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Businesses looking to do some marketing through search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns know that one of the big secrets of success is finding the right keywords. You want to strike that perfect balance between using the words your ideal target customers are using to search on google and words that are specific enough that they won’t cost you a significant amount. This is particularly significant for B2B companies, where the right keywords might take more time and research to find.
Once you’ve chosen the right keywords, your conversion-per-click rate will increase enough so that, even if the keywords are expensive, when people do click on your website, they’re in the process of making a purchasing decision or are ready to get a quote from your sales team. Tracking your click rate as well as your conversion rate will ensure you’re spending on the right keywords.
Searching for and Finding the Right Keywords
For many businesses with moderate keyword budgets, this means focusing on “long tail keywords” or keywords that get less traffic, but are more specific to what someone is searching. Because these phrases have less people searching for them, it’s easier to rank higher and have you ad displayed more frequently for less.
Another detail to consider when looking to find the right keywords is their relevance to your business. Relevant keywords are likely to attract more clicks and Google tracks how many people click on your link from a search and how long they stay on your site after they click. You can also optimize your searches around location, which is especially useful if your business only serves a certain geographic area.
Understanding your Audience
How well do you really know your target customers? Do you know what and where they tend to look for answers when they encounter a challenge? Even more than being relevant to your
business, your chosen keywords need to be relevant for your target customers. Call some of your best customers and have a chat. Ask them questions like, “When you have a challenge in your business, do you search on Google? Do you turn to Facebook groups, or a professional forum? If you search on Google, do you type in full questions or do you type in the minimal amount of information?”
The methods used to learn more about a professional challenge or find a solution differ between industries and between cultures. If you have customers in multiple countries or in multiple industries, be sure to have conversations with a good sampling to make sure you understand all the parts of your audience. You might be surprised by some of their answers.
Keyword Planning Tools
To help you find the right keywords, and to get a sense of how popular certain keywords are, Google offers their Keyword Planner for free as part of your adwords campaign as well as Google Trends to let you get a better sense of search history over time and compare search volumes for different keywords.
Since so many businesses now base their success on their SEO campaigns, other sophisticated tools have come onto the market such as Keyword Tool.io, which generates a list of suggested keywords based on Google’s autocomplete feature and Wordstream’s Keyword Tool, which suggests keywords similar to the one you’re interested in that may apply to your business.
As you decide which keywords to choose, you’ll want to wade through the ideas suggested by each tool and choose only those most relevant to your business. After you’ve set up your campaign, you want to continue to monitor keyword tools and traffic to your website to tweak your SEO.
There are a number of paid offerings as well, such as Accuranker and Hubspot’s Keyword Tool. These tools give a more sophisticated analysis and feedback on each keyword to help you focus in on those most likely to give you the best return on your advertising dollar.
Planning your company’s SEO strategy and monitoring it can quickly become a complicated process, which is why it may be helpful to pull in the experts at StepUp Marketing. To help you get started, we offer a free consultation where we discuss your specific business and your goals with SEO and how StepUp can not only help with finding the right keywords, but also creating the unique content that draws in potential customers and helps them connect with your brand.
