How to select the best Keywords
The secret to a great Search Engine Marketing campaign is to select the correct keywords for your business. There should be absolutely no guess work when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation (unlike almost any other form of marketing). There are a number of tools available including Google’s own Keyword tool that will tell you exactly how many people typed a given search phrase into the search engines in the previous month (sometimes previous year). Word Tracker (www.wordtracker.com) is really good piece of software (but you have to pay for the good bits) however Google is free.
http://adwords.google.co.uk/o/Targeting/Explorer?__u=1000000000&__c=1000000000&stylePrefOverride=2
Once you get to the keyword tool type in the password and you can then search for as many keywords as you like (type in anything you think a potential client would type in if they were looking for your business).
If you are considering using a search engine optimisation company then you should insist they show you how many people are searching each month for the keywords they recommend. Often businesses struggle to understand the difference between one search engine marketing company and another and in particular the price variances. One area to focus on is Keyword selection. For any given industry there are literally hundreds of keywords ranging from generic keywords like “Used Car” through to Long Tail Phrases like “Used Peugeot Car For Sale”. Long Tail phrases can be much more beneficial for small or local businesses in particular as they tend to be customers who are closer to the buying decision (they know exactly what they are looking for) as opposed to generic phrases which might have higher search volumes but tend to be early stage researchers. However it is essential to understand that Long Tail Phrases are only any use if customers are searching for them! A trick employed by many “entry level search engine optimisation companies” is to select really Long Tail Phrases like “Used peugeot 306 for sale Birmingham” which might seem appealing to you however if no one searches for this phrase then it is very easy to optimise but you will of course do no business!!
Make sure you select a range of generic and long tail phrases and make sure that people are searching for these phrases each month. Visit my instructional video Keyword Selection Advice
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