I just attended the Search Term Research forum, which focused on helping understand which search terms to optimize for.
Key phrases. According to Andy Beal, VP Search Marketing,
KeywordRanking.com and
ProRanking.com,
WebSourced, Inc, "78% of searchers use 1-3 search terms at a time." For example, if you want to get windows on your house, you would search for the phrase "house windows," not just "windows" because a search for windows would most likely bring up a Microsoft site!
What does this mean for website owners? Well, it means that you should start optimizing for key phrases, not just key words.
More hints and tips from Andy: generic names dominate searches more than brand names. People aren't searching for Harleys, for example; they're searching for motorcycles.
A short phrase = a popular phrase = a competitive phrase. Andy's advised against this in the past but with analyzing competition, etc., he now says it's a good idea to try to get search terms in highly competitive areas.
Content is still king. To get top rankings for your terms you must back up with content. While emphasis is put on keywords remember that content is very important.
Word Tracker. Andy recommends using a systematic approach for brainstorming keywords. He suggests Word Tracker, which costs $7 per day, or $220 per year. Word Tracker has 390 million searches and collects data from metacrawlers rather than the main search engines. This is because people aren't searching metacrawlers for page rank; thus they have cleaner listings.
Don't rely necessarily on keyword databases, though, as they are usually 30-60 days out of date.
Make sure you choose the right key phrases. As Andy says, "Consider the intent of the searcher. Make sure the term you've chosen is actually related to your product." For example, if you're a toy store, you may sell one kind of toy but you don't want adult toys coming up in a search.
Keyword research. Chris Copeland, Partner, Managing Director, Outrider Search Marketing, says, "Keyword research is not a one-time event. You need to look at your competitors and make updates based on what they're doing, based on product changes."
Stemming. This was mentioned earlier, so apparently it's a hot topic! Danny Sullivan, editor of
SearchEngineWatch.com, says, "Competition has expanded in Google because of stemming." What's good about this is learning that Google is using stemming now.
Let's say, for example, you are doing a search for "walking shoes." Your results will show results with word "walk" and word "shoe." The positive side: it expands number of results the search engine gives you. The negative side: the results won't necessarily be as accurate. This is a very interesting issue. What does that mean for the future of search engines? I don't know yet, but we'll see...
Google's here to stay... for now. All day long, a lot of people have brought up Google. One thing's for sure: there's definitely a lot of anti-Google feeling and a lot of people who are looking to other search engines, but a lot of experts don't think Google is going anywhere. Copeland says, "Google is still providing good results. They're still giving the best user experience out of all the search engines. The outcry right now is from people who are not [Google's] audience. The outcry is from people who are trying to optimize their sites. Google is trying to be a tool for the searchers, not the optimizers."
The downside? Yahoo!, Teomi, and others allow you to refine your searches, whereas there are no query refinement tools in Google. These refinements are very important for keyword research because they suggest terms you may use.
Search Engines aren't bad guys! Some search engines may have a bad rap, but during the Cleaning Up the Mess section, Chris Shermann, Associate Editor of
SearchEngineWatch.com and president of
Searchwise, said, "If you are penalized, there is a tendancy to be afraid, but the real intent of the search engines is to provide the best content for the end users."
So, is Google just misunderstood, or do you really think it's days at the top are numbered?
Voice your opinions, and I'll be back with more info and interviews soon...
Search Term Research - Day 1, 6:15 PM (EST)
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