How do I find keywords?
I’ve been talking about keywords, but what I really mean is keywords and phrases for search engine optimization. Our anti-gravity chairs (see other posts if you don’t know why I talk about these) are the best on the market, but is our target customer going to type into a search “best anti gravity chair”…maybe.
One of the free keyword research tools I use is from – no surprise – Google https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal This is related to the display of ads on Google. This will help you see what related word searches your ad will show on. Go ahead – click it – then swap back here.
Be sure to notice your options for ‘Descriptive words or phrase’ and ‘Website content‘. Also to the right, there are tiny arrows that will expand to fit other options. Selecting ‘descriptive words..’ option type in ‘ergonomic anti-gravity chairs’ (don’t forget the captcha image input).
Analysis of results: one word: holymoley! I sure picked a competitive market!
- Select/click on ‘Local Search Volume’ to sort the most used keywords to the top. We’re only going to look at the local market for now.
- Select Advertiser Competition to sort by that column. Select the keyword/phrases and select Add>> to add it to a list on the right.
- Note: as you look through the words, try to narrow down the scope of your product focus, for example, our chairs are not meant for outdoor, mostly office or sit-down jobs.
- On the right side you can now add more words and then select ‘Get more related keywords’.
- Go through that iteration until your keywords/keyphrases fit your target audience – you HAVE already done the market research….right?!?!
Think of this as an exercise in brainstorming, but you’re using Google as another brain.
Next step after searching for keywords and phrases, how about searching for keywords actually searched for on Google? Search based keyword tool: http://www.google.com/sktool/#
‘ergonomic office chair,executive office chair,ergonomic computer chair,comfortable office chair,executive desk chair,zero gravity chair,ergonomic back chair,zero gravity chairs,anti gravity chair,cool inventions chairs’
Copy and paste the final keyword list you obtained from the aforementioned. Click ‘Find Keywords’. Now look at different sorts by column and print them out, save them to a file…just ruminate over them for awhile and determine your target. You never want to compete (in my opinion) in the highest bid area. For one, it might be cost prohibitive, and 2nd, you prefer 2nd or 3rd or even 4th place since that can sometimes provide a better return on investment. Looks like I should start thinking about mixing anti gravity with zero gravity some more.
This is to give you a start with:
- creating copy
- adding meta tags (keywords, description, title)
- formulating a budget for PPC campaigns
All exercises are stepping stones to the final answer. An SEO expert has the experience with PPC and can offer good insight, but don’t expect to get it for free.
All of this makes me thirsty. Hope this helps in your strategy research. Sometimes you have to step back a few feet to see where you are going. Free keyword research tools are out there; some are low cost…you need to determine if this is what you want to do with your business time when you should actually be out there selling.
Rather interesting. Has few times re-read for this purpose to remember. Thanks for interesting article.