How do I find the right keywords for my website or web page?

There are three general ways that people search for something they need or want. They open up their browser, go to Google, Yahoo or Bing and they either type in a keyword, keyword string or they ask the search engines a question. Keywords Strings are the #1 determining component of a successful returned result from the search engines. Questions would be #2 and a single keyword would be next in line.

Example of what someone would type if they were looking for boots:

1. Keyword - boots
2. Keyword String (also knows as keyword phrase) - red leather boots
3. Keyword Question - where can I buy red leather boots in kansas city

How do keywords work | Understanding the Nature of People

If we look at the Internet as the worlds solution provider you can better understand how you react with your target audience. People are looking for solutions to their everyday wants and needs and thus interact with the search engines in the same manner. Products are the prime target for keywords and keyword strings and services though they do target keyword strings and keywords, they do allot better by addressing the problem with a solution they offer in the form of a question.

Scenario 1 - For example, someone might be looking for a "plasma tv" which would bring up a huge result. If you are selling plasma tv's then this is a keyword you would want to target. However, they might me looking for something more specific like a "62 inch plasma tv" thus is your keyword string. If you are a plama tv service provider you would get more results with creating a page focused around "how do I setup my new plasma tv" then you would targeting the keywords by themselves.

As we learn to think like our target audience it becomes more clear that just a single keyword might not cut it. We have to think like the person on the other end of the search engine and try to anticipate what they would type in to find YOU.

I wrote an article called "How to Create Quick Landing Pages that Drive Traffic". In this article I talk about how to get your keywords that you want to rank for (could be 200+ words) and to create quick landing pages for those words. This is a great keyword strategy but I am now convinced more than ever that combining those keywords in a question format returns more results with better conversion rate then just a page with one to two-word keywords targeted.

Scenario 2 - We provide Joomla Web Development Services. Yes we rank for lots of Joomla keywords and yes they bring traffic but at the end of the day are they causing us to convert those people into customers? So I tested this theory and created a page called "Why Joomla". This was a keyword that was targeted by thousands. In this article I talk about the benefits of the Joomla Content Management System. This page has brought quite a bit of traffic. Yes, I admit, though this page is original content, its like some many others out there. So in evaluating this page, I decided that I was not providing the answer to the real question that my audience is asking. What they really want to know is "Why should I choose the Joomla CMS for my Website Development Needs versus other Content Management Systems? Notice, I still have the keywords "why Joomla" but I added more. This is going to give me two benefits.

1. It gives me more keywords to rank for instead of just "why Joomla". Example: They may also find me if they search for "why Joomla website" or "why Joomla cms"
2. I am now answering their real question, providing statistics and then offering a call to action for them to call to discuss their website needs.

Bottom line - My theory was correct and I am getting 75% more hits on my second page which asks a question versus my page that only targets a keyword.

How do I choose the right keywords for my site?

There are three steps to take to getting the right keywords for your site.

• Step 1 - Breaking down your product and service offerings
• Step 2 - Research what your top 10 competitors keywords are
• Step 3 - Using a keyword tool to get your keywords

Keyword Strategies - Click images below to view

         

Step 1 overview - I wrote an article once about buying a multi-sized universal usb charger that had several type end-extensions. Before I wrote the article I had to think about why someone would buy this and how best to grab their attention. Once I began to think who would buy it and why, I pulled out a pen and paper and the list followed us such.

People interested in buying a universal charger:

• might be looking to buy it for when they travel
• might be needing it for their mobile office
• might have several devices such as cell phone, camera, external hardrive
• might be a tool for a computer technician

This type of thinking helped me to put myself in my potential buyers shoes. Again, people are looking for a solution to their need so this type of forethought helps gage the direction of your web page with they keywords used in online search queries. This line of thinking also helped me come up with keyword terms I would never have thought of. Its not as important to have a page called "USB Charger" with this keyword throughout your page as it is to solve the problem of the person that is searching for a "USB Travel Charger for on the go Cell Phone Charging".

• Jotting down my thoughts on who wanted to buy a usb charger and why they wanted to buy them, I was able to break down keywords into categories. Category 1) Business Travel, 2) Mobile Office, 3) Technician Tools and 4) Usability (such as computer tools, travel charger, car charger, office, business, cameras etc). Grouping your keywords in this way can help narrow the categories down that you'd wish to derive keywords from. So now in step 3 below, I can use a tool like Google AdWords: Keyword Tool to search these specific categories for keywords.
  
  
• Using the tool I came up with several possible keyword combinations (usb drives, laptop charger, mp3 charger, quick charge, bluetooth, computer, video camera, etc) that I may not have thought about on my own. Even if I don't use all these phrases as my main keywords, I can still work them into my article as synonyms and alternate terms so that people searching for them will find my article.

Step 2 research - Its always a good idea to find out who your direct competitors are and to view the page rank of their web pages and the keywords and strategy they use on their website. If you are serious about getting your keywords right the first time and aligning yourself with your competitors then I would highly suggest a one months subscription to SpyFu. This is an unbelievable and easy to use SEO tool that will help you define what your competitors keywords are and how they are using them. Remember, the only way to outrank and climb the latter to the top 10 search on Google is to mimic what your competition is doing and then do it better and more of it. You can do this with SpyFu.

Step 3 keyword tool - This free Google Keyword Research Tool is invaluable. It allows you to enter in a keyword you want to rank for and then it returns all the variations of that keyword. It also shows you how many people have searched for those keywords. Tip: when you get your list of keywords from Google, its as important to write articles for keywords that had a few searches as well as the highly searched keyword terms.

• From your list of researched keywords that you have now, narrow down your main keywords to two or three keyword strings or phrases. These will become your main keywords that you're trying to rank well for.
  
  
• If you're looking to find the maximum number of readers for your article, then you'll want to sort your keywords according to volume. If you run ads which relate to your article, then you'd want to choose keywords that have a high earnings potential (CPC). In most cases, it's best to have a middle-of-the-road strategy and choose keywords that have a good amount of volume and pay well. The actual numbers that work well for you will depend on your niche and SEO goals.
  
  
• The most important place where your top-primary keyword needs to go is the title tag, description tag and the first paragraph on your web page. Next up is the sub-title or lead paragraph, where you can usually put your secondary keywords. Use your keywords in other prominent places of your article such as sub-headings (h-tags), anchor text links, images, as well as the first and last paragraph of your article.
  
  Using these simple steps, you can choose keywords that not only rank well and pay well but also use those that are human reader-friendly and natural-sounding in your article. Your keyword research will hit the mark if your reader benefits from your article and your client (or your blog) benefits from targeted and relevant traffic.

At The Turn Group, we research competitors and keywords all day long. With time, success and failure, research and testing you can implement your own keyword strategy or we can assist you. If you would like for us to analyze your website for feedback and suggestions we would be more than happy to help. Contact us to help you find the right keywords for your website or web pages.

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On a daily basis I get asked why blogging is so important. Many SEO Specialists have written articles on this very topic all claiming the same thing expecting you to take their word for it. For example, back in Dec of 2008 I wrote a small article on "Why Blogging is so Important" in which I gave pretty good explanation as to why each website needs one. This article has gotten quite a few hits with no visible or mentionable results other than providing the viewer with a good reason to start blogging. However, telling you why you need a blog is experience and opinion based and is a tad bit different then showing you why you need a blog. So in this article on "Why do YOU need to blog" I will show you actual results that will clearly show the benefits of blogging on your website.

Blog Preparation
1) The first and most important step before you begin writing your blog article is knowing who your target audience is. In our line of work not only do we get other website owners and potential clients reviewing and studying our articles, we get alot of developers, seo gurus and other web masters reading them as well. As a Website and SEO specialist myself, all to often I write articles that lean towards teaching other web masters how to do what I am doing when in fact I am trying to teach potential future clients how to increase traffic on their site in hopes that they will contact us for services. So its very important to articulate your blog article in such away that you are attracting the viewers that you want to attract.

2) The second rule in writing blog articles is knowing what keywords you are wanting to target. Knowing how to write SEO Article/Blog Content is a whole other lesson in itself. Click the following link for these FREE SEO Article Lessons.

3) The third basic rule in blogging is adding the visual aspect that grabs your target audiences attention to make them want to continue reading. You can do this by adding pictures to your article. You want to keep it interesting by drawing in your audience. You will do this with a couple of relevant pics, bullet points, H Tags, as well as the typical bold, underline and italics formatting. If done correctly, you visually stimulate your audience into continued reading.

4) The fourth rule of blogging is a specific call to action. In our FREE SEO Lessons we teach you how to write articles that guide your viewers to some type of action. Afterall, what is the point of writing an article if you are in a product or services based business without asking your viewers to do something once they have read it?

and finally,

the last rule or suggestion to blogging is being consistent with your blogs. Its recommended to produce 2-3 blog articles a week for your target audience. This does three things; 1) keeps the flow of traffic to your site steady, 2) keeps the search engines coming back to your site looking for new content and 3) helps to establish your company as a specialist in your field which builds consumer confidence.

Benefits of Blogging
In order to understand the benefits of blogging you really need to understand what a blog is about and what its for. If you are reading this you should be able to see the importance already. In our blog we provide information that pertains to our services in the form of an article that provides "you" the viewer valuable information that will either cause you to implement our suggested strategy or to call us and have our Blog Team do it for you. You may or may not call us now, but in the future when a web related need arises the overall goal is that you remember who we are and to eventually capture your business.

Blogging is a dynamic way to provided fresh content on your website without having to create extra pages and links to those pages on your website menus. It's like a website unto itself within your current website. 

Our services are website design and development with an emphasis on the Joomla Content Management System. We also provide Search Engine Optimization Services. However, there is no way to cover on one (services page) all the services that we provide. That is where the blog comes in. We can write about an SEO tactic on our blog which will bring in more viewers all centered around one specific topic we are writing on that will grab viewers from the internet in a way we couldn't have done with our current website structure. The article is designed to engage the viewer with the goal of 1) them implementing our strategies and keeping them coming back for more or 2) for them to contact us to implement that strategy for them. 

"After all, generally speaking the sole purpose of a website or blog article is to capture future business. A blog opens doors to potential clients that your static website pages would not have."

Let me show you how this works:

As we mentioned before we offer SEO Services. Well this is a large field of services and the list of what we can do is long. So on our SEO Services page the keyword we are trying to rank for is SEO Services in Kansas City. Well if we have 100 Search Engine Optimization Services that we offer and we list every single one, then how do we rank for all 100 of those services on one page? The answer to that is we cant!

However, with our blog we can start writing articles on those individual services and start ranking and bringing in potential clients from the Blog Articles that we write.

Here is a case study of recent blog article:

One of our SEO Services is helping clients setup valuable backlinks to their website using a typical SEO Strategy that works. We picked a high ranking website (to use as a tool to drive traffic) that has lots of members and viewers that can be targeted for this article that we wrote.

The last article that we wrote is right below this blog article you are reading and its called: How to Drive Traffic with a Squidoo Lens.

Click to view larger image

<--- This article was written Feb 22nd and within 22 hours of publishing this blog article, not only was it showing up within the top 10 results, we were at position #7 for the search term "How to Drive Traffic with a Squidoo Lens" which is exactly what we were wanting to do. 

As your create and provide more and more relevant information for your readers several things will happen.

1) Your site will obviously receive more hits.

2) Your readers will pass on your articles to others.

3) Your overall site page rank will increase, thus passing on your sites page rank to your blog articles even faster.

4) As page rank and relevance increases your articles will start to be indexed quicker by the search engines giving your articles a leg up over other similar articles that have been out longer than yours.

5) Your followers will increase. Building your blog followers is very important. Allowing them to interact with your blog by being able to leave comments will give you the interaction with your visitors in a way that not only keeps them coming back but also provides valuable feedback on more of what they are wanting and needing.

Click to view larger image

Within a few days our position moved from #7 to the #3 position and is holding. So the whole point of this example is to show you that not only do we bring traffic to our website in from our static website page called "SEO in Kansas City" we are now bringing in visitors based on one of our non-mentioned services that we offer in a very short amount of time by using a blog. This article alone has made us $2700.00 in less than a month as well bringing more relevance to our entire website as a whole.

Summary: Blogging gives you the ability to rank individual articles that will draw traffic to your site that you would not have normally gotten from your static pages. It increases traffic, helps to raise page rank, bring more relevance to your site, provides value to your readers and open doors to new business and opportunities.

Here is a quick SEO Blog Tip: The best way to get a backlink from someone else's site to yours is not necessarily trying to convince them to link from their home page to yours (that generally doesn't happen) but to have them write a small and quick blog article/review of your site and services in their blog. These types of backlinks are more relevant in the search engines eyes and works well in driving more traffic to your site from a blog that has many viewers over just your link being on their site.

If you need help setting up your blog or creating a blogging strategy that will work for your company, please contact us and get a FREE Project Quote.

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