“I think my customers are typing _______ into Google to find me.” If the answer to this question was the deciding factor for the keywords you chose than you may want to start over.

Keyword research is the first and most important thing when starting any online marketing plan. It is also the best way to target your buying audience. So, why do so many people GUESS? about their keywords?

People often guess because it’s the easiest thing to do:

• Because they don’t know what they don’t know (they didn’t know they could research them)
• “Who knows my business better than me!”
• “When I type in my company name I come up first.”
• “If I were a customer this is what I would type in?”

These are all good reasons to “think” this is the way you are being found. The problem is that guessing is the basis for the decision. You can not take the chance of missing your target audience based on a guess. That is why keyword research is so vital to any online marketing strategies.

The best way to start any keyword research is a seed list. Now, even though I just said not to guess at your keywords, this is the only time it is ok. This list is just to give us an idea of where to start.

For example, if I am a granite & marble distributor my seed list might look like this:

• Granite
• Marble
• Granite for sale
• Granite Distributor
• Marble Wholesaler
• Marble and Granite

This is a good start but not well targeted. My best recommendation is to take your seed list and run it in a good keyword research tool. There are many tools out on the market these days designed for keyword research.

We mostly use Word Tracker. So far, we have had a really high success rate with that tool. However, I am not opposed to using other great tools like Keyword Discovery. Both of these tools are paid tools. Word Tracker is less expensive than Keyword Discovery and for the most part works really well for our clients. But, Word Tracker only gives you the past 90 days of search info. Keyword Discovery offers 1 year of data. If I sell seasonal items or need to research what was being searched this time last year then Keyword discovery is going to be the tool I use. I also like to cross reference my research from Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery against Google Suggests and Yahoo so I can hone in on my target market even more.

I know that everyone these days is in search of something for nothing. So this is to those of you who are too cheap to buy your keyword research tools. You get what you pay for! In my opinion, this is the most important step in your online marketing efforts. It should be done at the drawing board phase of planning your business. Don’t be cheap about it. Ok, enough about that.

Here are some benefits to doing keyword research:

• You will find words and phrases you never imagined people were searching for
• You will be able to find words and phrases that are highly searched with low competition
• You will find more high performing topics that are of use to your specific audience
• You can study your buying audiences search behavior
• You can pick up extra traffic by targeting common misspells
• You will be one step ahead of your competition who is not researching keywords

The key is to stay organized and choose the words that best fit what your content is about. Write for the human reader. No search engine has ever bought from a website. So don’t add your keywords to your content unless it makes sense. I could actually go on for days about this but I can’t, so you’ll have to attend one of our SEO Training Courses to find out more.

The moral of the story is STOP GUESSING ABOUT KEYWORDS and do the research. Do it first before anything else. Research your competition, your seed list and your long tail phrases. Find out exactly what people are looking for and then properly implement those keywords into your site. Put your site out for indexing and you will see the difference.

Until next time…

Often we catch our reader’s attention with catchy titles and headlines. We want to reel them into our content, hoping they like what we have to offer and then buy something. Then we leave them hanging because we didn’t keep their attention with a “Call to Action”.

The title I used here is a pretty strong statement and if you clicked the title to find out why you should read this right now than I have made my point. What I was trying to achieve with this title is to create a sense of urgency to my readers or those who just happen to see this and curiosity got the best of them.

There are many things to consider when implementing SEO into your online efforts but there is one that you can’t neglect and that is the “Call to Action”. You can use a call to action anywhere it’s appropriate just as I did here. But, one of the best places for one is at the end of your content. I also recommend one above the fold as well.

For example, let’s say I’ve been looking at your site and I’m not sure but I think I want to buy. But, there is nothing compelling me to take action. Now this may sound a little crazy but a call to action here may be the final straw on the proverbial camel’s back for me. If there is nothing there to encourage me to make a decision, than I will most likely to not commit to the purchase. The reality is, if that call to action is a deciding factor for me then it is a deciding factor for someone else too.

Let’s say I have just read a page of your website and I really am interested in what you are offering. Oh no! There is no call to action, contact information or a link to the contact information; therefore I am left to look around your site for the “Contact Us” link. You see, I don’t like it if it’s not made as simple as possible for me. No matter how hard I try to resist I am a product of the “microwave generation” and I want everything RIGHT NOW!

When there is a call to action, and it contains or links to contact information, I feel all warm and fuzzy knowing that I can quickly and easily get to what I want. (Your products or services)
Each page should have its own unique call to action. It is even better if the link to contact you is part of that call to action. Taking it one step further, you should have the main keyword you are using on that page as a part of that link.

For example, this is the call to action on our home page.

This one is on our web design pros page.

Notice how each call to action is a little different? This is to ensure we don’t cross the duplicate content line.

So, to pull it all together, you want to:
Create a sense of urgency for your viewers to take action, preferably at the beginning, middle and end of your content.
After you have created this need you want to direct them where to go by providing them with a simple and easy way to get there.
You want to guide them effortlessly on their online journey by providing them with a call to action.
The call to action links to the place where you want your potential buyer to be when they make the final decision to purchase something.
The call to action will contain your main keyword for that page, preferably within the link text.

I hope this was a helpful post. Please feel free to leave a comment and share your experiences with using a “call to action” on your web pages.

Notice how I was subtle with my call here. That is because this is a blog post and some social media outlets, such as blogs, shouldn’t be used as a sales tool but as a means to share, connect and contribute with an online community.

Check this out If you are at all interested in learning more about SEO and Internet Marketing