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Home » Site Promotion Articles » Striking Keyword Gold

Striking Keyword Gold

Keywords are all the buzz these days, but the migration of keywords from what they were a year or two years ago to where they are now is a different thing altogether. Authors, entrepreneurs and business owners know they need keywords in their web site, in their press releases and in their articles but they don't often know how to find these keywords or what the best keywords are to use.

When your web designer says to you: "Pick your keywords for your web site" the first thing you think of are the root or "gut feel" keywords. These are almost always wrong. Why? Let's dig into this further and find out.

Let's say you're looking for a doctor. Are you going to go online and search for the keyword: "Doctor" Doubtful. You'll probably go online and search for doctor + internal medicine + San Diego, meaning that you want to find a doctor in your specific area and for your focused needs. If, as the doctor, you used the keyword "doctor" you'd end up with a mishmash of traffic to your site and, if you were using these keywords for articles or press releases, neither of those would bring up much in the search engines.

Why keywords?

The long tail has really forced us to dig further into our markets than ever before. In fact research has shown that regardless of the type of search someone is conducting, a consumer who uses focused, finite language is much more likely to buy than a search based on "gut feel" words. Let me give you an example.

Let's say you're looking for a red car, you want a new car and it has to be red. On a fluke you think: "Hey, Lexus makes a nice ride, let me see what comes up when I do a quick search." So you plug in the keywords: red + Lexus, what do you find? A hodgepodge of sites related to everything from the Lexus that someone is trying to sell on eBay to the guy so in love with his car he's created a MySpace page about it.

Chances are it doesn't really matter because you weren't that interested in the red car to begin with. But if you search on more finite terms, let's say red + Lexus + 4WD + sunroof, now we're talking a consumer who is 95% closer to a buy than the guy Googling "red + Lexus". In order for you to find your audience in the maze of traffic and the enormity of messages online, you'll need to get very, very focused.

Getting clear, getting focused

So how can you get focused? Well first, why not try surveying your customers or readers? Ask them to fill in a quick little survey and see what search terms come to mind when they think of your book, message, or product (to get more "buy in" to this survey, offer them a freebie if they do it).

Other ways to gain access to keywords are keyword search tools like Wordtracker and Overture. Both of these sites have a learning curve and Wordtracker does have a monthly fee (but if you have all your data together they offer a free one day trial that might get you started). But buyer beware! According to AME's keyword expert, Susan Gilbert: "If you go to http://inventory.overture.com and type in your keyword, you will get the results from search in Yahoo for that term only for the prior month.

"However, these numbers are not accurate.(Every time someone types a keyword into yahoo for SEO purposes, it counts as a search). Search numbers are only part of the equation, however. You have to evaluate the "results" aspect (how many pages of information are available in that search engine for that term). It's finding the perfect relationship between a keyword that has enough searches with low(er) competition that will tell you the best keyword terms for your purpose."

As you're navigating through a site like Overture, they key is to look for supply vs. demand. Ideally you want a keyword that's being searched on that doesn't have a ton of supply. Let's take the diet industry as an example, if you're trying to promote your message of diet and healthy living, using the word "diet" in your article, press release or web site keywords probably won't get you much ranking. Why? Well everyone in this market is using this same word, but if you dig even further into this market you'll find that the search term: "Lose weight fast" is getting a lot of searches but very few returns. When that's the case those are the keywords you want to zero in on.

So how do you know if your keywords are working? Test them. You'll see very quickly if they're working or if they're too general to matter. Sometimes the only way you can find out is if you test, test, test. Web 2.0 strategies are always growing, building and changing. And speaking of changing, you might wonder how long keywords will last. Well, that depends. According to Gilbert: "Keywords could work for months or years. There's no telling because the WWW is constantly filled with new sites and new information. Use the keywords immediately, and for as long as you are getting results."

Once you finalize your keywords you'll want to use them, but not overuse them. I'd recommend using your keywords in the article or press release title, then once in the first paragraph and once in the last paragraph. This will tie in your words nicely without overusing them.

The key with keywords is to understand that the more focused you can get, the better your results will be. Yes, it's a lot of work but the benefits can be enormous and like anything on the 'Net, it's growing and changing and if you can adapt and learn, you can grow your campaigns and your success!

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

The True Cost of Self-Employment

Do you think you are ready to make that leap to full self-employment? The profit from your part-time (up till now :-) business is matching or exceeding your regular paycheck, so you think it's time to fire your boss and make do without that paycheck. Before you take that final step to personal freedom, make sure you truly understand what you are giving up. Your employer paid benefits may cost you more than you realize. For many people it will take more than $40,000 of profit per year to replace a $40,000 annual salary.

When I talk about your employer paid benefits I'm not referring to the "free" office supplies, subsidized soft drinks, or even the occasional free meal at the holiday party. The items that you need to consider are the benefits that are going to cost you the most money. Although if you really like soda I guess you might want to include this too! According to a survey published by the US Chamber of Commerce in January 2004, employer paid benefits averaged 42% of an employees salary in 2002. That means you need an additional 35 â€" 45% more than your current salary to make up for these lost benefits.

If this number shocks you, then let's take a look at some of the typical benefits employers provide. Again, based on the US Chamber of Commerce's survey medical insurance cost approximately 15% of an employee's salary. However, employers also cover the cost of many other forms of insurance. They include

• Disability,
• Dental,
• Vision,
• Life,
• Unemployment,
• Long Term Care Insurance, and
• Workers Compensation

You might be thinking that you pay premiums for these products already. Even if you do, your employer is most likely paying the lion's share of the cost. Not to mention that many times the premiums you are paying are using pre-tax dollars. This means you end up paying less in taxes because the amount of your premium is deducted prior to calculating your taxable income.

When you own a home-based not only are are you going to be responsible for the full cost of all forms of insurance using after-tax dollars, you are going to be responsible for self-employment taxes. Self-employment taxes include the employer paid portion of Social Security and Medicare taxes. This means your bill for these taxes are going to double. Instead of paying 7.65% of your income for these, you will now pay 15.30%. And don't forget about having to pay estimated taxes. You will have to file and pay taxes 4 times a year now, instead of just once. Not only do your taxes increase so do the headaches and the cost of filing!

The second highest benefit cost is your retirement benefits. Your employer's 401(k) match guarantees an immediate return of up to 100% on your money, depending on how much your company will match and how much you contribute. If your company has a defined benefit pension plan, you are losing a guaranteed income in retirement. You are also taking on the additional risk because you are 100% responsible for investing the money to replace it.

These are only a few of the largest items that make up the 30 â€" 40% of your salary that will become your responsibility when you become self-employed. Your company might be paying for many other perks also. Some other things you might want to consider are

• company car (this includes gas and maintenance)
• annual or performance bonuses
• professional training or expenses (including professional journal or society dues)
• software license that let you use programs like Microsoft Office programs on your home computer
• vacation pay (that's right, you no longer get paid when you take days off)

All of these, and any others you might be able to think of will needed to be included in the total cost of becoming self-employed.

I hope you don't think I'm trying to discourage you from finally being able to become your own boss. I just know that the excitement of finally making this move can make us forget about some of the "extras" we are receiving. You are considering a very serious change and need to make sure that the benefits are going to outweigh ALL of the costs.

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