Keyword Research for Natural Search and Paid Search Advertising

Two important ways to get visitors to your site are (1) search engine optimization (SEO) so your webpages show up high in the rankings for your important keywords, and (2) Pay Per Click (PPC) keyword advertising using Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing. For these to succeed, you'll need to do keyword research.

For SEO you're looking for a short list of keywords, perhaps a dozen, that comprise bulk of the searches for your type of products or services. For PPC ads you need to compile lists of several hundred keywords -- not only the most common search terms, which are also more expensive, but also hundreds of less-used search terms, which are quite inexpensive and keep your advertising cost down.

Keyword Selection Process

Here the basics steps to keyword selection. My example is local and regional RV dealerships.

1. Find main groups of keywords. First, determine which keywords are most widely used to search for RVs (recreational vehicles). One of the best software tools for this is Wordtracker (www.wilsonweb.com/afd/wordtracker.htm), which has both a free and paid version. (The paid version is less than $8 for about 3 days -- plenty of time to do your research.). With Wordtracker you insert a basic keyword, such as "recreational vehicle"). Then it conducts two kinds of searches -- thesaurus (looking for synonyms in its built-in thesaurus) and lateral (looking for keywords found in the metatags of top ranked websites). Rather quickly you can build a list of the most important keywords. Now to step 2.

2. Find how often these and related keywords are used in searches. Both Wordtracker and Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture) give you the number of recent searches for a keyword. For this step I'm using the no-cost Overture Keyword Selection Tool (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/). Insert several of your main keywords, one at a time, such as:

then make a copy of the list of keywords generated. I'm pasting keywords into Microsoft Word. Concerned that I might have left out some keywords, I put in the more general keyword "trailer." This generated a lot of irrelevant keywords such as "movie trailer," "Harry Potter trailer" that I'll need to delete from my final list. My list now shows me a keyword and the number of searches that were made using each keyword in the month of October. For example:

3. Refine the list. By this time my list has 500 keywords. Some are duplicates, others are for other kinds of trailers that I'm interested in -- movie trailers, motorcycle trailers, etc. First sort the list. In Word, highlight all the words and numbers, then sort by the number column in decreasing order, which puts any duplicates next to each other so they're easy to spot. (In Word the sort command can be found under: Table > Sort.) Next, delete the unrelated keywords and duplicates. For example, first in the list is "trailer" (192,905), "movie trailer" (158,534), then "motor home" (95,887). I'll delete the first two, leave the third, and work down the list quickly reducing it to about 400.

Use the List in Marketing Your Site

What do you do with such a list? Three things, if you're an RV dealer:

1. Select keywords to optimize your webpages. Select the top dozen or so of the most frequently searched for keywords to optimize your webpages so your site ranks high for these keywords. The main keywords should appear on your home page. Consider optimizing a page of your site for each of the dozen main keywords you found. More on search engine optimization in Dr. Wilson's Plain-Spoken Guide to Search Engine Optimization (www.wilsonweb.com/ebooks/seo.htm).

2. Select keywords for a national Pay Per Click (PPC) ad campaign . If you have a national business, you might begin your PPC campaign with all 400 keywords and gradually refine them. Two warnings:

1. Be very careful with general keywords such as "trailer" that can show up for searches that have nothing to do with RVs.
2. Realize that the most frequently searched words are likely to be the most expensive. So to save money, begin with the hundreds of less frequently searched for keywords. Use the dozen or so higher priced words only when you must do so in order to build a greater volume of traffic.

More on PPC campaigns in Winning Results with Google AdWords by Andrew Goodman or Search Engine Marketing, Inc. by Mike Moran and Bill Hunt.

3. Select keyphrases for a local PPC ad campaign . If you're a local RV dealer, you don't want to compete nationally with all the RV dealers in the country. Rather you want to compete locally or regionally.

1. List all of the cities, towns, and villages in your market area.
2. Include those place names on every page of your site. In my area I would include at the bottom of every webpage a phrase such as, "serving Sacramento, Placer and Yolo County, including Elk Grove, Lodi, Davis, Dixon, Roseville, Citrus Heights, Antelope, North Highlands, and Rocklin."
3. Develop a local PPC campaign using (1) geo-targeting and/or (2) combinations of place names with your main keywords. For example, "motor home Sacramento," "motor home Placer County, "motor home Elk Grove," and so on. More information regarding local marketing is available in How to Promote Your Local Business on the Internet (www.wilsonweb.com/ebooks/local.htm).

These steps may seem tedious, but they are necessary. Fortunately, keyword selection software speeds up the process greatly. To summarize, keyword selection is vital because it allows you to design both your website and search marketing campaigns to accurately target the keywords that people actually use to find your kind of product or service.