"Kathy, do you have any tips for narrowing searches with keywords when doing market research?"
- Think of what your customers/potential visitors would be likely to type into search engines in order to find the information/services your site offers.
- If you know of other sites targeting the same market, go to their site. If it's a really good site (well-established and professional), you should be able to pick out keywords and phrases from their headlines and body copy. The more they've invested in search engine optimization, the easier it will be for you to find the keywords right on the page. (This is something you should also do on your own page, of course.)
- Search Amazon.com for books that your target market is likely to be interested in and look under Key Phrases (scroll down about half-way down the page under the section called Inside This Book).
- While you're on Amazon, be sure to check out other popular books and their Key Phrases (Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought...)
- Look at your testimonials -- not just your own, but also testimonials posted on web sites that are similar to yours. Customers often use the same keywords and phrases in a testimonial that they would if they were searching.
- Ask your subscribers and clients how they found you - or what words/phrases they might try using if they were looking for the kind of service you offer.
- Keep a file for your keyword research on your desktop. If you're starting to feel overwhelmed by a lot of words and phrases, categorize them into related groups and then sort them by relevance/popularity.
- Don't turn this into a Major Project. If you're spending more than an hour on keywords at this point, it's probably too much. Just get a list of about 10-12 of the most likely keywords and phrases and move on.
Got a tip for marketing/keyword research? Feel free to pile on!
