift site, primary keywords are how a visitor should remember your website. Of course your web address will be likely how they access your pages in the future but your keyword is one layer deeper in the reticular activator of each visitor.

Psychology Aside!

Let’s just look at the data. Annie (My client) has been online for about a year with Google Analytics installed. She came to us for help with ranking and managing an AdWords Account. Back in the day (pre 2007) we would find the best landing pages open up our keyword research tool chest, build your ads & campaigns from there.

MY, how times have changed. Would it be insightful know what keywords are resulting in product purchases? How about learning what landing pages are converting to sales? I am talking about using the information from the organic traffic already present in Google Analytics and applying it to our Adwords Campaigns.

There are simply so many ways to formulate your keyword strategy. I will maintain the best way is to combine historical site data to correct keyword and market research.

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