It makes sense in theory; if the search spiders look for specific keywords to determine what a website page is about and how well it should rank in the SERP, shouldn’t a page that targets the same keyword more frequently do better? But what looks good on paper doesn’t always work in practice. Yes, it’s important to target specific keywords and their variations on each page of your website, but overdoing it will actually negatively impact your SEO. While I can’t tell you that using the same keyword 5 times on a page is just enough while 6 times is too many (there is no magic number when it comes to optimizing content), it’s pretty obvious when someone has stuffed their website with keywords.

Let me give you an example using Christmas stocking as the keyword:

Looking for new Christmas stockings for your family? Order your custom Christmas stocking from the original Christmas stocking manufacturer, Christmas Stockings Inc. Our Christmas stockings come in a variety of traditional and modern Christmas stocking patterns and colors. Order your Christmas stockings from Christmas Stockings Inc. today for guaranteed Christmas stocking delivery by Christmas.

Looking for new Christmas stockings for your family this holiday season? Custom stocking makers Christmas Stockings Inc. have a wide variety of traditional and modern patterns that your family is sure to love. Order your new Christmas stockings today and receive guaranteed delivery by Christmas! Give Santa something to stuff this holiday season with a custom stocking from Christmas Stockings Inc.

Which paragraph reads more naturally to you? The first paragraph uses the keyword 9 times while the second paragraph only uses it 4 times, plus 2 “stocking” if you want to count that as a keyword variation. Personally, I would much rather read more of a website that had the second paragraph as part of their page content. It is targeting “Christmas stocking” but not at the expense of the reader, which is one of the most important rules of onsite SEO—never write content for the search engines, always write for a human visitor.

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 may need help managing their employee payroll. They don’t have a strong background in finance but don’t have the budget to hire an outside firm to manage the books for them. They are looking for a tool or software that can help them manage payroll and that is easy to learn on their own.

How would a software company that sells budget and payroll management software optimize their content so they appear in the search results for this potential customer?

First, let’s do some keyword research. The Google Keyword Research Tool reports that there are 390 monthly searches (US) for “payroll management software.” Not a huge search volume but B2B companies using that phrase to search obviously know what they are looking for. Other related keywords (and their search volume) include:

•payroll management system – 480
•payroll software – 40,500
•payroll software small business – 2,400
•payroll software programs – 27,000
•easy payroll software – 480
•and so forth…

In order to optimize your content for the B2B business cycle, it’s important to incorporate keywords that your target audience is using! Remember, content is anything that is pubic and shareable which includes your website, B2B business blog, articles, whitepapers, videos and so forth. Every piece of content you publish online should be optimized to include relevant keywords. The search engines rank individual pages, not websites as whole, which means that each piece of content has the capability of ranking well, increasing your overall search presence. The more links your brand has in the SERP for any given search, the more likely you are to get the visitors clicking through to your site.

Make sure you don’t fixate on one particular keyword. You want to target a variety of related keywords to cover all your search bases. Each potential customer may search for your product using a different search phrase and you don’t want to accidentally alienate them. By targeting different keywords, you are also helping your SEO look much more natural to the search engines. If you rely too heavily on keyword the search engines may flag you for spamming and trying to manipulate the search results.

Someone who conducts a branded search is looking for your company specifically (hopefully to do business with you!). Studies on search behavior have indicated that searchers who use branded terms are nearing the end of their buying cycle, which means you have a better chance of converting them. They are actively seeking out your company and are looking to engage with your brand in one way or another.

Personally, I’ve had a lot of success in using branded keywords in my PPC campaigns. Having that kind of SERP domination with both paid and organic listings goes a long way in establishing your credibility and trust factor. Also, PPC ads can get very expensive very quickly! I don’t mind someone clicking on a PPC ad when they were already looking for Brick Marketing because I know there is a good chance they will convert. If that same PPC ad were to show up for a “SEO company in Boston” search, it might get more clicks but I would see a smaller conversion rate. The person searching for “SEO company in Boston” isn’t ready to hire, they are just doing the research. I paid for the impression but didn’t really get anything for my money.

Non-branded searches
In my opinion, when it comes to existing sites that already generate a steady stream of visitors with branded keywords (meaning they are established and aged), they should be focusing on increasing the amount of traffic they get from non-branded searches. The more non-branded keywords your site can rank well for the more new visitors you can drive to your site, increasing your odds of eventually converting new customers. Obviously doing well with non-branded searches is going to take a lot longer than ranking first for your own company name, but that’s why SEO is built as a long term campaign.

The best SEO campaigns target a variety of related non-branded keywords. This is because you have to take user intent into account when optimizing your site. You may refer to your business as a company, but a potential customer might search for a firm, agency or organization. You don’t want to limit your site’s potential because you failed to incorporate non-branded keyword variations into your site’s content.

Keep in mind that some non-branded keywords have more competition than others. The more broad the keywords you target the harder it will be to rank well for them and the longer it will take.

Here are 5 tips for selecting the right keywords to best help your site and SEO:

Go after the long-tail
Long tail keywords may produce less traffic, but they are used by a much more targeted visitor who is often near the end of their buying cycle. Visitors who arrive on your site by using long tail keywords are more likely to convert because they know exactly what they are looking for and your site has been optimized to help them find it.

Create your own keywords
HubSpot pretty much created the term “inbound marketing” as a way to create their own niche, something which they were (and remain) the undisputed leaders of. An entire segment of Internet marketing has been built upon their custom keyword. One way to build your brand is to create your own keywords that reflect your product and services and no one else. Keep in mind that you can’t just create your own keyword and incorporate it into the search vernacular overnight. However, once a keyword works its way in, chances are it will stick around for a long time. For instance, people say “Google it” when they want someone to look something up in a search engine.

Incorporate industry specific keywords
There might be some keywords that are industry specific that you can’t afford to ignore. These keywords may produce little to no traffic for your site, but eliminating them from your site would bring your authority into question. Even if no one searches for your company uses those keywords, they expect them to be incorporated into your webpage content.

Keep an eye on your analytics
You site analytics are a goldmine of information. You can look at each page of your site and determine what keywords visitors are using to land on them. Are there any keywords that you aren’t specifically targeting that seem to produce a good number of visitors? Maybe you should replace a poorly performing keyword with your new find.

Test new keywords with PPC ads
The beauty of running a PPC campaign is that you can measure results fast (unlike SEO, which is incredibly long term). PPC ads are a great way to get a feel for what keywords your target audience is responding well to. If you want to test new keywords and don’t have the time to wait for your SEO to mature, running a PPC campaign can help.

1. Shooting for the moon
If you run a small business, let’s say a local boutique that sells women’s clothing and accessories, you are never going to rank number one in the SERP for “women’s blouse.” You can target that keyword to death, but it’s just not going to happen. A keyword that broad (and that profitable) will have shopping giants like Banana Republic, J. Crew and Ann Taylor all fighting to own it. Frankly, small businesses don’t have the budget or manpower to go toe-to-toe with these companies. You’re better off targeting localized and long-tail keywords that you have a real shot of gaining ground on.

2. Choosing keywords that don’t fit the content
You must select keywords based on the content of that particular page, not just what you want to target. For instance, a pet store sells a lot of different products—dog food, aquarium filters, scratching posts for cats, etc. You don’t want to dump all those keywords on the same page! “Dog food” and related keywords need to be incorporated onto the page about dog food. Just because it’s a keyword you want to target, that doesn’t mean it belongs on every page of your site.

3. Refusing to redo your keyword research
No one says you have to get it 100% right on the first try. Be willing to accept that fact that some of your keywords aren’t working as well as you may have hoped. That’s why it is so important to keep an eye on your analytics. You need to know which keywords driving traffic and which keywords aren’t. You may find that a keyword you didn’t even intentionally target is driving more traffic than those that you cherry-picked. It’s ok to redo your keyword research! It doesn’t mean you failed at SEO.

4. Not considering user-intent
This is probably the biggest and more common mistake site owners make when conducting their keyword research. It doesn’t matter how you would search for your product/brand/services; it just matters how your target audience searches. For example, if someone is searching for “insurance” (one of the most competitive keywords there is) what kind of insurance are they actually looking for? Home? Auto? Health? People use different words to search for the same things, but they can also use the same words to search for different things. There is no way to incorporate every keyword a visitor might use to find your site, but you have got to consider ones that are being used frequently.

Site analytics are your best friend when it comes to making sure your targeted keywords are still on track. But don’t just look at the analytics of the ones you intentionally targeted. What other keywords are visitors using to find your site? Keep an eye out for up and coming keywords as this indicates a change in search behavior. People relearn how to search for things based on the kind of results they are getting. When they don’t find what they need with one search phrase, they will change the search query and look for more relevant results.

One reason it pays to change your keywords to better match new search behavior is that it positions your site as the frontrunner for “owning” those keywords. If you can start targeting keywords before they become industry standards, you’ll have built up the link portfolio and search presence that makes you the undisputed leader in that niche.

Understanding how people search for your products/services enables you to create better content to meet their needs. It’s not just about finding the right keywords! Knowing how people search lets you properly position your site without forcing it on your target audience. The right keywords will help your target audience come to you.

Keep in mind that you don’t want to dump all your old keywords because it looks like new ones might be on the way. If certain keywords have proven to be reliable sources of traffic time and time again, why ditch them? You can incorporate the new keywords into the mix and see how they perform over a few months. If it looks like there is value, then keep at it. If those new keywords were off the mark, it’s an easy fix to remove them. You have to be willing to be wrong with your keyword research. Not every keyword is going to be an exact match for your target audience. You have to learn to roll with it.

That is why it is so important to be realistic with your keyword research and selection.

Let’s say you own a small shoe store and are looking to re-optimize your site. It’s been online for several years, so your site has a good trust factor established with the search engines. You rank extremely well for localized keyword phrases (shoe store Medford, MA), but you want to take it to the next level and go after more general keywords with a high search volume (like shoes, women’s shoes, men’s shoes, and so forth).

I got to be honest with you. It’s not going to happen. You will never rank on the number one page in Google or Bing for something as generic as “shoes.” First off, a word with that high of search volume is also going to have a lot of big businesses trying to “own” that keyword. Your local shoe store is trying to compete with mega-corporations like Payless, DSW and Famous Footwear, not to mention online shopping giants like Zappos. After the corporations come branded shoe sellers like Converse, Nike and Steve Madden. They have the marketing budgets and manpower that you just don’t have.

When it comes to selecting keywords, you want to go after the ones that you have a good shot at gaining ground with. Obviously “shoes” is going to be used all over your website (you are a shoe store after all), but that shouldn’t be your primary keyword. Long-tail keywords are the small business owner’s best friend. They allow you to carve out a very specific niche for your company and give you a fighting chance at building an online presence.

Brick and mortar businesses should definitely target localized keywords (a keyword plus town or zip code). As most brick and mortar businesses rely on foot traffic for most of their business, you want to make sure you rank well when someone does a local search. If I’m looking for a place to eat in Boston, you can bet I’ll search for “Boston Thai restaurant.” That way I know I’ll get results that are relevant to my location. What good does knowing there is a great Thai restaurant in San Francisco do for me?

Don’t make your SEO any harder than it needs to be. Sure, there might be 30,400,000 monthly searches for “shoes” in Google, but trying to go after such a competitive and generic keyword is like fighting an uphill battle. You want to make sure you choose a good mix of broad and long tail keywords so you have the best chance at success.