This article is part of a series of twenty articles. Click to read: The Top 20 Web Marketing Concepts Your Next Website Design Company Should Know
Keywords are extremely important to any online marketing campaign. The right selection of keywords can deliver wildly successful results and an influx of new customers, whereas incorrect keyword choices will often result in waste. Keyword phrases are the words and terms that can power hundreds or thousands of new visitors to your website each month from Google searches. So the question is; which set of keywords are useful for your industry?
Most business owners and people who have worked for a company a long time usually know their industry very well. That knowledge of the industry is valuable in many ways, but when it comes to keyword selection it can be harmful. The most appropriate keywords are often very different than those an industry expert would think up. Since the average person doesn’t know a fraction of what the expert knows, they usually search for keyword phrases that are completely different than terms that are commonly used in the industry.
Generic Keywords – Resulting In More Benefits
Suppose you have been a family doctor in Phoenix for many decades and are immersed in medical jargon on a daily basis. You may feel that the keyword “Morbillivirus” is an important term for your online promotion campaign since it is the medical name for measles. You might even want your website to rank on top for this keyword to beat out the competition.
SEO experts know detailed statistics about keywords, including how many times a specific keyword is searched, through the use of advanced tools that keep track of various search statistics online. An SEO expert will take your list of suggested keywords, along with hundreds or thousands more, and looks at them from a customer point of view. How many customers would have knowledge of the exact medical term “Morbillivurus”? Very few! In fact, research shows that fewer than 58 people per month search for this term. The vast majority of those searches are performed by other doctors or students performing research.
SEO has limitations, you can usually only expect to rank high for a small selection of keyword phrases. The low volume and non-consumer nature of searches makes “Morbillivirus” a poor SEO keyword choice. On the other hand, the generic term “Measles” is much more promising. Over 165,000 people search for this term each month in the Phoenix area. If your goal is to drive traffic and bring on new customers using the internet, the use of the generic term “Measles” is your best choice.
High Search Volume Keywords vs. Low Search Volume Keywords
Low search volume keywords that are well known by industry regulars may get you ranked immediately at the top of a Google search, but if your customers aren’t searching for that term what does it matter? Since most SEO experts are not experts in your industry, they can look at your industry from the outside in. This external analysis makes it easier to finalize keyword lists for an e-Marketing campaign using a different set of priorities. A good SEO expert will focus on high search volume keywords that help maximize your reach to the widest range of targeted customers. Sure, getting top rankings for these keywords is more time consuming than ranking for obscure keyword terms, but the end result is greater lead generation and a more sustainable marketing campaign for your business.
Make Mistakes and Get Rewards
It’s funny and it’s true, people make mistakes. When it comes to search, people make a lot of mistakes! An SEO expert will incorporate natural human language into your campaign and will include mistakes when those mistakes can generate leads. Did you know that over 6,600 people search for the term “Measels” each month in the Phoenix area? The correct spelling is Measles, yet it’s one of those words that is commonly misspelled. So, it’s profitable to include keywords with spelling mistakes in your campaigns. This may sound strange to an English major, but spelling mistakes just may lead you to your biggest customer.
