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SEO Basics - Keyword Research and Analysis

Written by: James Wells

Article Overview: So you've heard about SEO (search engine optimization) and have decided it is a good fit for your business model. The question now is: "Where do I begin?". The answer is simple: Keyword research. SEO practices without proper keyword research is a little like fishing without any bait. If they're really hungry you may get lucky, but odds are you won't catch anything worth keeping.

SEO Basics - Keyword Research and Analysis

I recently met with a business owner that sells manufactured homes (better known as mobile homes). The company is established and has decent branding, but lacks a Web site (thus the reason I was there). Preliminary meetings with our prospective clients normally involve quite a bit of investigation into the business, their primary target audience, and brainstorming about potential keywords. During the meeting I learned about his industry, clients, and the challenges his business encounters. He explained very clearly that they despise the term "Mobile Home" and preferred the terms "Manufactured Housing" or "Modular Homes." I am a Real Estate Broker and have seen this marketing shift in the last several years and was not surprised.

After the meeting was over and I got back to the office to begin the research, it quickly became obvious that the business owner was not going to like what I was going to tell him. The term "mobile home" was searched approximately 5x's more than "modular home." If he wants to build an effective Web site for his company, he would need to optimize for the term "mobile home" - the term he despises.

This story is a prime example of what keyword research is all about. SEO is not just about making the site rank high in the search engines, it's about doing market research and then targeting the desired traffic. Please don't misunderstand, just because one keyword has more traffic than another, it doesn't mean it is better for your business to optimize for that keyword. For example: As a Real Estate Broker would it be smarter to optimize for "homes for sale" (A) or "Real Estate Agent" (B)? Even though (A) may have 10x's the amount of traffic; an individual that searches for (B) is likely a better target market. Some people can browse for homes for years without actually buying, while someone searching for the services of a Real Estate Agent is more likely to convert.

Keyword research and analysis is the basic foundation of SEO work. It can mean the difference of success and failure for your online marketing strategy. I have been fortunate enough to be involved in campaigns that actually increased specific keyword traffic via integration of Offline and Online marketing techniques. In most cases though, the human user is the driving factor which determines the direction of your SEO efforts and Web design

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Article Tags: company, keyword research, market research, mobile homes, Real Estate Agent, Real Estate Broker, SEO, target audience



Related Forum Posts
Re: What I'm reading this weekend - Feb 18, 2011 - Hi Evan, Thank you for a great list as usual, I haven't had the chance until now to read them as I spent all yesterday helping my father to re-build half of his house (or it seemed that way,LOL) I will make a start reading them today and I particularly like the look of Keyword Research in Google Webmaster Tools, thanks again, Mal.
Most Useful SEO Tools For Webmasters - Hi, My name is Jeff, I work for WebBizIdeas.com and we are developing an article called "50 Most Useful SEO Tools for Webmasters." We have ranked & listed our top 30 SEO Tools but want to get your opinion on what SEO Tools are most useful to you; as Internet Business Owners. Google Webmaster Tools Google Analytics Google Alerts Yahoo Site Explorer SEOBook.com Keyword Research SEOBOOK.com SEO For Firefox Tool SEOBOOK.com Search Engine Rank Checker SEOBOOK.com Back Link Analyzer SEOChat.com Keyword Difficulty Compete.com Quantcast.com Alexa.com Archive.org Stompernet Site Seer Technorati.com PRWEB.com ADDTHIS.com SHARETHIS.com EzineArticles.com Scribd.com Squidoo.com YouTube.com StumbleUpon.com Reddit.com Digg.com Del.icio.us Wikipedia.org Flickr.com NewsVine.com Yahoo Answers NOTE: When you list your answers please include a description on what the site is, why it is important to you, and your experience please....we may include it in our article. Jeff
Re: Keyword Selection - Hi All, Very interesting topic of discussion! Website success mainly depends upon the target keywords so the keywords should be relevant to website theme. Long tail keywords often rank easily in SERP. You can also use Ad word Keyword tool for keyword selection. Keyword having less competition and high monthly search volume are easy to rank.
Re: Best Internet Marketing Strategies - I'd disagree with the first point. Keyword research is important, but it should not be the complete focus when doing niche research. A niche is typically made up of thousands of keywords, and researching them all is very difficult, because the keyword tools won't tell you what most of them are. Plus a niche is not a bunch of keywords, it is a demographic interested in a particular topic. You need to learn about the people in this demographic. Keyword research tells you their search habits and gives clues to competitiveness and potential profit, but you are looking at through a very narrow window of a much bigger picture.
Re: New SEO Tool from WordStream - Looks like a new one. Need to explore for its intuitiveness. I use IBP and Keyword elite. Thanks Robert


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