Keyword Research And SEO Copywriting · can find your great content • Your Company –targeting...
Transcript of Keyword Research And SEO Copywriting · can find your great content • Your Company –targeting...
Keyword
Research
And
SEO
Copywriting
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 1
SMX West
Christine Churchill
President, KeyRelevance@KeyRelevance
@ChrisChurchill
@ChrisChurchill
• President of KeyRelevance, LLC
• Member of Founding Board of Directors of Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO)
• Member of the Board of Directors of the Dallas/Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Organization (DFWSEM)
• Author at Search Engine Land & Web Marketing Today
• Longtime Speaker & Instructor, Search Engine Strategies, PubCon, and Search Marketing Expo Conferences
• Masters degree and over 15 years online marketing experience
Speaker: Christine Churchill
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 3
Keywords = Dead
SEO = Dead(but some of the rules have changed and
we have to be better MARKETERS!)
@ChrisChurchill
@ChrisChurchill
• Keyword Research – What is
it? Why do it?
• Hummingbird Algorithm
• How to do KW Research
• Keyword Tools
• How to use Keywords to
Optimize Content
• SEO Copywriting Tips
What We’ll Cover
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC
@ChrisChurchill
Keyword Research
Fundamental step to all
search marketing
Keyword Research is the process of researching to identify the keyword terms customers use to find your products and services
Keyword Research helps you get inside the mind of customers
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC
@ChrisChurchill
• People use search engines to find you on the web
• Engines use text to categorize pages
• Research unveils terms people actually use
• KW Research improves performance of online
marketing
Why Do Keyword Research?
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC
@ChrisChurchill
Who Benefits from Keyword Research?
• Everyone in publishing
• Marketing staff and Search Marketers – both paid and organic
• PR – Better pickup if use keywords in articles & in press releases
• Content writers
– a way to keep content fresh and relevant
– Inspires topics readers are interested in
• Your targeted audience
– By using the phrases readers are using in search, your audience
can find your great content
• Your Company – targeting the phrases people actually use brings
motivated customers to your site which improves conversions and
user experience
Knowing the best words to target helps you plan
your content marketing strategy
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC
What is Hummingbird?
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 8
Hummingbird is the name of the new search
algorithm that Google launched last year.
According to Google the new delivers better
results that are "precise and fast" - like a
hummingbird.
It’s Google trying to figure out user intent
and improve conversational search.
Google wants to match the meaning, rather than pages matching just a
few words.
Hummingbird is paying more attention to each word in a query, ensuring that
the whole query — the whole sentence or conversation or meaning — is taken
into account, rather than a few exact terms.
@ChrisChurchill
Do We Still Need to Worry About Keywords?
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 9
Yes, for several reasons:
Keep in mind that although Hummingbird is an
overhaul of Google’s algorithm, many of the old
parts are still used.
Google’s semantic analysis considers the
language in your content
- so you still need to use keywords and
related phrases on the page to communicate to
users and Google what the page is about
- means some on-page optimization
still is needed
Exact phrase matching for SEO is a thing of the past.
@ChrisChurchill
Tips on Surviving Online After Hummingbird
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 10
Marketers now need to:
- Create high quality longer content that
establishes your site as the place to go for
answers
- Develop ways to increase the authority of the
site
- Become a leader in your vertical
- Consider multiple ways to show leadership:
social media, links, user metrics, online
relationships
Google has made it harder for “fake” authority to win. Going
forward you have to earn your position.
@ChrisChurchill
How Hummingbird Changed Our World
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 11
The New Approach:
- Learn to focus on the intent behind the search
term, then try to develop content that delivers
answers to what the searcher wants
-Stop focusing on exact match phrases and look
more to long tail and related phrases. Build a
vocabulary of terms that are related to the
phrase
- When doing KW research, now you research
core phrases plus related, synonyms, and words
that frequently occur with your main terms (co-
occurrence)
- Use phrases naturally and include a
vocabulary of related phrases
@ChrisChurchill
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 12
How to Do
Keyword
Research
@ChrisChurchill
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 1313
Keyword Research is an Iterative Process
Brainstorming
&
Discovery
Keyword
Expansion
Keyword
Evaluation
@ChrisChurchill
@ChrisChurchill Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 14
Keyword Brainstorming and Discovery Phase
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 15
Create Keyword List Using Diverse Sources
• Brainstorming session – no judging words at this stage. Goal
is to cast your net widely and generate broad list.
• Keyword lists from within company
– Review company web site and print collateral
– Press Releases
– Often too much insider jargon
– May or may not be customer’s lingo
@ChrisChurchill
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 16
Learn the Lingo of the Customer
– Customer interviews
– Customer Surveys and Focus Groups
– Talk to support or sales personnel who talk directly to customers
– Review discussion forums, user generated content, blogs, social media
The best keywords come straight from the customer’s mouth.
@ChrisChurchill
@ChrisChurchill 17
Speak the Language of Customer
Increase conversion by speaking the customer’s language
Correct bad keyword choices– Missing traffic
– Missing sales
Discover new keyword opportunities- Find overlooked or new keywords
- Take advantage of longer tail phrases
“Duplicate a CD” vs “Burn a CD”
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC
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The Long Tail
Finding New Opportunities
• Based on frequency graph
• Chris Anderson wrote book about it
– Describes it as new economic model
– Unlimited selection – Amazon books, iTunes
– Idea is that non-hits can make money based on sheer volume
• Popular phrases on left – highly competitive and expensive. Less popular on right – lower volume
“20 to 25% of the queries that Google sees today have
never been seen before.” – Udi Manber, Google VP of Engineering
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC@ChrisChurchill
@ChrisChurchill
Example Head-Tail Keywords
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 19
Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Camera, digital camera, Sony
Nikon D7000 digital SLR camera
compare digital cameras
buy digital slr camera
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 20
Create Keyword List Using Diverse Sources
• Online and Traditional Print
Magazines
• Company and Product Reviews
• Online Thesaurus
• Search in Google with tilde ~ for
synonyms
@ChrisChurchill
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 21
Create Keyword List Using Diverse Sources (cont)
Competitors
– Review their web site
and collateral for keywords
– Look at words they
are buying in PPC
– What terms are they
– targeting in SEO
– Can give you
competitive insights and
ideas on overlooked terms
@ChrisChurchill
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 22
Use Site Search Data
Site Search Box• Reveals keywords and
expressions that visitors are
actually using / wanting
• Acts as a direct feed from the
visitors brain
• Make sure you collect site
search data – can tie it to your
analytics for easy viewing
Downside is data is limited and site search is usually a fall back when users can’t find what they are looking for on your site.
@ChrisChurchill
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 23
Site Search
@ChrisChurchill
@ChrisChurchill
The Not Provided Issue
• Biggest change in
SEO and Keyword
Research to date
• Means site owners
and marketers have
lost the connection
between the search
keywords and their
performance on
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 24
See http://www.slideshare.net/KeyRelevance/ways-to-survive
for tips on workarounds
Keyword
Research
Tools
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC@ChrisChurchill
Benefits of Keyword Tools
• Saves money and time
• Provides insight outside of your site
• Identifies keyword opportunities you
might miss
• Offers popularity numbers you
can’t get from your own analytics
• Moves you beyond keyword
assumptions
• Allows you to compare phrases
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27
Keyword Research Tools
Free
• Google Keyword Planner Tool
• Google Webmaster Tools
• Google Trends
• Google Display Planner
• Google Instant
• Bing Keyword Tool
• Bing Ads Intelligence Excel Plug-In
Fee Based
• WordTracker
• Searchmetrics
• Trellian Keyword Discovery
• Hitwise
• WordStream
• SEMRush
• ComScore
• SpyFu
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC
Remember:
No one tool has all the answers.
You need several tools in your toolbox.
Combining the tools synergistically works well.
Some tools are better for certain functions.
For instance, Google Instant is used for discovering
new keyword phrases and Google Trends is good for
comparing.
@ChrisChurchill
New Google Keyword Planner
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 28
- Combines old Google Keyword Tool and
Traffic Estimator Tool
- Oriented for Paid Search
- Must be Logged Into AdWords to Use
- No device filtering (no mobile vs desktop
filtering)
- Numbers shown are average search
volume numbers for ALL devices (old tool
defaulted to desktop) so numbers may look
higher
@ChrisChurchill
Google Trends
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 29
Google Trends provides trends
from web searches, images, news,
shopping and YouTube
@ChrisChurchill
Google Hot Trends
Copyright 2014KeyRelevance LLC 30@ChrisChurchill
Google Webmaster Tools shows top search queries
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 31
Sort by Clicks to see the
terms that actually
brought the most traffic
to the site
If you click on the query,
it shows which pages
appear for the term
Using Filters can separate
brand/non-brand and core
terms, plus sources from web,
image, mobile, & video
Shows up to 2000 top
queries for the last 90
days
Not affected by the
Not Provided – this is
limited but actual
keyword data
Provides Impression,
Clicks, and CTR, but
no conversion data
@ChrisChurchill
@ChrisChurchill
GWT KW Data
Advantages:
– Shows KW, impressions, and click data
– Impressions w/out clicks might indicate a Title/Meta
Description/Snippet issue
Disadvantages:
– Cannot break out data by other segments (KW leading
to conversions, for example) so data is not highly
actionable
– Mapping KW to landing page is tedious 1-at-a-time
process – not useful for large scale KW analysis
– Requires you to download reports regularly since GWT
data expires in 90 days
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 32
GWT Top Pages
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 33
Sort by clicks
to find which
pages
brought the
most traffic.
Can click on
Page URL to see
which terms the
page ranked for
@ChrisChurchill
Google Display Planner(replaced Contextual Targeting Tool, Placement Tool, and the Google Ad Planner)
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 34@ChrisChurchill
Bing Keyword Tool
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC
- Shows actual
queries numbers (not
rounded)
-Has 6 months of
data
-Drill down by
Country
@ChrisChurchill
Bing’s Ad Intelligence
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 36
• Plug-in with Excel
• Data source Live.com
and adCenter
• Provides related
keywords
• Extracts keywords from
a URL
• Gives insights on
seasonal “spiky”
keywords
• Shows geographic and
demographic info on
keywords
@ChrisChurchill
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 37
Keyword Discovery Suite of Tools Includes Keyword Density Tool
@ChrisChurchill
WordTracker.com
• Data pulled from meta
search engines
• Eliminates most
skewing issues caused by
robots
• Differentiates between
singular & plural
• Offer Free Tool for trial
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC@ChrisChurchill
Wordstream
http://www.wordstream.com/keywords
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 39
/
Useful for
developing
your
vocabulary of
related terms
for
Hummingbird
@ChrisChurchill
Google Instant
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 40
Shows
suggestions
as you type
@ChrisChurchill
Google Instant – Shopping Search
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 41
Different set of
keywords on
Shopping search
from regular web
search
@ChrisChurchill
@ChrisChurchill
Soovle.comGives suggestions from different perspectives
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC
Provides
suggestions
from
Wikipedia
Answers
YouTube
Bing
Yahoo
Amazon
Plus option
for15 other
sites
Ubersuggesthttp://ubersuggest.org/
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC@ChrisChurchill
YouTube Keyword Suggestions
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC@ChrisChurchill
YouTube Keyword Tool
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC@ChrisChurchill
Twitter SearchProvides real time search results and trending topics
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC@ChrisChurchill
Tag Cloudshelps identify related terms
Copyright 2010 KeyRelevance LLC 47@ChrisChurchill
SearchmetricsCan Identify Co-Occurrence Terms, Competitors Terms, etc
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 48@ChrisChurchill
Keyword
Expansion Phase
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC@ChrisChurchill
@ChrisChurchill
Target Variations of Your Keywords
• Comparison (best, compare, reviews)
• Price (cheap, discount)
• Product Description (green, plus size, unique)
• Intended use (gift for mother, baptism gown)
• Product (gift basket, mortgage, flight)
• Location
• Action (apply, book, find, buy)
• Season (holiday, Christmas, Halloween)
• Abbreviations
• Brand / vendor / manufacturer
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC
Modifiers are great at helping you
expand your keyword list, but
remember to keep “user intent” in mind
when you combine the modifier to the
core term!
@ChrisChurchill Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 51
Keyword Permutations
• Number of keyword permutation tools
– Tools that allow you to mix and match terms to
create new keyword phrases
• Enter keyword terms, and modifiers
• Combines variations of phrases
• Can use concatenate function in Excel or
specific tool
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Using Excel to Expand KW List
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC@ChrisChurchill
@ChrisChurchill
• Group related keywords into
lists of related terms
• Remember to identify terms
that frequently occur with
your main terms
• Do a series of keyword
research projects on a site,
not one
• Develop a keyword matrix
Keyword “Buckets”
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC
@ChrisChurchill 54
Evaluating Keywords
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KW Selection Considerations
• Relevancy to Site
• Keyword Popularity
• User Intent
• Competition
• Performance
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC
Always test your keywords.
Keywords can sounds like a
good idea, but upon testing,
they can fail miserably.
@ChrisChurchill
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 56
Relevancy Considerations
Relevancy means choosing the keywords that best describes what the site offers
Traffic alone isn’t the goal, you want targeted traffic that is searching for what you sell
Best bet: Find words that resonate with your target audience
and are descriptive of your site
@ChrisChurchill
Popularity Considerations
• Popularity gives insight on traffic potential
• Being popular Is overrated
• Popular phrases – Less relevant
– More competitive
– Examples: “cars” or “homes”
• Less Popular– More Focused
– Satisfies Need of Searcher
– Higher Conversion
– Less Traffic
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC@ChrisChurchill
Popularity Considerations (cont)
• Consider seasonality and cyclical popularity of phrases
• Identify trend lines• Many phrases lost or
increased popularity in recession
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC
Seasonal trends of term “air conditioner”
@ChrisChurchill
@ChrisChurchill Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 59
Consider User IntentGetting inside the searcher’s head
• Understand the “why” behind the motivation for the search and you can better target how to respond
– Research vs Purchase
– Stage in buying process
– Audience Demographic
Buying vs Browsing
“car reviews”
“fast auto financing”
“80% of all searches on the Web are non-
commercial” - Jim Lanzone of Ask.com
@ChrisChurchill Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 60
Evaluating by the Stage in Buying Process
• Keywords indicate where consumer is in the
Buying Process
• Match your content to satisfy the user’s intent
when using the keyword
Problem
RecognitionInformation
SearchEvaluation
of
Alternatives
Purchase
Decision
Adapted From: Marketing Management by Philip Kotler
Select
Alternatives
Searcher Behavior
Three types of searches:
• Navigational
- I just want to be at your web site.
• Informational
-Do hybrid cars require special maintenance?
•Transactional
-Interactive, purchase, subscribe, download
-I want financing to buy a hybrid car.
Adapted From: A Taxonomy of Web Search by Andrei Broder
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC@ChrisChurchill
Evaluating KW By CompetitionWho Are Your Competitors?
• Who is ranking for your keyword terms?
• Who has PPC ads?
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC@ChrisChurchill
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 63
Evaluating KW By Competition
To compete, you need Search Term Parity
You need to see how active the competitors are
within the same marketing environment
- What keywords are they targeting?
- How optimized are their sites?
- Are they doing PPC? How much are the
bids?
- What’s their linkage situation?
@ChrisChurchill
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 64
Competitive Intelligence Tools
• Hitwise
• ComScore Marketer
• Trellian’s Competitive Intelligence
• Keyword Difficulty Tool
• SpyFu
• SearchMetrics
• KeyCompete
• Compete
• SemRush
• KeywordSpy
• AdGooRoo
• Keyword Analyzer
@ChrisChurchill
SearchMetrics
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC@ChrisChurchill
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 66
SEMRush
66
Provides:
• Top Keywords
• Rankings
• PPC Terms
• PPC Bids
• Traffic Trends
@ChrisChurchill
SEOMOZ Keyword Difficulty
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Relative
yardstick
of
difficulty
@ChrisChurchill
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 68
Performance Considerations
• Use PPC to test candidate KWs
• Gives quick
quantitative
feedback on the KW
performance while
controlling costs
Test Keyword Performance Early
@ChrisChurchill
@ChrisChurchill Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 69
Get Feedback Down to the Keyword Level
Note: If using PPC to test, make sure performance
problem isn’t bad ad or poorly converting landing page..
Content Optimization
Putting the Pieces Together
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC@ChrisChurchill
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 7171
Everything Is Better with Chocolate
Image: Graeme Weatherston / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Keywords
• Web sites
• Paid search
• Articles
• White Papers
• FAQ pages
• Product Feeds
• News
• Blog Posts
• Press Releases
• Images
• Videos
• Podcasts
• Schema
• Social Media
• Content Marketing
Optimize all
digital assets
@ChrisChurchill
@ChrisChurchill
Good SEO Copywriting Is a Balancing Act
• You have to write to engage
human reader
• You have to write so search
engines understand relevancy
of content
• It is this talent for doing both
that separates high quality
SEO content from spam
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 72
On-Page SEO Guidelines
Has to be NATURAL
Elegantly work keywords into visible content on
web pages
- Don’t stuff keywords
- Do the “Read Aloud” test to gauge natural
tone
Image: winnond / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC@ChrisChurchill
74
On-Page SEO Guidelines (cont)
Think keyword phrase NOT
single keyword
Create a matrix chart to
assign different phrases
to different pages
- Divide and conquer
Use synonyms and related
words on page to
reinforce main topic
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC@ChrisChurchill
Don’t Stuff Keywords!
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 75
From Bing Webmaster Guidelines (in section on things not to do):
“Keyword StuffingWhen creating content, make sure to create your content for real users and readers, not to entice search engines to rank your content better. Stuffing your content with specific keywords with the sole intent of artificially inflating the probability of ranking for specific search terms is in violation of our guidelines and can lead to demotion or even the delisting of your website from our search results.”
@ChrisChurchill
@ChrisChurchill
Where to use keywords
Title Tags
Meta Description
Meta Keywords
H Tags
Visible portion of page
Alt Attribute
Links and anchor text
File names
URL
Schema code
Bold, strong, emphasized tags
Breadcrumb Navigation
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC
@ChrisChurchill
Title Tags
<title>Interesting Relevant Keyword Rich Blurb</title>
• Most important “on-page” tag
• Title contents appears in first line of listing on SERP
• Spend extra time to create compelling titles that grab
attention
• Include keyword phrase early in title
• Should be unique…don’t use same title on multiple
pages
• Title should be accurate and reflect content of page
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 77
@ChrisChurchill
Meta Description Tag
<meta name="Description" content=“Compelling marketing
message that reads well and contains targeted
keywords">
• Should provide a summary of the page
• Frequently used as snippet on results page
• Should contain keywords relevant to the page
• Should be unique to the page
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 78
@ChrisChurchill
Home Page SEO
• Usually your strongest page
• Target most competitive
relevant keyword phrase
• Depending on strength of
your site and the
competition, target 2-3
keyword phrases
• Don’t try to cover EVERY
KEYWORD related to what
your company does
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 79
@ChrisChurchill
Internal Page SEO
• Divide and conquer: Assign KW
phrases to different pages on site
• Focus, focus, focus: Make that
page ALL ABOUT the keywords
you’re targeting
• Use related terms and synonyms
on the page to reinforce what the
page is about
• Balance: resist temptation to stuff
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 80
Image: winnond / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
@ChrisChurchill
Golden Rules for Writing Copy
Talk about benefits, not
features
- You have to tell them
why they should care
Appeal to emotions and
senses….most buying
decisions are emotionally
based
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 81
@ChrisChurchill
Make Content Easy to Read
• “Chunk up” the content
– Use headers, subheadings & bullet lists to add
hierarchy
– White space is your friend
– Keep paragraphs short
• Avoid “noise” and distracting items on page
• Include visually attractive graphics
– Faces & bright colors attract the eyes
• Hook the reader in title and initial paragraphs
• Make it easy to share!
• Doing these things increases user engagement
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 82
@ChrisChurchill
Points to Take Home
1. Keyword Research is first step in online marketing & content
development
2. Keyword Research needs management support
– Requires time, budget, tools & resources
3. Use tools to increase productivity & provide insights
4. Don’t use keyword popularity as sole evaluation criteria
– Look at popularity as traffic potential and consider seasonality
– Review keyword competition
5. Use keywords in all digital assets
6. Remember the user experience when publishing content on the web
7. Remember to use synonyms and related terms to reinforce what
your main content is about
8. Make content easy to share
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC
Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 84
Thank You!
Christine Churchill
www.keyrelevance.com
@KeyRelevance
@ChrisChurchill
@ChrisChurchill