Building Your Keyword Lists

In order to rank well in the search engines you must learn to master keyword research and build your keyword lists. Why? Because it will determine the profitability and competition of your market.

If you choose to forego keyword research you could end up doing a lot of work for nothing. There are some markets that are simply not worth pursuing and you certainly don’t want to waste time chasing a market that isn’t profitable.

Steps To Building Your Keyword Lists

Step One: Understand Your Target Audience

Try to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. As a business owner you’re also a problem solver so think about what problems your audience needs solutions to. How would they phrase what they’re looking for? What questions would they ask?

Step Two: Understand the buying habits of your target audience

It’s common knowledge that people buy on emotion and justify with logic. Knowing what keywords to use that will entice your audience to buy will add to your bottom line. For instance, if your website is about coffee then an emotional buyer may be interested in the “best flavored coffee” or the “most popular coffee”. They wouldn’t necessarily be interested in the benefits of coffee.

Step Three: Start with Broad Search Terms

Begin your research with a broad list of keywords centered around your topic. However, make sure they’re specific enough to fit your target audience. What you’re wanting to accomplish is a close match between your visitor’s intent and what you’re offering.

Note: Getting traffic costs money. Instead of concentrating on quantity, think quality. Just getting a visitor to your site doesn’t mean that visitor will buy.

Step Four: Prioritize Your Keywords Based on Conversion

If you can’t acquire conversion data, you’ll have to make an educated guess as to which search terms you think will convert best.

Here are some points to consider:

1. Don’t try to hide what you’re trying to sell. Customer’s today are savvy enough to recognize shady salesmen. Keep your products or services intentions clear.

2. If you use a keyword phrase such as ‘brown coach handbag’, make sure your visitors can purchase ‘brown coach handbags’ at your site. It’s even better if you can link to a page within your site about ‘brown coach handbags’.

3. Does your product present value? If not, figure out how to make it do so.

4. An important factor to consider is the amount of traffic your keywords may generate. Make sure your hosting company can handle higher traffic counts in the event your site gets flooded with visitors. You don’t want your first impression to be that of a website that crashes more often than not.

5. Consider the probability of conversions. If you’re in a highly niched market and know exactly what keywords or keyword phrases your target audience is searching for, then use those highly niched keywords.

If you don’t know what your probability of conversions will be then you’ll need to track this metric. There are many analytic tools available to track this information, just make sure you use the best one for your needs.

Now get out there and take control of your traffic. Get ranked on the first page of the search engines for those keywords and/or keyword phrases that are the most profitable for your business.