Do your research first.
First things first, you’ve got to know the landscape of your market. You need to know how to do keyword research. What searches are your clients typing into Google? Who are you competing against and what are they doing? The aim here is to build a list of potential keywords to further analyse and at this point, the more the merrier.
Start with a common word or phrase that is appropriate to your business. Your starting point doesn’t need to be clever or creative, just relevant to your business niche. For example, a good starting point, if you were a dentist, might be ‘dentist’. Search this keyword using one of the following keyword tools:
- Free Google Keyword Tool
- Wordtracker
- Market Samurai
These tools are designed to help you expand your keyword list by offering a number of derivatives or suggestions related to that keyword. They will also tell you how often those keywords have been searched and how competitive they are. Document all those keywords you think are appropriate and run any additional searches on any newly discovered phrases.
Now with a big list of keywords, you need to identify the top ten to twenty keywords to start targeting. You should identify those keywords that represent the best opportunities for your niche. You want keywords that are ‘buying phrases’ with a good balance between low competition whilst also being highly searched.
Buying phrases (as opposed to browsing phrases) are more specific searches that indicate the customer is ready to purchase. For example, a user searching ‘Sony Handycam HDR-SR11’, as opposed to just ‘Sony’, is much further down the buying funnel. They know what they want and their choice of keyword search will reflect this. You want buyers… not browsers.
Watch the video below to find out more:
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