SEO Information from Internet Marketing Professional, Hari Krishna D

In this post we will discuss the 1st step in Complete SEO Process: "Keyword Research".

Finding the right keywords is the basis for your SEO.

Keyword research Process:

1. List all the possible words and phrases that people would use to find what services/products you are offering. Remember to put yourself in the mindset of the potential customer/end user.

2. Analyze the right competitors, do the necessary research to add to your basic key phrase list.

               a. Research your competitors to see what keywords they are using.

               b. Advanced: Look at your web stats and logs and pull words and phrases from there (this is a great source of info, you can find the words that people are already using to find you and enhance your rankings on those words so you can get even more traffic).

              c. If you have a search feature on your site, look at the logs and see what people are searching for within your site once they get there.

3. Compile the large master list you have come up with and use a keyword tool to determine how much is the search volume (Traffic) of these and how competitive the words/phrases are. This is a basis for you to use the keyword or not.

4. Now you need to categorize the list, break it into segments. You need some low competition keyword as well though the search volume is less.

I will explain you brief: The keywords that may be longer phrases with less traffic. These words will be easy to rank quickly so you can use those as your starting point to drive some quick traffic to the site. The second segment of your list should be words that are more competitive and have more traffic and will take longer to get rankings for. You will be glad you selected keywords from each segment because you will be getting traffic from the low hanging fruit while you are waiting for the more competitive phrases to kick in. I will always prefer to have 3 keywords targeted on each page – Primary, Secondary and Tertiary keywords. So Primary keyword will always be targeted with the complete SEO on the page and has more chances to rank quickly, here we will use a long tail keyword.

Let’s workout with an example here: If your keywords are too generic and not targeted it will take a long time to get rankings and the traffic likely won’t convert as well. If you use keywords that are way too specific you won’t get enough traffic but still the conversion rate is high.

Primary: The Long Tail

• Longer and more targeted phrases

• Traffic numbers are smaller

• People are further along in the buying process so conversion rates are higher

Secondary:

• Slightly shorter phrases

• Higher traffic numbers

• Phrases are still focused on what you offer

Tertiary:

• Shorter phrases and single words

• Generic to your industry

• Lots of traffic

• Lower conversions

The thought process behind “long tail keywords” is that the more detail someone types in, the more they know exactly what they want and the further along they are in the “buying” process.

For example if someone types “wicked tickets” they could want to buy them or they could want info or they could want to see tickets price – who knows.

But if someone types in “wicked tickets New York August 18” then they know exactly what they want and are more likely to buy. Typically the longer the phrase, the less traffic there is but the more targeted it is, so it is likely to convert higher.

A solid SEO strategy should definitely implement some long tail because that allows you to get rankings quicker (there is usually less competition on long tail keywords) and it allows the conversion rate to be higher. You get the benefit from the long tail while you are waiting for your more competitive phrases to get ranked and kick in.

Most people are continually adding new long tail phrases and find that when they add them up, in total the long tail phrases end up becoming a large part of your traffic.

Another thing to consider is the searchers intent. Let’s look at this scenario to understand a little more.

“buy wicked tickets New York ” – the searcher is looking to buy wicked new york tickets online

“wicked tickets prices” – they are comparing prices and probably trying to decide if they will buy

“wicked musical tickets” – they are interested in wicked tickets

“wicked musical” – interested in wicked musical

You want to capture leads at the different phases, but understand you will convert more at the top level where they are further along in the buying process.

Your SEO strategy should include keywords from each of the three types of keywords above. Before you decide just Google your keywords and check out what sites come up on top how they have used the keyphrases. Check out what keywords they are using – you may get some idea.

In the next post we will discuss the Step2 of the Complete SEO Process - "Competitor Analysis".