Search Marketing Sage

If you read part one of this blog series, you now know all the basics for doing keyword research for SEO.  PPC keyword research is somewhat similar to SEO, but instead of focusing on monthly search traffic, your are mainly focused on getting every single keyword that someone could search for!

Step 1:  Build an Account Structure

First you need to make a skeleton of what you want your AdWords (or Bing) account to look like.  What do you want to advertise or what are your main focuses?  If you truly have no idea how to start, create a basic keyword list as in step 1 of the SEO keyword research.  Write a list of everything you can think of about what you do; it’s also helpful to go through your website to pick out key terms.  Then look through your list for patterns.  Are there obvious sections or categories?  Make each one a campaign, and there you have a skeleton account structure.

So you’ve heard about SEO, you want to dive right in, but have no idea where to start?  Welcome to the world of keyword research!  It can be long and tedious (or hilarious when you read some of the keyword suggestions), but it is absolutely essential to starting or building out an SEO campaign.  Let’s get started.

Step 1: Gather a Base List

Open up a spreadsheet or write down every single thing you can think of about what you do.  What would people search for?  What are the different products or services you offer?  If you’re having trouble, go through your website.  Pick out industry terms, brand names of your products, more general terms, etc.  You don’t need every single term someone could possibly search for at this point, but make sure that you at least cover all the areas that you cover in your website.  Make sure you don’t leave anything out, even if there are services you don’t want to make your primary focus.

Step 2: Expand Your List

The Google Keyword Tool is your friend.  Use it!  I like to set up my base list in a spreadsheet, and then go through the list, entering one keyword at a time into the keyword tool.  Make sure you check [Exact] under match types on the left hand side to ensure that google doesn’t include the search traffic for other words or synonyms.  If the terms are exact match, the search traffic it shows for a specific keyword is the traffic for that exact phrase, no more, no less.

It’s my last day here at SES New York, and I’m attending the “Creative Keyword Research” session with speakers Ron Jones, President and CEO of Symetri Internet Marketing and Lisa Cucinotta, Advertising Supervisor of Resolution Media.  Here at Search Mojo I’ve gotten very familiar with keyword research, so I’m excited to learn new strategies and hone my skills.

Keyword Relevancy:

• Messaging
• Searcher Expectation
• What Keyword to Use?
• SERP/Landing Page
• Conversion Page