Internet Marketing - Matt Bailey [64]
The number of searches on a specific key phrase is going to be largely inaccurate. Some keyword tools are going to be closer than others, but ultimately, there is no way to truly know the actual search volume of a particular keyword or phrase. Instead of looking at the actual number listed next to the keyword phrases, the best evaluation method is to view the ratio between the numbers, rather than the actual numbers.
For example, in the list of vacation-based keywords in Figure 6-6, several ratios are going to be important depending upon your website and your strategy.
Figure 6-6: Vacation-related keywords
When evaluating ratios, you can see that vacation packages is searched more than twice as much as vacation package. Hawaii is the first destination-based search, Orlando is second, and Florida is third. Vacation rentals is the preferred term over vacation home or vacation homes.
The point of evaluating ratios rather than focusing on the larger numbers is that we are evaluating the trends and search patterns. Too many businesses get lost in the popular, high-volume search keywords and miss the action and understanding that comes from a deeper evaluation of the trends.
The next step in digging into the keyword research is to find the specific areas of information related to your business. Find specific repetitive words that are associated with the primary term. If the primary term is vacation, then the associated terms that one typically finds are beach, rentals, cruise, family, resort, luxury, and cheap.
Finding the associated terms is important to identifying your marketing strategy. Include the associated terms that are specific to your marketing strategy, and remove the terms that are not in your strategy. If you are selling luxury vacation condos in the United States, then remove the terms cheap, Disney, France, and cruise—they are not part of your strategy and will result in unqualified visitors to your website.
To take the vacation theme further, the next topic for more in-depth research would be going back to the search phrases for family vacation (Figure 6-7); the keyword searches are refined to only include phrases that include family vacation.
Figure 6-7: Family vacation–related keywords
By filtering another level into the content, additional segments and trends appear. For example, Figure 6-7 shows that vacation packages is searched on significantly more than inclusive or all-inclusive vacations (refer to the earlier Figure 6-6). This helps not only in optimizing your content but in labeling and presenting your information. You can more effectively market your information when the words more closely match that of the searcher.
If you are looking to increase the marketing content on your website, then this exercise will help you develop a specific direction for content development on your website. Finding the direction of the market and the needs of the search is critical in creating a successful website.
Spot the Trends
Don’t stop at the list of numbers. Another world of data is available to you, and that is the trend. This is why I only use keyword tools that provide a trend line of demand.
If you stop only because you found a popular keyword that attracts a lot of searches, look again. A number does not tell the full story by itself; the number is made up of people making searches based on need, and many times that need is on a specific trend. The numbers you see listed are only the numbers for a particular month, quarter, or annual total, but they do not tell the story of the trend throughout the year.
The keyword research for digital camera keywords (see Figure 6-8) results in a very top-heavy list of searches for the term.
Figure 6-8: The list of search phrases for digital camera
Although the number of searches for digital camera is impressive compared to the other terms in the list, you need to see how that number is created. This is where the trend line (Figure 6-9) is just as important as knowing the popularity of the term.
Figure 6-9: The annual trend for the keyword