One and two-word keywords or keyword phrases are what I call “short-tail” keywords, and these are frequently used by people who are just starting their online search. Still “window shoppers,” not yet buyers.
As people get more knowledgeable concerning what they’re looking for with an online search, the keyword phrases they enter tend to get longer as well. Generally a three to four word keyword phrase (or longer, up to about seven words) indicates a much more serious person, who knows what they’re looking for and doesn’t want to be presented with a bunch of irrelevant results.
Google AdWords keyword tool divides keywords into three categories:
- > Broad
- > Specific, identified by quotes ” ” – all words listed between the quotes must appear, but any order is OK
- > Exact Match, identified by brackets [ ] – alll words listed between the brackets must appear, and they must appear in the exact order specified
An example of a broad keyword might be money – a very general term that lots of searchers might enter … but each of them might really be wanting to find something different … different from what the other people entering that search term really want, and more importantly, different from the money-related product you have to offer.
If you move to a keyword phrase, e.g., making money, you probably get a little closer to your target market’s interests, but there is still a lot of room for variation and what the searcher is looking for may still be somewhat different from what you are offering.
The next step in the search process would be to enter a “long-tail” keyword phrase. An example of one of these long-tail keyword phrases might be making money online from home.
If you can find a group of those long-tail keywords (you’ll need a lot of them), you’ll have a much better chance of making a sale from a click-through using one of those keywords – however, be advised that the longer the keyword phrase, the smaller the volume of searches that will be entered using that keyword phrase. So, it’ll be a judgment call and a balancing act to come up with your set of “Golden Keywords” – keywords and phrases that are highly profitable for your market niche.
If you have website reports that show the keywords searchers actually entered to reach your site, that’s a good place to start developing your list of what I call “Golden Keywords”.
In addition, there are a variety of free tools, like the Google Keyword Suggestion Tool, FreeKeywords.WordTracker.com, VREToolbar.com, etc. and if you have the budget, WordTracker.com is a good paid resource.
The best suggestion I can make is this: Try to put yourself in the mind of the searcher, and think about the words and phrases that you would use to ensure that your product or service was returned by the search results, preferably on the first page of those results.
PS: This post was added due to reader request for more info on the topic of keywords.
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I just now updated my key words blog !