Finding the perfect keywords for winning SEO projects

This is part of a series we'll be running into SEO. This time looking at how to find perfect keywords that
will give you a decent chance of getting to the top of the search engines rankings. Follow our blog for updates: SEO Cambridge
Any search engine optimisation project must begin with a through understanding
of the keywords you want to be found for in the search engines for.
Without understanding what your potential customers are
searching for you don't know what keywords to optimise your website for. Good
keywords - although please be aware that by keyword we usually mean a
key phrase - should be the bedrock of any SEO project.
What you're looking for are keywords that a prospect will use when they are actively looking for your
product or service. By being more specific and adding in geographic or
other unique keywords you focus on prospects that are
actively in the sales cycle. Take for example the keywords we aim for
as a web design company:
The generic term 'Web Design' has 673,000 searches a month in the UK.
By making the search term geographic specific we reduce the number of searches but make it more specific:
'Web Design Cambridge' returns significantly less - but more targeted - results: 2,900 searches a month.
We can be fairly sure that someone searching for 'Web Design
Cambridge' is actively searching for a web design company in Cambridge, a
strong signal that they are looking to buy, whereas someone searching
for the generic term 'Web Design' could be looking for anything from
information on web design for a school project to looking for a a web design job. By making
the keywords more specific we can narrow down the search term
and make it far more targeted and relevant.
This is the basis of the 'long tail' keyword - finding a keyword
that is very specific and will probably have less people searching for
it. Because it doesn't return as many results as a generic keyword long tail keywords are often
overlooked by your competitors, but if someone does land on your website
from the long tail search there's a high chance you provide exactly the
products or services they're after.
By narrowing down the keywords you also stand a much better chance of
coming top in the search engine rankings. Search engine optimisation is
competitive and if you're reading this you're more than
likely in a small to medium sized business. Large companies spend a
fortunes dominating the search engines for generic keywords and to
compete against them tends to be a thankless task.
It's much better to rank well for less popular keywords where your chances of being on the first page, if not in the top three results, are substantially higher. This is the starting point for any SEO project. In the
next article we will look at the tools that are out there to help you find
and evaluate the best keywords for your SEO project.

Author: John Cafferkey / Posted: 15-06-2011