A Mini Course on Keywords Phrases for Top Search Engine Placement
Keywords - what are they and why do I need them?
You need to include keywords in your Web site, ads and social media to help prospects find you online. The term "keywords" is a little confusing though. It leads us to believe that keywords are individual words that describe our products and services. While that is somewhat true, single keywords rarely work for anyone because the results can be overwhelming and may not apply to what the searcher is really looking for.
We should think about keywords not as individual descriptive words but rather as keyword phrases - a group of words that describe a product/service. Keyword phrases of 3 or more words are far more effective and less competitive than one word.
Keyword Phrase Example:
Let's start with the keyword "books" for this example.
When you search online for books are you actually going to use that one keyword phrase "books?" That's unlikely because we all know that if we use that single keyword we'll end of with a "gazillion" results that have nothing to do with what we really want. As searchers we don't want to work too hard at finding what we want., so we've learned that we need to be more specific. And the more specific we are the better the results we receive.
In the image below you'll see that the top search results for this keyword are not specific at all. If you are just looking for an online book store perhaps this works. But what if you are looking for a particular type of book, or a book store in your community? As you can see from this image, the major players in the online books world appear - there aren't any specific titles and there aren't any local bookstores.
So let's be more specific: we want to find marketing books for small business because the books for larger businesses just are more than what we want. For this example we'll plan to purchase a book online rather than at a store. So let's search using the keyword phrase "marketing books" as a simple keyword phrase. This term is better than the single keyword "books" but it's still rather vague. What's more, this is a very competitive term, and what I mean by that is that many booksellers - the big guys with the big marketing budgets and/or tons of traffic - will almost always be at the top of the search results on the first page.
Looking at the next image, you see that we're getting closer to what we want because at least we see some book titles ... but we aren't quite there yet. The results are more specific but still too vague for what we're looking for, or they don't apply at all. For example, unless you've written a book, the second search result doesn't apply.
Let's take this a step further. Let's use the keyword phrase "small business marketing books" because that's what we are, we're a small business looking for a book to help us market and grow our business.
The image below shows more targeted results.
I like this search better than the other two. It may not be perfect, but this process helps you understand how developing keyword phrases works.
This is a basic search that went from a single keyword, "books", to a more complex keyword phrase, "small business marketing books." It's also an exercise in thinking like a target market. In this case we are the target market: small business owners looking for a book on small business marketing.
It's easy for you to think about the type of book you want. I'm willing to bet that it's not so easy for you to turn this around and think like this when it comes to describing your own products and services for your target audience.
Defining the Target Audience - The Real First Step
For Keyword Development
I've learned from working with clients and teaching workshops, that small business owners often tend to think of keywords in terms of how they think and talk about their products. Yet if you think about it, you'll agree that rarely do our customers and prospects think about our business, products and services the way we do.
For the process of developing keywords - keywords that will help you reach that first page of search results - you really need to think like your target audience. I call this process the OBE, or Out of Body Experience. All this means is that you visualize yourself stepping outside of you and what you know. Then think like your prospects: how do they search for what you offer ... how do they think ... what do they need and want ... who and where are they?
Now we've turned this exercise completely upside down. When business owners ask me about keywords I ask, "Who's your target audience, your ideal customer?" We analyze and define the audience first. Only then do we start to think about the keyword phrases.
Too often small business marketers put the old cart before the horse and come up with a list of keywords that aren't as targeted as they could be. Think and speak like your customers before your start thinking about your keywords. More specific and targeted keywords will help you gain the right kind of visibility for your Web site. After all, the reason we're doing all this work is to connect with new customers.
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