Are Your Priority Keyword Choices Ruining Your SEO?
A former B2B SEO client of mine was adamant that the only thing they really cared about when it came to SEO was getting on page 1 and improving visitors from a short list of priority keywords (about 15 or so of them). While there is nothing wrong with prioritizing your keywords, it’s practically impossible to target every potential keyword equally after all; my client was effectively limiting themselves and their SEO success by only caring about this short list of keywords. Here are two things I kept reiterating to my B2B SEO client and things you should keep in mind when divvying up your SEO efforts: It’s a lot easier to move from page 2 to page 1 than spot 2 to spot 1. In CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Are You Thinking Like Your Target Audience?
When it comes to keyword research one of the most important things to factor into your process is user intent. Two people could search for very different things and use the exact same search query. For instance, if I were to search for “apple” am I looking to buy a new computer or do I need a pie recipe? Which searcher is the one you want coming to your website? On the other hand, two people could be searching for the exact same thing and use very different search queries. After all, “gym shoes” and “sneakers” could very well mean the same thing to different searchers. At the end of the day it boils down to user intent—how is your target audience searching for the CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Is Your Keyword List Too Long to Succeed?
One of the most important things to remember when doing your keyword research is to make sure you are targeting keywords that your audience is actually using, not just what you think is the best fit. For instance, if someone was interested in learning a programming language like Java how might they search? Keyword phrases like “learn Java,” “lean Java programming,” “java for beginners” and so forth are all probably relevant phrases to include in a keyword list. But a simple search in the Google Keyword Research Tool can pull up hundreds of keyword ideas that might be as equally relevant such as “java tutorial,” “lean java fast,” “how to code in java” and more. All of these keywords have their own value and could CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Are You Targeting the Right Keywords?
Choosing the right keywords is essential for long term SEO success. The keywords you target on your site will determine what searches your site will be pulled into the SERPs for and what kind of searcher will find your site. Here are 4 questions to ask yourself to help ensure you are targeting the right keywords: 1. Are these keywords my target audience is using? Gym shoes, tennis shoes or sneakers—some might say they are all basically the same thing while others would argue they are very different types of footwear and are to be used in very different situations. Which keywords is your target audience using? One common mistake I see many sites make is they think they know the right keywords but they don’t actually CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Choose Keywords That Work with Your Buying Cycle
No two companies have the exact same buying cycle. An enterprise software company might have a buying cycle of 9+ months, while they average buying cycle for a site that sells dog food might only be 4 days. It’s usually dependent on the complexity of your product and the cost of your product (coupled with a consumer’s willingness to buy.) Typically, the more expensive a product/service is the longer the buying cycle because it represents a greater financial investment on the part of your audience. As a potential customer moves through their buying cycle, from research gathering to just before they pull the trigger, the likelihood of them converting goes up. It’s important to remember that the further along in their buying cycle a potential CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Is Your Keyword Conversion Rate Important?
For most marketers, the end goal of SEO, social media marketing, content marketing, PPC, online PR, banner advertising and any other form on online marketing is increasing conversions. This could mean the number of subscribers to your company blog or e-newsletter, the number of people signing up for a free trial of your product or downloading a white paper, the number (or dollar value) of products sold and more. Conversion metrics may vary from site to site, but the end goals are usually the same—get more conversions! Keyword research forms the cornerstone of your SEO campaign. The keywords you target on your site will directly impact what kind of search phrases your site gets pulled into the SERPs for, which in turn influences the kind of CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Don’t Be Afraid of Competitive Keywords
I was speaking with a new client the other day about their former SEO efforts. Their previous SEO firm had outlined in their contract exactly which ten keywords (10?!) they would target on the site and include the content marketing efforts. This client owns a local business so most of their keywords were localized (think Boston SEO firm vs. SEO firm). Interestingly enough, and frustratingly so, their previous SEO firm flat out refused to target the more competitive terms! Imagine you owned a pet store in Chicago. Wouldn’t you want to target “Chicago pet store?” Of course you would! But this SEO firm flat out refused to invest any time in more competitive keywords and instead went after the low hanging fruit and long tail CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Exploring the Benefits of Branded Keywords
Guest post by Jessica Sanders of ResourceNation.com Branded keywords: You don’t have to work for them; they rank you organically, and are unfortunately often underused. Commarketing.com defines branded keywords as, “Keywords or keyword phrases associated with a brand. Typically branded keywords occur late in the buying cycle, and are some of the highest value and highest converting keywords.” These keywords come from your continual use of them online – in the title of your website, in blog posts, in various pages; essentially your website and social platforms are covered in them. Because of this, they are valuable for your search engine rankings, but also for your PPC marketing. Fix a struggling campaign by placing the right keywords in the right places or boost CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Don’t Be Blinded by the Search Volume!
“Insurance” gets almost 25 million searches each month in the US alone (according to the Google Keyword Research Tool). “Small business insurance” only gets a measly 60,500 searches in comparison and “small business insurance agency” only has a monthly search volume of 320. Clearly “insurance” is the best keyword right? After all, it has the largest search volume by several orders of magnitude and that’s what counts—more searches mean more visitors. And in a perfect world, that’s exactly what should happen. But we don’t live in a perfect SEO world and search volume is not the most important thing when choosing which keywords to target with your organic SEO. It’s very easy for DIY SEO site owners to get blinded by the search volume of various CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Use Broad Keywords to Start Your Keyword Research – SEO Video Tip
It's important when you start your keyword research that your first few keyword lists are created using a broad keyword as the seed. If you start with too long tail or niche of a keyword, you won't be able to come up with enough viable (and actually searched for!) variations. It's also important to not let company ego get in the way when conducting keyword research and only use keywords the management likes. Watch this week's SEO video lesson here! For more keyword research lessons from Nick Stamoulis, check out the Brick Marketing keyword research video lesson CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
New Keywords Will Lead to New Visitors
A problem I have run into with many website owners during the keyword research phase of their SEO campaign is that they are hesitant to incorporate new keywords into the mix. They have a core list of 10 keywords they want to rank well for and want to know why those keywords can’t be targeted on every page of the site. Surely the more times those keywords are used the better, right? Here is the thing, sure, you can target whatever keywords you want on any page of your website but if the content doesn’t back them up you won’t get very far. The search engines look at the page as a whole, not just what keywords you have in the Meta tags. If you CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
B2B Keyword Research – SEO Video Lesson
B2B websites have to be sure to include those long tail, niche industry keywords in their B2B keyword research. Even if those keywords don't have a high search volume, it's important that your website be positioned well for when someone does search for those B2B keyword phrases. Someone using those highly targeted keywords is most likely your exact target audience. Watch this week's SEO video lesson here! For more keyword research tips and advice, check out the Brick Marketing Keyword Research Video Lesson CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Keyword Research Advice for New Websites
Brand new websites that are just beginning their SEO campaigns should undoubtedly begin with onsite SEO, the first step of which is keyword research. The keywords you choose (based on the content of your site) will ultimately help determine what search phrases your site rank for and what kind of searcher will find your site. Because new site’s don’t have 6 months of analytics to jumpstart their keyword research, here are 4 tips to keep you on track: Use your competitors as a starting point. If you’re website is relatively new, you don’t have a deep pool of analytics and data to base your keyword research on—the numbers just aren’t there yet an it’s hard to pull the right keywords from thin air. In order to get CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Don’t Stuff Your Website Like a Stocking
In my opinion, on site optimization should be the first phase in any SEO campaign. What is the point of building great inbound links if your site isn’t ready to convert visitors? A sloppy navigation structure, weak content and limited call-to-actions aren’t going to help your online business grow, not matter how good your offsite link building is. With Christmas just 48 hours away, I thought I’d bring up the flipside of failing to optimize your website—over optimization. And the easiest way to over optimize your website is to stuff it full of keywords, as if you were stuffing a Christmas stocking. It makes sense in theory; if the search spiders look for specific keywords to determine what a website page CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Optimizing Content for the B2B Business Cycle
Since the B2B business cycle can much longer than the average B2C business cycle, you can’t truly measure the success of your SEO until your business cycle has come to a full close. That’s why it is so important for B2B companies to start their SEO off on the right foot! If you missed the mark with your on-site optimization or off-site SEO, it might be months before you realize that your SEO headed off in the wrong direction, forcing you to start over. One of the most important things a B2B company can do for their SEO is make sure their content is properly optimized. What is your customers’ problem and how do they go about searching for answers/solutions? For example, a small business owner CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
SEO Journal is Written by
Brick Marketing Founder,
Nick Stamoulis:
Nick Stamoulis - SEO Bio.
Tel. - 877-295-0620
nick@brickmarketing.com
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