Keywords and keyword phrases are just as important as they once were. Keywords help the search engines to work out what your website/blog/twitter feed are all about and they use this information to match you to the search queries that their customers are making.  They should be one of the most important elements of your search engine optimisation.

There are various ways to find the best keywords for you. The most important thing when you are first looking is to test everything.

Objective
What is your current business objective? This is the most important question. And your keyword search is based on the answers to this question.

Overall, what are you trying to do? Inform people, get more contacts, get more visitors, make more sales? You may have several business objectives and this may lead to the development of several lists of keywords, each one targeted at a different objective. Once you are clear you can then start to find your best keywords for the job/s in hand.

Brainstorm
Along with your team, friends and even customers, brainstorm what you think would be best keywords for your business and its objectives.

Competitors
What keywords are your competitors with better search engine rankings using?

Keyword Research tools
Armed with your list of keywords the next thing to do is to test them with well known keyword research tools:

• Google Keyword Tool
• Google Insights & Trends
• Google Trends
• SEMRush.com
• Keyword Discovery
• WordTracker

These tools enable to track trends and assess the viability of your chosen keywords.  The Google tools are free and the others have both free and paid tools that you can access via their sites.

Professional Help
Keyword research is both an art and a science. Going it alone is time consuming but can be done. However because choosing the right keywords is a pivotal part of your online marketing it is important to get it right. Professional help will save you time and costly mistages.

With so many forms of online marketing now available to you the key to making the most of everything that you do is to fully harness the potential of each and every piece of material you produce.

Keep in touch – the power of RSS
Make sure that everything you produce has an RSS feed link so that anyone who wants to be kept up to date can get the information they want automatically. This applies to all social media (blogs, social networking sites) as well as your website information. Don’t make people have to find you again. Make it easy for them.

Effective Keywords
Choose the most effective keywords and key phrases to use accross all your online marketing. This will make all your efforts more targeted and effective. Who are you audience? What have you got that they want the most at this moment in time? This is the basis for your keywork search and online marketing campaign.

Social Networking
Are you a member of social networking sites? It is very easy to send information to social networks. For example if you write a blog post you can easily send a link to Twitter and Facebook to let your contacts there know about the new information.

Do you have easy links on all the marketing material that you produce so that people can pass your name on to others in their social networks?

Press release
Announce your press release on your website. Make this the link back target so that when people read about you on other sites they link back to your company website or blog.

All information
When you produce a piece of marketing allow people to follow you in the way that best suits them by having all your contact information available: your website, blog, Twitter, Facebook and site information.

Break it down
Think creatively when using multi-media. Your time and money investment can go further if you look at all the options. For example, if you create an online video, then break it down – use the script as a pdf download, use the audio as a podcast on your site.

Conventional Media
If you use conventional media marketing whether its print, radio or TV advertising, add your online details. People like to look you up.

Loius Vuitton has been trying to outlaw Google’s ability to allow any advertiser to use copyrighted trademarks as part of their Adwords keyword campaigns. The latest interim legal opinion has come out against Loius Vuitton.

In 2005 LVHM (owners of Louis Vuitton) appealed against Google in a French court. Their argument was that many companies were using their branded keywords in order to sell replica goods and that this was undermining not only their reputation but also their sales. They won the case and took their argument to the European Commission.

On 22nd September 2008, in a long line of legal battles, the European Court of Justice admitted that although there was a link established when a company used a branded keyword that this was not enough to deem the action an infringement of copyright.

The European Commission advocate-general, Poiares Maduro said that:

‘Google has not committed a trademark infringement by allowing advertisers to select, in AdWords, keywords corresponding to trademarks.

‘Such a use cannot therefore be considered as being a use made in relation to goods or services identical or similar to those covered by the trademarks. Similarly, advertisers themselves do not commit a trademark infringement by selecting in Adwords keywords corresponding to trademarks.’

‘Internet users are aware that not only the site of the trademark owner will appear as a result of a search in Google’s search engine and sometimes they may not even be looking for that site.

‘These users will only make an assessment as to the origin of the goods or services advertised on the basis of the content of the ad and by visiting the advertised sites; no assessment will be based solely on the fact that the ads are displayed following the entry of keywords corresponding to trademarks.’

The use of keywords does not imply the purchase of counterfeit goods. On the other hand it could be argued that the public expect keyword searches to deliver accurate information. And over and above that should Google and the other search engines promote illegal activities by allowing sites that are committing crimes to appear in the searches? If you type fake Louis Vuitton into Google you get a whole host of sites offering to sell you counterfeit goods and this applies if you search just for Louis Vuitton too.

Ebay no longer allow sellers to use keywords that do not represent the true articles being sold. If you search for Vuitton bags today you will find no sellers at all for this item.

A final verdict is expected to be delivered early in 2010.

When the vast majority of people search for something online they use 3 – 4 words. However with more and more business and information sites joining the internet it can be harder to find exactly what you want with only a few words.

Most people start their search with one or two words but if they don’t find what they are looking for they increase the number of words that they use until they find more suitable information.

Earlier on in the year Propero reported that online search queries were getting longer and a new survey from Experian Hitwise shows that this trend continues.

Search queries with an average of eight words or more increased by 6% and those that were five to eight words rose by 2%. Despite the fact that 68% of searches contained between one to four words there were 3% less of this length of search.

For online marketing companies longer search strings mean a more complicated and sophisticated approach to search engine optimisation and potentially more initial expense as more keywords are needed to attract more focused consumers. In the longer term the more targeted a keyword campaign is the better the results. The aim is not to get as much traffic as possible but to generate traffic that converts to sales. Ultimately longer searches help search engines to marry up searchers with the sort of information that they are looking for.

It would be interesting to see word length statistics in a breakdown for the main search engines,  Which search engine’s users use the most words for their searches? for example, would be a good question to have answered.  It would tell us a lot about the search engines.  However currently this sort of information is not available.

SEO is Search Engine Optimisation. But what is this and how does it help your business?

Search Engine Optimisation relates to the way in which your website can be tweaked in order for it to rank highly in the search engines. The higher you appear on the search engine pages the more chance you have to attract new customers to your site and if your site is well designed to capture traffic you will be able to convert this interest into sales.

For example if your business is called Ways With Widgets and your potential customers are looking for widgets, good SEO will help your site to rank high up on the list of links that the search engines offer for widget seekers.

High ranking sites get a lot more traffic as people do not want to trawl through pages in order to find what they want.

Good SEO is an art and a science that is ever changing. Search engines change their criteria all the time which keep marketers on their toes. Whether you are investing in online marketing experts or tackling your online marketing by yourself the basics of good SEO are the same.

Content
Your site needs to be full of current, useful content. Search engines reward you with higher ratings if you provide this for your audience. It is the foundation of all good SEO. If you rarely add or make changes to your site you will not see increases in traffic to your site.

The content that search engines reward the most is information that helps the reader. Advertising or marketing messages do not really count unless they are well cloaked in ‘helpful’ information.

Links in
The more links that feed into your site the better and the more links that come from higher ranking sites the better still. Developing link partners with other businesses can be an important part of your online marketing activities.

Links out
Linking from your site to others adds to the impression that you are trying to help your visitors by providing them with other sites that may be of interest to them.

Keywords
Keywords are the link between what your potential audience is looking for and you. When people type into search engines they are looking for particular things. The words that they use for their search can be matched to the keywords you use on your site.

You website can be optimised by using good keywords in the right way. This is a whole other subject on its own which Propero will feature in coming articles.

Social media links
Social media is a growing realm. It refers to relationships that exist online between internet users, business and the applications that they use. Everyone can have a voice online now. People want to read about you and follow you online and many are keen to comment about you too. Developing ways in which they can do this helps to ‘feed’ people to your site. It increases those all important ‘links in’ to your site.

Keeping Track
Keeping track of the results of your SEO activities is crucial as it is the only way to measure whether what you are doing is working.