MacDonald on Marketing

Posts Tagged ‘keywords’

Welcome to SEO Tuesdays. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of creating a website that enjoys good search engine rankings for the search queries your potential customers are likely to use when searching for products or services your business provides.

Getting good search engine rankings for your site is a longterm project that never really ends, but the results of good SEO are worth it. Statistics suggest that 85% of people who use Google click only on the “organic” search results and completely ignore the paid search listings. Therefore, SEO is worth a significant chunk of your online marketing time and/or budget.

To successfully improve your site’s search engine rankings, you need to understand the four basic steps of good SEO:

1. Identifying keyword phrases
2. Optimizing your website
3. Developing inbound links
4. Tracking your results

Today we’re going to cover the basics of identifying keyword phrases to target in your search engine optimization efforts. When people who are looking for your products or services go to Google, what do they type? You need to identify the phrases your customers are likely to be using to search so that you can begin to optimize your site to improve search engine rankings for those phrases. In SEO terms, these are called keyword phrases.

Brainstorm for a few minutes and will have a list of phrases to start you out. Keep these tips in mind:

• Think Laterally: If you sell aboveground pools, in addition to all the pool-related keyword phrases, what about phrases like summer fun, backyard improvements, etc.?

• Go Local: If you have a bricks and mortar location and you primarily serve a limited geographic area, include geographic keywords in your phrases. You have a much better chance of building a good ranking on “Bangor bed and breakfast” than on just “bed and breakfast” and people who are searching for “Bangor bed and breakfast” are ready to make a booking.

• Use Tools: Use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool and the free keyword suggestion tool from Wordtracker to find new keyword phrases and get an understanding of the search volume for each phrase.

• Prioritize: Choose no more than a dozen of the best phrases on which to focus your SEO efforts to start. The best phrases will be very specific to your products, services, and possibly geographic area and have a reasonable search volume. Beware of picking phrases that are too general, because while more people may be searching using these phrases, there will be far more competition from other sites for top rankings.

Now what? Put this list in a safe place — you’ll be referring to it over and over again as you optimize your website.

Next week I’ll show you how to start putting these keyword phrases to use in your SEO efforts. We will cover website optimization, followed by inbound links and analytics. Be sure to subscribe if you’re interested in learning more about SEO for small business sites.

Have you been working on search engine optimization for your small business website? Please comment and share your thoughts and results!

Photo credit: cambodia4kidsorg

Planning your small business website?  Choosing your site’s domain name is one of the most important decisions you will make.  You’ll want to get this right the first time around, because your domain name will be the foundation of much of your online marketing.

Here are eight tips to help you through the process:

1.  Always choose a .com domain name. People assume that your domain will end in .com, so if you choose a .net website you may end up sending your customers to your competitor.  The only exception to this rule is if you exclusively do business in a country other than the United States.  In that case, your country-specific domain (e.g. example.co.uk or example.ca) would be better.

2.  Your domain name should contain your brand or business name, especially if you have a bricks and mortar business.  This will make your domain name more memorable, and also reinforce your branding.

3.  Keywords in your domain name can really boost your eventual search engine rankings for those keywords.  If you have a short business or brand name, consider adding a keyword to the domain as well.  For example, GreenPointHats.com instead of just GreenPoint.com.

4.  Forget about hyphens. Hyphens confuse your customers and they will end up typing in the non-hyphenated domain name instead.  Choose MyGreatWebsite.com instead of My-Great-Website.com.

5.  Shorter is better, but shorter is not everything.  Try to keep the domain three words or less if possible.

6.  Make sure that your domain name is spelled like it sounds, without any possible ambiguity.  Watch out for words that sound the same or words that are tricky to spell.

7.  Register your domain with a reputable registrar. I always recommend GoDaddy.com for domain registration (but not webhosting).

8.  Register your domain name for at least several years at a time. Domains that have a long registration period tend to end up with higher search engine rankings in Google.  Make sure you keep your email address, phone number, and mailing address up to date with the domain registrar.  Your registrar must be able to contact you for rebilling when your domain name registration expires!

Stumped?  Nameboy.com and Bustaname.com are a couple of fun tools that can help you find available domains.

How did you choose your small business domain name?  Please share your experiences and ideas in the  comments below!

Photo credit:  Chrstopher