The Best Keywords
One of the most difficult areas in search engine marketing is to find the right keywords.
The point of keyword research is to determine which keywords lead to your website goals. This could be a sale, or a visit to the contact page. When your website goal is achieved, this is referred to as a conversion. Finding keywords that lead to the most conversions is difficult, especially because you only have your own data to go by.
Of course, conversions are not isolated to keywords. Many other factors are involved – that you can test as well – such as web design and ad copy. However, any conversion from a search engine begins with the query, therefore keywords are important.
Your keyword list may be different between organic search and paid search. They have different parameters, mainly cost, that will affect how you decide what keywords to pursue. Here we will discuss both in depth.
Organic Search
Organic search is a good starting point to find the keywords with the most search volume. Keywords with higher search volume do not necessarily mean higher conversions; however, they may be worth testing first, as they have better odds for clicks.
Unlike paid search, you are not paying for clicks, so getting listed on a query with high search volumes not only increases your clicks but also brings a higher ROI potential.
Afterwards, you must take into account keyword difficulty. Different queries yield a different number of search results. The more search results you receive, the harder it is to climb up to the number one spot. If these websites listed have incorporated SEO in their strategy, it could be even more difficult. SEOmoz has a tool that calculates keyword difficulty so you have a better idea of what lays ahead for any given query.
Analyzing information on keyword difficulty, search results and search volume are great tools in coming up with keywords for SEO. Afterwards, you can see if your conversions came from any of these keywords using Google Analytics.
You must choose your query carefully because you cannot easily switch your website to be search engine optimized for one query to another.
Paid Search
Paid search means that you pay to get listed. This is a totally different ball game with another approach to the keyword list.
With paid search, one must consider the average cost per click (CPC), and average clicks per day for each query. You must also ask yourself a few questions. What is your budget? How much are you willing to pay for each click? How much are you willing to spend for each conversion?
Google AdWords’ keyword tool tells you the average CPC and the search volumes of any given keyword, but it will not reveal data on conversions. You must go by your own data. Only after your campaign has been implemented, you can then see how many clicks led to a conversions and at what cost for each keyword. Then you can adjust your campaign accordingly to maximize your ROI.
Paid search is the fastest way to see which keywords convert the best. With organic searches, it may take time before your keyword appears where you want on search engines and even more time before you can decide if it’s the right keyword.
Despite the different advantages brought by paid and organic search, it is always recommended to incorporate both in your search engine marketing strategy. Also, always refer back to your business goals and budget to better decide on what keyword strategy to use.
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You did not answer question in this article. I was hoping to find here information to find keywords that convert, but instead of giving tips on what keywords are likely to convert, this article is about organic and paid search.
Boris, you raise an excellent point, and I’d like to share with you the extra assistance I use to analyze keywords. First, as the article points out, I use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. If you don’t have a Google account, sign up to get one because the tool has more features when logged in. The trick is to enter the keyword(s) you want to test, (one keyword or phrase per line), submit the search, and then AFTER the search is complete, look on the left margin and unclick the term “broad” and replace it with “exact” and it will automatically re-do the search for you. This will tell you how many people per month use the search term. So if you see less than 1000 searches per month it’s probably not a word or phrase that will get much organic traffic. The next step is to analyze the competition for the keywords you select. You can “export” the list to an excel spreadsheet, save it on your computer, and do a manual internet search on Google for each keyword. (You’ll need to have the Google toolbar installed, with PageRank displayed) and look at the competition for each keyword. If you competition websites have less than PageRank 2, you can probably get ranked for your keyword. If the competition has a high PageRank, you might want to skip that keyword. This is very tedious work, and I belong to a member site that has a proprietary software to simplify this work. You can upload the spreadsheet from Google Adwords Keyword tool to their software, and they’ll analyze the competition for you overnight. The member site has a free month to test it out, after that it’s $33. US per month. Here’s the link: http://thekeywordacademy.com/coaching/708.html I think you will enjoy all the affiliate training – webinars, videos, e-books, a forum, and several useful tools like this to streamline your efforts. So, finding keywords that convert is a process of finding keywords with traffic that have a type of competition that allows you to get ranked. The other component of getting your site to rank for organic traffic is to build backlinks for your site, which this member site shares info for and provides a tool to allow you to post articles that backlink to your site. It’s a great system, and it’s been successful for me. Good luck!
Great resource, you should add links for various tools. Thanks