SEO Keyword Research and Implementation

Kristin Turner: Hi I’m Kristin Turner and I’m here with Jay Brock; natural Search Consultant here at Apogee-Search. Today, Jay is going tell us the importance of SEO keyword research and some strategies to help you implement. Jay, would you start by telling us why SEO keyword research is important? Jay Brock: Sure. You know SEO keyword research is the foundation for everything that you want to do with your SEO efforts. You know, SEO can take up to six or nine months to really show progress and so it’s really important to upfront it, to select the right keywords and make sure that you know, you’re not wasting all that time on keywords that aren’t going to bring relevant traffic or relevant visitors to your site. Kristin Turner: And what are some strategies that will help us create a good keyword list? Jay Brock: You know, I think definitely you want, can’t make it a collaborative effort, you know. If you can get a few people in a room that brainstorm a keyword list, you know, that’s a great way to get started. If you have paid search data, you can look at that and kind of analyze what’s going to work in well for you in your paid search campaign and transfer that over to your SEO campaign. You know in the brainstorm, you want to take into consideration things like your target audience and you know how the audience put your search phrases to find your product or service. You also want to take into consideration, you know if there is any seasonality involved and you know your products or services and keep that in mind with your keyword research as well. And then, you know, you also want to make sure if there’s any branded terms that you have. You want to make sure to include those and make sure because you want to be visible on your branded terms as well. Kristin Turner: Great and how do you evaluate the success in the keyword list? Jay Brock: There are several data points you can look at. The three that I think are the most telling are monthly search volume. How many sites there are out there with keyword phrases in their title tags and then also anchor text links point back to their sites using those phrases. There are a lot of free tools that you can use to determine search volume. The one we probably we use the most is the Google Add words keyword tool. It’s a free tool; provides a lot of great information. It will give you search volume. Not only for an average 12-month period but also month by month so you know, it gives you both for the seasonality aspect. SEO Book also has a keyword research tool. It’s a little more in depth. I just think that the Google tools are more user-friendly. For the “allintitle” and “allinanchor” searches, you can do a simple Google search. If you use the phrase all in title, all as one word with a colon and then your search phrase, it will give you the number of websites that have that phrase in their title tags. All in anchor search is you know, similar in an all in anchor, all one word and your search phrase after that and that will give you those keywords. Kristin Turner: Great and when you’re inserting keywords how do you determine which pages are most relevant on the website. Jay Brock: Well, when you, you know, we do a keyword list, hopefully its phrases that you’re using throughout your site, you know and so you just want to kind of go back to your site and start going page by page and you know, finding the page that’s most relevant to each search phrase. You don’t want to just have keywords in your title tags and then not mention them anywhere else in the page. You know you definitely want to find the right pages of your site that are most relevant to that search phase. Kristin Turner: And what do you think, the important thing is to keep in mind when you’re performing keyword research or SEO. Jay Brock: You know, I think, you definitely, you want to utilize the tools and get all these data points but you know, take your industry knowledge into consideration too. When you use that, you know and the keyword research tools will give you some data but you know, just using your industry knowledge and insight and to, you know, how your audience finds you is a great way to go, you know. Kind of trust your instincts a little bit and you know, just use all tools available but then also, you know, follow your instincts and at the end to narrow it down. Kristin Turner: Great. Well we really appreciate your time and your tips on SEO keyword research, thank you Jay. Jay Brock: Thank you. Kristin Turner: And if you’re looking for any more information on Search Engine Marketing, please visit us at apogee-search.com.