Five Steps To Developing Key Words

They have become the building blocks for your on-line and off-line marketing efforts. Key Words. Those little nuggets that tell the world who you are and why they should care.

Key words are what Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing use to display relevant websites on their Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) when a prospect is searching for information about your products or services. These words are also the first thing your prospect sees when deciding whether or not to click through to your site.

The right key words increase your chances of snagging a prospect and converting them into a lead as they move through the information gathering phase of their buying process. Better that you are front and center with that customer than your competition.

But not only are these key words used in your web site for better Search Engine Optimization (SEO), they should also be used throughout your other on-line and off line marketing programs as well. These are the words that will add consistency and focus to your on-line display ads, pay-per-click advertising (PPC), social media, print, brochures, and sales presentations.

In today's marketing, we live in a key word centric world.

Get Going.

Even though web 2.0 strategies have been in use for several years, many mid-sized companies - particularly those B2B companies selling industrial or technical products - have been slower to embrace the basics of on-line and interactive marketing. Many still view on-line marketing as "the web site" which more than likely was not developed with SEO or lead conversion in mind.

If you find your company in that situation, then start your quest for better interactive marketing by developing your Key Word Bible using this five step process.

1. Get Into The Mind Of The Customer. Getting into the mind of the customer is the first step in key word research. Your potential customers are the ones that will be typing their relevant search words into Google, so what words are they using to describe your products or services? Remember, they may not have the depth of product understanding that you do, yet they control the search.



2. Brainstorm Key Word Categories. Sit down with your marketing, sales, and customer service teams to brainstorm key word categories that your customers may be using to search for products like yours. Compile every body's thoughts into an initial list. By this point you should have at least 30 to 50 words that could potentially be used.



3. Search For Other Phrases. With your list in hand, it is time to hit the web. Search your competitors' web sites, download their sales materials, find relevant blogs and look at the labels or topics they talk about, review the on-line versions of your industry publications or trade association to see what phrases they use to describe your product or services. Do all of this to find other words and phrases that your prospects may use to search for your product on a search engine. The list should be growing longer, and may now be approaching 100 or more potential words.



4. Quantify Your Key Word Popularity. Using an analytic software such as Google Analytics, submit your list of key words and see how popular they are. This will be an eye opening experience as you'll find out how many searches were done on the words you want. As a practical matter, there may be a good chance that your marketing team may not have a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) specialist on staff with expertise in Google Analytics or other analytic software. If that is the case, then talk with an interactive agency - they may very well do the analysis for free or little cost if they feel that they may have a shot at developing your on-line marketing.



5. Analyze The Data And Make Your Final Selection. Based on the results from the analytics, your review of what your competition is doing on their sites, understanding the current and future content of your web site, and determining which customer segments you want to target for lead conversion, you will have the information you need to develop your Key Word Bible - those words and phrases that will be used throughout your on-line and off line marketing mix.

With your Key Word Bible in hand, you can then start the discussion about how to integrate these words into your on-line marketing and sales strategies.