Keyword Research 2.0

Conducting keyword research is more than using Google tools and Trends to ping high traffic keywords or niche search phrases. Focusing on words that show good demand does no good if they don’t specifically map to what you are offering. Ranking high for a non-relevant high-volume keyword is a waste of time and resources. If search marketing is the ‘database of intent’, you need to look further than immediate or periodic demand and discover the “intent” behind search.

It’s easy to come up with a list of keywords that directly reflect teh thrust of your site. You can then extrapolate from there by thinking about your locale, demographic, brand, objective, and other factors to expand your base. There is another layer, however, and it consists of the following:

Internal search (how the consumer navigates your site: where they go, what they look at, and when they exit)

Visitors from organic search (SERPs results for keyword driven search)

Visitors from paid search (advertising campaigns such as AdWords)

Identify who is searching for you, how they do it, and where they come from. Concentrate on the people that convert – what did you do right? How can you attract more people like them? How do they search, where do they search, what page do they enter your website at and how do they move through your site?

You should be able to extrapolate data and analyze it for trends that are directly specific to your website and indicative of web-search as a whole. Use this information to formulate new campaigns.

Don’t stop with mere SEO. Use what you have learned from the way searchers react to your keyword choices to discover more and better ways to optimize.

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