Boston Logic's Senior Marketing Associate, Angela Davis, talks about the techniques and tools behind building and monitoring an effective keyword strategy to help your website rank higher in search engines.
3. What is a Keyword [a.k.a. Key Phrase]? Words or Phrases Your Clients Would Use While Searching for Your Products, Services, or Website. (or While Looking for Solutions to Their Problems) Also Used by Search Engines to Index Your Site / Determine What Each Page is About. The Foundation of Your SEO & PPC Campaigns. By Creating a Highly Relevant Keyword List, Your Site & Ads will be Shown to the Most Interested Users and Improve the Performance of Your Site! T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
4. “Long Tail” & “Halo” Terms “Long Tail Keywords” are More Targeted (3+ Word Phrases)(Ex. “Luxury Apartments in Beacon Hill” vs. “Boston Apartments”) “Halo Keywords” are Variations of those Keywords.You will naturally rank for these other terms over time by using them in your content. T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
5. DEVELOPING A KEYWORD LIST Step 1: Brainstorm! Ask Yourself Some Basic Questions T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
6. Where Are You? Where is Your Office Located? What Geographic Areas You Are Willing To Travel To In Order To Serve Your Clients? Where are Your Potential Clients Located?(Ex.: Do You Help People Relocate From Other States / Countries?) Are You Trying to Expand Your Service Area? This will help you begin thinking of location-based keywords. T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
7. What Do You Do? What Are Your Products / Services? What Is Your Industry Niche? What Makes You Unique from Your Competitors? Why Would Someone Choose You Over Your Competitors? (Better Value, Better Service, More Experience, More Fun, etc.) This will help you begin thinking of industry-based keywords. T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
8. Who Are Your Clients? What Problems Do Your Products / Services Solve? Who Have Been Your Favorite Clients in the Past? Why? Who Have Been Your LEAST Favorite Clients in the Past? Why? What Words or Phrases Might a Client Use While Looking for Your Products / Services (or a solution to their problem)? Try to Put Yourself in a Potential Client’s Shoes! They Might Not Know the Industry Terminology You Do! T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
9. DEVELOPING A KEYWORD LIST Step 2: Do Some Investigating! T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
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11. How Do They Organize Their Information?T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
12. Spy on Your Competition with Source Codes! Reading Source Code Data can Provide More Insight! Visit the Home Page + Other Pages You Are Interested In. In the Navigation Bar of Your Browser, Click ‘View’. Look for ‘View Source Code’ or ‘View Source’ Option & Select. T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
13. ‘Cracking the Code’ Is Pretty Easy… Look for the Meta Title & Description & Keywords. Some Websites Don’t Have Them. Often Similar to Front-End Content, but Not Always. T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
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15. DEVELOPING A KEYWORD LIST Step 3: Organizing Your Information T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
16. Step 3: Organize Your Information Create a Spreadsheet Listing All Your Keywords / Phrases So Far. Be Sure to Include: Areas / Locations You Serve Words for Products & Services Industry Terms & Layman Terms Words Your Discovered During List Creation Phase Sort Your List: Sort Alphabetically to Help See ‘Holes’ in List If You Serve a Large Area, Make a List for Each Regionfor Locally-Targeted Marketing This Will Be the Foundation for the Next Step: Keyword Research. T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
17. THE SCIENCE OF KEYWORD RESEARCH How-To + Tools To Help! T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
18. Free Keyword Research Tools Best FREE Option: Google Adwords Keyword Tool Other Places for Ideas & Research: Microsoft AdLab Google Trends Google Webmaster Tools Bing Webmaster Tools Twitter Trending Topics Other Social Media Channels T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
19. Google Adwords Keyword Tool Google’s Keyword Tool will Suggest Related Terms: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal Easily See Competition & Search Trends for Each Set of Terms T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
20. Keyword Types for Google Adwords (PPC Ads) T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
21. Google Adwords: Keyword Types Defined Broad Match =Default Option, Enter Words Normally Ex. Keyword: tennis shoes Ads Appear: When query contains the words tennis and shoesin any order and can also be coupled with other terms. Also shows on similar or relevant terms. “Phrase Match” = Add “Quotations” Around Words Ex. Keyword: “tennis shoes” Ads Appear: When query contains the wordstennisshoesin that order only and can also have other terms before / after. [Exact Match] = Add Brackets Around Words Ex. Keyword: [tennis shoes] Ads Appear: When query contains only the words tennisshoesin that order and no other terms before or after. - Negative Keywords = Helps You Target Better! Ex. Keyword: -used Ads Appear: Ensures your ads won’t show up for queries that include these terms.
22. Narrowing Down Your List “Low-Hanging Fruit” High Local vs. Global Search Volume Mix of Long Tail Keywords & More Generic Terms Mix in Some Highly Competitive Terms(there’s a reason they’re popular!) T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
35. Use Keywords & Phrases for Biggest Impact on SERT: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
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37. Tells Search Engines ‘This Word or Phrase is Important’
38. Use Keywords as the Anchor Text for Links to Other Pages of Your SiteT: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
39. Keywords in Blogs Categories General Index of Common Topics You Blog About Use Relevant Keywords for Category Titles If Blog Platform Allows for Category Descriptions- USE THEM! Don’t Add Blogs to Irrelevant Categories – Will Frustrate Users! Don’t Have Redundant Categories! Google’s Recent ‘Panda’ Update Frowns On Repetition & Stuffing of ALL KINDS. Create Categories Using Your Keywords T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
40. Keywords in Blog Tags Not As Important to SEO As Other Optimizing Techniques Too Many People were ‘Keyword Stuffing’ Search Engines More Advanced Now - Algorithm Changed Think of Tags That Will Be Useful to Humans More Post-Specific Than Categories Good For Topics Important to That Individual Post Names of Celebrities or Events Mentioned in Blog Post, etc. Good For Halo Terms (Variations of Your Keywords) Ex: If Your Keyword is ‘Fenway Apartments’ - Use Tags Like ‘Fenway Rentals’ ‘Fenway Student Housing’ T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
41. Inserting & Optimizing Images BEFORE YOU UPLOAD: Image File Name Indexed by Google Images Image File Size KB not MB or GB! WHEN UPLOADING: Title Alternate Text Description Link to Relevant Pages Image Caption for Readers Image Alignment Image Pixel Size T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
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43. How Meta Data Appears In Search Results Create categories sing specific keywords T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
44. Content Optimization Check List Content creation AROUND KEYWORDS ________________________________________________________ Bolding / Italicizing KEyWORDS ________________________________________________________ HeadINGs (h1) & Subheadings WITH KEYWORDS ________________________________________________________ Hyperlinks to other pages using keywords _______________________________________________________ Add tags and categories (Blog specific) ________________________________________________________ Photo/other art ________________________________________________________ META DAta________________________________________________________ Create categories sing specific keywords T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
45. Monitoring Your Keyword Strategy Refine Your List & Strategy as You Go! T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
46. Tools To Check Your Ranking & Progress Firefox Rank Checker – Good for Quick Checks, Data Exportable Track Referring Sites / PPC Ads, and Search Terms Used to Bring Visitors to Your Site for FREE with Google Analytics & Google Webmaster Tools! Track What Terms People are Searching for Once On Your Site, too! Google Places Insights Provide a List of Search Queries Used to Reach Your Listing. Use the ‘Broad Match’ Setting in Your PPC Ads, then REFINE YOUR KEYWORDS for ADGROUPS by using the ACTUAL KEYWORDS Users Entered. Ask Boston Logic For Help! T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
47. Listening Channels Use Tools like TweetBeep, GeoChirp, and Google Alerts for Email Updates! Monitor: Company Name, Trademarks, Website & Blog URLs Relevant Employees Names Brands, Products & Services Events, Webinars, Seminars, Conferences Competitors & Relevant Employees Your Core Keywords / Phrases Industry Terms T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com
48. FREE Monitoring tools Plagiarism checks- Copyscape: www.copyscape.com SEO Tools.. Firefox Add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/ Firefox Rank Tracker: http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/ Link Diagnosis: www.linkdiagnosis.com SEO Quake: www.seoquake.com Search Status: www.quirk.biz/download-searchstatus SEO Spy Glass: www.link-assistant.com/seo-spyglass SEOmoz Tools: www.seomoz.org/tools The SEOmoz toolset includes a complete suite of SEO tools designed to help with every aspect of SEO including competitive analysis & keyword difficulty SiteExplorer:http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com Allows you to explore all the web pages indexed by Yahoo! Search. View the most popular pages from any site, dive into a comprehensive site map, and more
49. Questions? More LogicClassrooms by Boston Logic: www.bostonlogic.com/logic-classroom Read SEO Tips on our Real Estate SEO Blog: www.realestateseo1.com For More Information, Contact: Angela Davis, adavis@bostonlogic.com @BostonLogic /user/BostonLogic /BostonLogic T: 617.266.9166 www.bostonlogic.com