Before you start any SEO campaign there are a few vital things that you need to pay attention to, otherwise all your search engine optimization efforts will be in vain.
It’s amazing too me how many people jump head first into an SEO project without conducting thorough research of the market ahead of them… and that is just plain STUPID.
I’ve been approached for many SEO projects in the past, and more often that not the client will say to me, “I want to be ranked Number 1 for ‘Keyword‘, can you help me”?
…and the first thing I say is, why do you want to be ranked for that? And their response is almost always, “That’s what my competition is ranked for and I want to beat them..”
This thinking is plain *DUMB*
Before embarking on any SEO project, 99% of people forget two vitally important things – the power of research and testing… Never ever assume your competition has done thorough research and testing…
Why would you waste 3-6 months of your life embarking on a SEO project before you know the keywords you are trying to rank for will bring you:
1. Profit
2. Traffic
…and the only way you will find out the above two is conducting thorough research and testing of your markets keywords.
The first step to all this is too use a keyword research tool and get a list of your markets keywords… I’ve used nearly all of them out there and my favorite has always been Google’s Keyword Tool.
You will need to input a few keywords for your market, or your competitors URL and Google will throw back a list of relevant keywords and synonyms, this allows you to see traffic volume, trends, CPC costs and Adwords competition – all vitally important data.
You can also use a really cool tool called; Google Insights that gives a unique overview of keywords by showing you country, city and state regions of where those queries originated…this is very powerful…
The next thing you need to do is test a batch of keywords that you uncovered from using the keyword tools above using Google Adwords PPC engine.
Why? Because you can test your markets keywords quickly, often in one day, and identify your conversion rate and profit projections from this keyword – only then, once you know a keyword will produce you traffic and profits, should you Endeavour in optimizing your website for those keywords in the organic listings.
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- Search Engine Optimization Courses – Teach Yourself SEO!
- Speed PPC Review – The Future Of PPC Marketing!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I think a lot of people develop pages with SEO in mind, and design for search engines rather than creating for the user. Content that doesn’t convert is just bytes taking up bandwith. There is a lot that should go into the development process that gets skipped. Basic information architecture principles like knowing the customer personas of your users, diagraming flow charts, and conducting usability tests.
I definitely agree. Keyword popularity is another mistake that webmasters often make. It is not wise to simply try and rank for the keyword with the highest search engine traffic. They are usually too competitive and generic. Targeting a hand full of Long tail keywords with lesser competition and higher relevancy, often results in better CTR, low bounce rate,and higher conversions. I like your website a lot, it appears that SEO and PPC are the heart of our blogs.