Brainstorming Potential Keyword Phrases
The most important first step when conducting any type of search engine marketing is to gain an understanding of what words and phrases people are using on the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Once you understand what phrases are being used they will form the building blocks of your Web site structure and search engine marketing campaign.
There are a series of steps that you need to go through to gain an initial understanding of what key phrases will finally be targeted, the first of which is a series of brainstorming sessions. We generally like to focus on three separate groups of people when it comes to brainstorming keyword phrases.
- Group 1: You and your employees
- Group 2: eMedia Worx staff (or your search engine marketers)
- Group 3: Focus group based on your target audience
These groups allow you to quickly cover a pretty broad and diverse audience that will have different experiences to draw on when it comes to your industry.
To get the process moving you will need you to organise some time with your key staff members to brainstorm what phrases you think that people will be entering into search engines to find information related to your business. You will want your staff members thinking about keywords before they come to the meeting and I would suggest having them conduct their own research beforehand. As a guide I would recommend that you make sure that they explore phrases of at least 2-3 words in length and have them grouped in topic areas (such as products and/or services).
It’s important to do your keyword brainstorming before heading over to any of the keyword tools such as WordTracker and Keyword Discovery as they will only narrow your thought process at this early stage. Once you have completed your lists it is then that you should expand and evaluate your keyword phrase selections by using these great tools.
Keyword Brainstorming Tips
Don’t judge keyword effectiveness at this stage. You really don’t want to crush your creative thinking by trying to evaluate the effectiveness of each phrase at this stage. Think laterally and explore all opportunities no matter how crazy they sound at first.
Create a group of lists not just one list. Instead of focusing on one big long list try creating a number of lists based on different groupings such as products, services, industry sectors etc.
Create a specific industry related keyword list. It is easy to fall into the trap of using industry jargon and assume that your customers will speak the same language, when more than likely they don’t. On the other hand it is also important not to ignore this jargon, so I believe it’s a good idea to create a list of industry keywords early in your brainstorming session so that you can quickly identify your industry terms and focus everybody’s attention on them. It also helps to get them out your system so evaluate if they have a broader reach or not.
Create Keyword Lists Based on Personas. Before you start compiling any type of keyword list make sure you have your target audience at the forefront of your mind. The best way to do this is to actually create personas of your ideal customers (and make sure that you give them a name).
For example, Barry Kirk is a managing director who is extremely time poor and an advanced Internet user. He is likely to know exactly what he is looking for, has probably already researched the subject and will tailor a search query that is quite long and detailed.
Focus on acronyms and their validity. Every industry has acronyms that your customers may or may not be aware of. In a lot of cases these acronyms can have completely different meanings depending on the industry. Make sure that you identify your acronyms but at the same time be aware of their relevance outside your particular industry. You may also need to explore modified search queries that include your acronym (e.g. “CPA financial advice”).
Ridding yourself of the mental block! There is no doubt that while compiling your lists that you will have moments when your brain just doesn’t seem to work. There are a number of techniques that you could use to get past these mental blocks, some of which may include using a thesaurus, reading existing sales collateral, looking at industry literature such as magazines and books, and studying (not pinching) your competitions Web sites copy.
Tapping into your existing customers. Customers are a great source of keyword research and they are unlikely to be affected from being too close to the industry (think back to the jargon) and can provide you with some awesome alternative keywords. There are plenty of ways to extract this data from customers including e-mail, a quick phone call or an online survey (make sure you have an incentive). You can also look to your sales team who are at the coalface and are sure to have an interesting perspective on what keyword you should be selecting.
The most important thing to remember when brainstorming is to make sure that you don’t lock yourself into a closed mindset and that you explore all types of alternative terminology. It never ceases to amaze me what people type into search engines to find Web sites so don’t be frightened to throw something out there, it may just be your best selling keyword.
