Keyword Research for SEO & PPC

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By: Pieter S Verasdonck+

10+ years of experience in the digital marketing landscape

2004: ecommerce shop on eBay.

2007: Started my SEO career in the poker and sports betting sector.

2010: Started SEO service offering in one of Australia's largest media agency group.

2013: Started a Inbound Marketing service offering in a digital agency start-up.

What does this all mean?I’m a old man

Keyword Research is the Backbone of Search

• Its Important to be thorough

• Invest adequate time (we spend more than 40 hours on research per project)

• The time and effort you put in the start will give you back in tenfold of $$

Keyword Research Flowchart

http://www.seobook.com/keyword-research-strategy-flowchart

Brainstorming Keywords

• Webmaster Tools

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/guide-5-ways-use-google-webmaster-tools-maximize-

seo-campaign/88457/

Brainstorming Keywords

• Google Analytics

http://www.notprovidedcount.com/

Brainstorming Keywords

• Check your websites “Internal Search” keywords

http://blog.crazyegg.com/2013/01/17/set-up-internal-site-search-analytics/

http://www.seobook.com/keyword-research-strategy-flowchart

Keyword ideas

Keyword ideas

• Competitors: SEMRush (Organic & PPC)

Keyword ideas

• HTML Code: <meta keywords>

• YouTube: Video Tags

Keyword ideas

• Niche Topic Forums: Sub-Categorisation

• Google Search:

• "visitors found this page by searching for“ -seo

• site:com.au “Your Keyword” forum -seo

• “Incoming search terms” “Your Keyword” -seo

Keyword Brainstorm

• “Table of Contents” (Google Books, Amazon)

Keyword Brainstorm

• Keyword Ideas:

• Google Trends:

• Related Searches:

http://www.google.com.au/trends/explore#cmpt=q

Keyword Brainstorm

• Ubersuggest, keywordtool.io, Scrapebox

Keyword Brainstorm

• Google Keyword Tool: Wikipedia

• SEOquake Toolbar: Wikipedia

http://searchengineland.com/how-to-use-the-keyword-planner-the-new-keyword-tool-from-

google-adwords-157123

Keyword ideas

Pro Tip:

• Start small: one main topic or product category section

• mergewords.com

OK, I got 10,000 KWs …Now What?

http://www.seobook.com/keyword-research-strategy-flowchart

Relevant Keywords

Keyword Data Sources

User Intent Strategy

• Use social media to help provide context for user intent

• Use a keyword research brief to clarify customers intent & search sophistication/position in the conversion funnel

www.symetri.com/training/materials/Keyword%20Research%20Brief.docx

Keywords

• If your website is commercial (offering products or services), go with keywords that seem to have the most commercial intent based on the currently ranking websites. If your website is informational (blogs come to mind), go with keywords that have the most informational intent.

• Look for a “sweet spot” of high search volume in conjunction with low difficulty / competition.

• Look at keywords with high search volume with top competitors that have lower domain authority and backlinks.

OK, Now I got 1,000 KWs…What’s Next?

http://www.seobook.com/keyword-research-strategy-flowchart

High Potential Keywords

• Keywords performance can be seen from historic PPC results.

• Close integration between SEO and PPC ensures a consistent and

complimentary approach to search engine marketing, taking advantage of the main benefits of both techniques.

• Conversion data from paid search combined with natural search techniques can result in reduced PPC costs as rankings and traffic improve. Good ad copy can also be used as title tag and meta descriptions.

• Assess PPC data in order to build a cost effective and impactful link building strategy.

PPC- Tactical

- Media costs

SEO- Longevity

- Implementation costs

Keywords

targets

SEO & PPC

SEO & PPC Keyword Data

• Discover additional keywords. Use the report to discover potential keywords to add to your AdWords accounts by looking for queries where you only appear in organic search with no associated ads.

• Optimize presence on high value queries. Use the report to improve your presence in paid results and monitor your high value queries for organic results.

• Measure changes holistically. As you test website improvements or AdWords changes to bids, budgets, or keywords, you can more easily report the impact across paid, organic, and combined traffic.

http://moz.com/ugc/harmonising-seo-ppc-a-practical-guide

Conversion Funnel

• Branding or Conversion Focused Strategy:• Conversion: This strategy is what most of us are after. We

want our keywords to draw traffic to our website or landing page, and then we want that traffic to convert by making a purchase or otherwise doing something specific like filling out a contact form, picking up the phone, or downloading something. In this case, long-tail or more specific keywords will likely work best for you.

• Branding: The branding strategy is just that. You value impressions over new leads or conversions. Whether or not people come to our website isn't as important as being seen as a player for that keyword. In this case, broad search terms are likely going to work best for you.

• Hybrid: You can of course bring both of these strategies together and have 90 percent of your keywords dedicated to a conversion strategy. Then the other 10 percent are dedicated to branding and impressions. You would want to segment your keywords accordingly for each campaign.

Strategy

• Choose keywords based on more than just high search traffic:

• Business/landing page relevance

• Competition

• Specificity

• Intent (informational, navigational, transactional)

• Search volume

http://www.seobook.com/keyword-research-strategy-flowchart

Next Keywords

Biggest Keyword Mistakes

• Selecting Keywords That Don't Reflect How People Actually Search

• Failing to Perform Competitive Keyword Analysis

• Not Focusing on Profitable Terms

• Having an Uneven Distribution of Keyword Difficulty

• Not Knowing Your Geography or Local Search

• Not Monitoring Search Trends

• Failing to Maintain and Adjust Over Time