A good Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategy starts with selecting the right keywords and creating great content based on those.
If a tree fell in the forest, would it matter at all if no one’s around to hear the loud thud? No. You may have a great-looking website but it wouldn’t matter if it isn’t getting any traffic.
Good SEO and paid search advertising start with choosing the right keywords and configuring your site’s landing pages, blog, and other content based on those target words and phrases. Here are a few tips for doing just that.
- Understand people’s queries
You must anticipate what words and phrases people who might be interested in your products are typing into Google (which has a 64 percent share of the search engine market, according to comScore). Ask yourself: What are people who are interested in my niche typing into Google?
If you sell coffee-related accessories, you may want to create a list of common phrases such as “coffee mugs,” “coffee cups,” “coffee accessories” and other keywords. And it helps to use synonyms (like “coffee tumbler” or “coffee jug”) so you can have an expansive list.
- Assess the competition
There are presumably a lot of competing websites in your niche. Therefore, it helps to include long tail keywords in your list. If you specialize in selling coffee mugs, find out what a Google search yields when you type long tail phrases such as “military coffee mugs” or “I love dad coffee mugs” or “Valentine’s Day coffee mugs.” You might get some profitable traffic by targeting long tail keywords that have little or no competition.
Consider doing searches on the most popular keywords as well as long tail phrases in your niche (in this case, coffee accessories). Then see which keywords have heavy, medium, and little competition. Tools such as Google Keyword Tool, Spyfu, Wordtracker and other free or paid apps will help you do this.
Think about the level of competition you face when it comes to certain keywords and how that could affect your profitability. For example, targeting a highly competitive keyword like “coffee mugs” may yield little or no profit.
- Create the best content possible
If you have a limited budget, you may want to strategically target coffee-related keywords that have less competition — such as “military theme coffee mugs.” Undoubtedly, other companies will swing for the fences and attempt to rank high for highly competitive keywords.
But whatever path you choose, you’ll need to optimize your website’s content based on your target keywords. Also, you’ll want to attract high quality links to your site (to further impress the search engines). That means your landing pages, blog, press releases, whitepaper, and social media posts will all need to have the right keyword density, use of synonyms, and high quality writing.
Your company may provide excellent products and services but it’s just as important for your business to be easily found online by prospects, customers, and potential business partners. With Liqui-Site’s search engine marketing (SEM) techniques, we can help you drive traffic and conversions. Contact us today.
