SEO Toolkit – Part 1: Keyword Research

SEO Has 3 Main Legs: Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Your Site Keywords Inbound Links Keywords Inbound Links Your Site Today’s Topic: Keywords

Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. A keyword can be a single word or phrase. Plurals are additional keywords. Misspellings are also additional keywords. Using the right keywords helps your search engine ranking (it also helps your conversions). See part 2 of our toolkit for more tips on using keywords on your site.

Part I: Finding Out Which Keywords Your Target Audiences Uses Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

Check Your Site’s Search Logs Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. What are visitors to your site typing in the search box? Use your most popular on-site search phrases as keywords in content. Back-end report shows which words visitors are searching for:

Review Your Analytics Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. What words are visitors putting into search engines to reach your site? Changes month over month.

Lessons Learned: -Most common “typo” versions of your site name, may be worth buying & redirecting traffic -More searchers typed “a b” vs “a/b” -“split testing” a term we rarely use in editorial is used frequently by people using search. -“multivariate” and “multivariable” testing a term we frequently use (it’s even in our homepage title tag) is almost never searched for… at least by traffic that finds us. Example Report: SEO Traffic By Keyword Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

Review Conversion Data Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Look at analytics for those who arrive at your site organically and through your Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising (like Google Adwords, Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads) for best conversion keywords and use them throughout the site.

How Do Your Customers Speak, Write and Spell? Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Make a list of the wording + spelling your customers use on the following: Comments on blog posts Customer service calls and s Discussion forums Twitter Facebook You might be surprised at the words they choose!

Example Report: Words Used by Bloggers To Describe Your Site Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. The words that outside sites and bloggers use to describe your content are often an invaluable source of ideas for keywords. This is a standard WordPress report, but could be created for other CMSs as well fairly easily.

Ultra Precise Wording Counts Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Example: A publisher is decided how to title a business-to- business webinar. Should she spell it out or use “B-to-B” or “B2B”? She used the keyword tool in Google AdWords to be sure. B-to-B marketing = 4,400 searches per month Business-to-business marketing = 27,000 searches per month B2B marketing = 49,500 searches per month!!! “B2B” is by far more popular!

Part II: Keyword Research Tools Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

Popular, Free Option: Google AdWords Keyword Tool Gives keyword suggestions based on words Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool Also gives keyword suggestions based on website URL Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool The match type you choose matters Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Broad match: The sum of the search volumes for the keyword idea, related grammatical forms, synonyms and related words Phrase match: The sum of the search volumes for all terms that include that whole phrase Exact match: The search volume for that keyword idea Source: Google

Wide Variety of Keyword Tools at Variety of Price Points Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. $69/month or $379/year $299-$999 per month on the high end $89.95 and up/month $199-$499/month $79/month

Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. A Note About Competitors’ SEM Many keyword tools promise to give you plenty of data and insights on what your competitors are doing online. While this is helpful, don’t assume that your competitors are doing things right or following best practices. Take it with grain of salt.

Part III: 6 Steps to Finding and Using Newsworthy Keywords Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

GOAL: Tie Keywords and Content to News Events  When news breaks, web users search for analysis  Does your site have the expertise to add something to the conversation?  Use keywords tied to the news event  Set up a system to be alerted to news quickly and a way to respond by publishing content quickly

Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Note: You can use this same account to sign up for relevant newsletters and blogs, etc. It’s a net to gather news … not a communication account you’d use to anyone. Step #1: Set Up A Gmail Account for Newsgathering

Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Step #2: Search News By Keyword

Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Step #3: Scroll to Bottom Of Search Result for “Create Alert” Link

Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Step #4: Surf Keyword Alerts Frequently Looking for News “Waves” Your SEO Content Can Hitch a Ride On… Example Google Alert that inspired blog post on next slide:

Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Step #5: Develop Fresh Newsy Content for the Keywords Here’s the blog post that resulted from the alert. Put your newsy story where search spiders can find it – on your blog or homepage.

Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Step #6: Promote Your Story with A Press Release, Social Media

Part IV: Action Items Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

Create A Keyword List Memo Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Send to editorial AND marketing staffs Set up accountability procedures Include a list of keywords and keyword phrases that should be emphasized Mandate that no headline be created without keywords Require all internal links to be keyword-optimized, not just say “Click here” Make sure all URLs have keywords Attn: Editorial & Marketing Keyword List Memo Attn: Editorial & Marketing Keyword List Memo

Do A Monthly Keyword Audit Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Do an audit of headlines and summaries monthly – or better yet have staffers do it themselves and report back – until you're sure the message about keyword importance has gotten through.

Additional Resources from Copyright , Subscription Site Insider a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Links to Our Entire SEO Toolkit including: Part 1: Keyword Research Part 2: On-Site Changes Part 3: Building Inbound Links Checklist: SEO for Subscription Sites Can be found at: