Choosing your keywords

We talk a lot about keywords and search terms. But how do you know what search terms you optimize your site for? In other words, what would prospective clients type into Google when looking for your products and services?

If you are launching a brand new site, you can’t know… but you start by making educated guesses based on the products and services you sell and the challenges those products solve or situations they address. We also research terms that make your competitors show up on Google. Design the site for those terms, then make adjustments as needed down the road.

For existing sites, begin by looking at your Google Analytics or web trends reports. You’ll be able to see search terms people entered to find you. The list will often include terms you wouldn’t have expected. And while not all terms in the reports will be meaningful to your business, we can make adjustments to your site to improve your positioning for the terms that make sense.

If you sell within a particular geographic area, be sure to include city, state, or metro area in your keyword phrases.

The challenge in all this is in measuring the effectiveness of your changes. It can take two months before the search engines fully index your changed content and reflect the changes in search results. It can be another month before you have enough visitor trending information to draw accurate conclusions over the effectiveness of you new content.