If you have ever thought of driving more traffic to your website from organic search, you are sure to have heard about how important it is to select the right keywords. There are many data driven tools, such as Google Ads Keyword Planner, Keyword Discovery and Spyfu, that can help you identify keywords, understand potential traffic and look at the relative competition that your site is facing to rank for these keywords. This process will often leave you with a large list of keywords from which to select.

The smart marketer knows that the final selection is not just about raw numbers. It’s about finding language that will best describe your product or service. This language needs to match the language your potential customers are using in their search queries.

This final selection of keywords is at its heart a qualitative decision.

Consider the following:

• Take into consideration the unique selling proposition of your products or services
• Consider the tone of voice of your website
• Incorporate the day-to-day language your customers use to speak about your products or services

The subjective nature of this does not mean that you can’t put a process in place that will aid in finding the best keywords possible.

How to do Keyword Research: Five Steps

The five-step approach outlined below will allow you to separate the wheat from the chaff and come up with the best keyword mix possible.

Step 1 – Decide what each page you are optimizing hopes to accomplish

Each page of your website should have a primary purpose that it hopes to accomplish. Is it an informational page setting up the next step in the buying cycle? Are you trying to gather a lead or close a sale? Are you setting up a comparison to a competitor’s product?

Different goals for a page will inform the language used on that page and how that language is interpreted by search engines. Search queries have become much more natural language focused over the last five years, with many queries being stated as a question: “How do the laws about European online privacy differ from the US?”, “What is GDPR?” and “How to do set-up opt-in email lists in France?”. These queries are around the same subject. However, what the searcher is hoping to accomplish versus the page that best answers each question is different.

Step 2 – Look at your competitor’s sites that rank well to understand how they are using language

Look at your competition for one-to-one comparisons with your products, services and stages in the buying cycle.

Ask the following:

• How are your top-ranking competitors using language?
• Does it mirror the top keywords results exactly or is there modifying language around the keyword?
• What is the actual content of the page?
• Is it delivering on the intent of the keyword you are looking at?

Step 3 – Add modifying language to your base list of keywords

Once you have clarified your goals for the page and looked at the successful competition, take your keywords and add modifying language that reflects the desired goal of your page. In the above example, our keywords were ‘European Online Privacy Laws,” “GDPR” and “French email opt-in requirements”. While related, each keyword can have different modifiers added to it to make the content of the page more relevant. For example, the keyword “GDPR” could be modified to read “GDPR Definition”, “Understanding GDPR”, “GDPR Timeline” or “GDPR’s Impact on Websites”. (GDPR refers to the General Data Protection Regulation in the EU. If you don’t know about it yet, you should find out more.

The modifiers are major signals to search engines of the intent of page content (its goal). Ideally, search engines will match the searcher’s intent as communicated in the query with your page’s content. This match between the search results and the searcher’s desires is what’s going to help your page accomplish its goal.

Step 4 – Draft a title and description for each page for the keywords you are considering

Take a few minutes and plug the different keywords that you are still considering into a rough title and description of the page’s content. Don’t worry about character length yet. You are working on getting the feel of the quality of the keyword you are using. Also, ask if it really reflects the content of the page and its ultimate communications/marketing goal? You can use the best matches later as a starting point when you are ready to polish them up and fit them into the required character lengths.

Step 5 – Select your top three to five keywords and titles that best describe the page, its goal and the customer’s next step in the buying cycle

Take your rough titles and page descriptions and compare them to each other. Find the one that resonates the most for the content and goal of the page. Show them to your colleagues and get their first impressions as to relevance and tone. Select the ones that best fit your page.

In summary, as you do your initial research using the online tools, you will see many variations on a keyword that have the same potential traffic and competition. The five-step process above will help you select the best ones on a subjective basis to drive the right search traffic to your page, achieving your marketing goal.

Learn about SEO services provided by our agency here.

By John Thyfault, Vice President, Search Engine and Social Media Marketing, Beasley Direct and Online Marketing

The post Five Steps to Arriving at the Best Keyword Mix – The Art of Keyword Selection for Search Engine Marketing appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

The STEM Teachers Program and Encorps

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., a full service direct and online marketing agency, has been appointed as the search engine marketing agency for EnCorps STEM Teachers Program, the only nonprofit in the nation recruiting the best and brightest STEM professionals as an innovative, long-term solution to the shortage of high quality, impactful educators for under-resourced students in high needs schools. EnCorps has received a Google Ad Grant for $10,000 USD in in-kind AdWords advertising every month. Beasley Direct and Online Advertising’s initial work will focus on setting up the pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaign to generate new teacher leads and to validate which keywords are performing best. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing will then optimize the website by removing technical obstacles from being indexed by the search engines, conducting keyword and key phrase research, writing new optimized web content, writing new meta descriptions and titles, and inbound link building.

About Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc.

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., is known for bringing the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. Beasley provides services in inbound and outbound marketing including: content creation, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), print advertising, social media advertising, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, website design, media planning/public relations, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. helps clients in both B2B and B2C marketing and is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb of Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go to BeasleyDirect.com.

About EnCorps STEM Teachers Program

EnCorps STEM Teachers Program empowers STEM industry professionals to transform public education by teaching in high needs schools. On average, EnCorps Teachers have 17 years of professional STEM experience and 68% have advanced degrees. EnCorps aims to increase the quantity and quality of STEM teachers to ensure that all students have access to first-rate STEM learning. And, to reverse the nation’s decades-long decline in math and science, and to develop a workforce pipeline based on 21st century skills. One decade into its mission, EnCorps has impacted more than 60,000 California students and boasts a teacher retention rate of nearly 90%, well above industry standard.

Press contacts:

Laurie Beasley
President, Beasley Direct and Online Marketing,Inc.
lbeasley@beasleydirect.com
408-782-0046 x21

Bethany Orozco
Communications and Southern California Recruitment Director
bethany.orozco@encorps.org
310-293-9220 direct

The post Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. Appointed as Search Engine Marketing Consulting Agency for the Non-Profit Organization EnCorps STEM Teachers Program appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

MORGAN HILL, CA

News Facts:

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. (www.BeasleyDirect.com) of Northern California has been appointed as a search engine marketing and optimization agency for Foxit Software. The initial work will focus on keyword and key phrase research, content optimization and layout strategy, website technical and architecture analysis, and website link building.

About Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc.

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. (www.BeasleyDirect.com) is known for bringing the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. Beasley provides services in inbound and outbound marketing including: content creation, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), print advertising, social media advertising, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, website design, media planning/public relations, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. helps clients in both B2B and B2C marketing and is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb of Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go to www.BeasleyDirect.com.

About Foxit Software

Foxit is a leading software provider of fast, affordable, and secure PDF solutions. Businesses and consumers increase productivity by using Foxit’s cost-effective products to securely work with PDF documents and forms.

Foxit’s ConnectedPDF is a breakthrough technology that brings new levels of accountability, collaboration, and productivity to the creation, sharing, and tracking of PDF documents worldwide. Foxit’s Software Development Kits (SDKs) help developers reduce costs and improve time to market by easily integrating industry-leading PDF technology into application workflows.

Foxit has over 425 million users and has sold to over 100,000 customers located in more than 200 countries. The company has offices all over the world, including locations in the US, Asia and Europe. For more information, please visit https://www.foxitsoftware.com.

For More Information, Contact:

Laurie Beasley
President
Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc.
408-782-0046 x21
lbeasley@beasleydirect.com

The post Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. Appointed as Search Engine Marketing Consulting Agency for Foxit Software. appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

Any good search engine optimization audit for your site requires doing in-depth keyword research. Keywords are really key phrases that you eventually want to select. You use the actual language that your potential site visitors use when looking for information on what your site offers. Remember, most people use a search engine because they are looking for a specific answer to a question. Or, a solution to a problem. So, finding a site they already know about is generally a secondary concern. Keep this in mind as you begin the keyword discovery process.

Steps One to Three

Step One: Leave Your Pre-Conceptions at the Door 

First of all, yes, you are the expert on your site and what it contains. But, remember that the rest of the world does not necessarily speak your internal language when discussing your products and services.

Step Two: The Storm of Brains

Next, sit your communications, marketing, sales and support team around a table and start throwing out ideas. Each group will bring its own unique insights into how people discuss your products and services. Some of which will be a surprise to the rest of the table. At this point, there are no wrong ideas. Encourage the outlandish and crazy to come up with the gems that will drive the traffic to your site.

Step Three: Mix It Up and See What Else Comes Out

You have your base keyword list. Now start pouring it into various online tools to see what you may have missed and to garner some potential traffic and competitive data. There are a number of excellent tools online that can help you with this. Most of these will come up with suggested keywords and keyword variations, as well as give you the traffic competition data.

Our favorites at Beasley Direct are WordTracker.com, Google’s AdWords Keyword Planner (requires a AdWords account), Keyword Discovery, Google Suggest (those fun little suggestions that drop down when entering a new search term in Google and Google Trends) for the latest hot searches and comparative data on your potential keywords.

First, enter your base list of keywords into these tools and harvest the results. Use this data to compare the traffic potential to the number of other sites competing to appear for this word. The ideal is a highly relevant word to your product or service that has limited competition and good traffic. Remember, the more sites with which you compete for a key word, the harder it is to achieve that rank.

Steps Four to Six

Step Four: Time for a Haircut

Once you have the data in hand, you need to select  the top 20 to 30 keywords for your site and start to assign them to individual pages and sections of the site, ideally selecting three to six keywords per page.

Step Five: Putting the Right Word in the Right Place           

Next, look at the pages, the file title, the page titles, headlines, picture/video captions and meta descriptions and start to work your selected keywords into the copy. Remember that well-written copy is essential to any successful site and you need to prevent your keywords from overwhelming your copy. People like copy that reads naturally; “keyword stuffing” just to get the keywords on the page can hurt your site more than help. See Figure 1. for examples on where your key words should appear on every page.

Step Six: Lather, Rinse, Repeat

In conclusion, keyword development is an ongoing process that reflects changes in your marketplace and the larger web as a whole. You cannot just set it and forget it. Set aside time on a quarterly or bi-annual basis to re-examine your assumptions and perform fresh research.

Figure 1: Using Keywords on a Page

Source: Turner BioSystems Website

In Conclusion

Remember that any page on your site is a “landing page,” depending on the search engine results the user has received. Therefore, that means every page on your site needs to be rich in “spider food,” e.g., key words and phrases. Your navigation bar should contain these and appear on every page, along with keyword-rich links and copy.

Finally evaluate how results show up on search engines (especially Google). Figure 2 shows an example of an organic result that has everything. Benefit-based title and subtitle, a description with a benefit statement, and lots of keywords.

Figure 2: Organic Search Results Should Be Rich in Benefits Statements and Key Words and Phrases That Are Contained in a Well-Written Page Title and META Description Tag

Source: Google.com

Furthermore, do you have a site map? If not, you’re missing another opportunity to improve SEO. A site map is like Google Maps for search spiders. It provides another opportunity to use links and keywords. An added benefit is that site maps also improve site usability for humans, which is always a plus.

SEO Resources

For more detailed information about improving SEO, please download our free white paper, “Boosting SEO with an Organic Site Review.”

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About the Author

This post was authored by John Thyfault, Vice President of Search & Social Strategy, of Beasley Direct Marketing. Contact John at jthyfault@beasleydirect.com.

John has more than 18 years of marketing, sales and product development experience, and he brings a proven track record of successful campaign, program and product development expertise. His knowledge of search engine optimization and marketing, combined with an in-depth understanding of customer identification, market analysis and segmentation, allows him to deliver high returns on our client’s marketing investment for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets.

Prior to working with Beasley Direct, John was Senior Client Services Project Director at ThirdAge.com, a first wave baby boomer lifestyle and community website. At ThirdAge he successfully led major client sponsorships for Fortune 100 companies in healthcare (Tylenol), financial services (American Century), technology (Intel & IBM) and consumer products areas (Revlon & Viactive). He was responsible for strategic and tactical goal setting, project management, new product creation and web site production. John previously worked in Channel Marketing and National Account Sales for IDG Books Worldwide, the publishers of the immensely popular “…For Dummies” book series. Additionally, he managed the wholesale distributor sales channel for Tor/Forge Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press.

John is active in local marketing associations, including the Direct Marketing Association, the Business Marketing Association and is currently serving on the board of directors for the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association.

John has taught search engine marketing fundamentals extensively. He has led workshops for the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association, Northern California Direct Marketing Association (DMAnc.org) and the Business Marketing Association. He also teaches Search Engine Marketing at (UCSC Extension in Silicon Valley).

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