Feature: The key to successful search engine marketing

Article written by Mark Scriven, Turismotec Ltd.

In his previous feature article, Mark Scriven identified the 5 stages of search engine marketing. In the following article he focuses on the first of those 5 stages: Keyword Selection…

The cornerstone of any effective search engine marketing plan is a solid keyword selection strategy. Keyword selection is important because it directly determines both the volume and the quality of a website’s visitor traffic, and will significantly impact your conversion rate and online ROI. Put simply, if you do not target the right keywords in your search engine marketing campaign all your marketing efforts will be wasted and your website will never generate the business that it should.

So what exactly are keywords? Keywords are the words or phrases that internet users type into the search box of the search engines in order to find information, services and products online. They are usually 2 to 4 word phrases such as “paris hotels” or “adventure tours of mexico”. Over time internet users have become more sophisticated in the way they search online, and they now know that the more specific they are with their search phrases the more likely they are to find relevant search results.

Many search engine marketing plans fail simply because those involved in the implementation don’t actually know what the most important keywords are for their business. Often, the search phrases that the business owner or marketing department believe are the most important for their business quite simply are not the ones being used most by their prospective customers. Or the keywords that they decide to target are simply too competitive or not focused enough.

It doesn’t matter how much you spend on your online marketing, if you target keywords that are not used by your prospective customers you will not get an effective return on your investment. This applies equally to standard search engine optimisation as well as keyword purchasing through Pay Per Click programmes.

So how do you go about identifying the keywords that will bring the most pre-qualified sales prospects to your website? To start with it is important to understand that effective keyword selection is not about guesswork or “gut feel”, it needs careful research and analysis. The good news is that all the information you need to make effective keyword choices is at your fingertips.

The 3 main factors that determine effective keyword selection are as follows:

1. Keyword relevance
The keywords you target must be appropriate to the products or services you offer. One of the best sources of keyword selection is right there in your own office; your sales department or reception staff who have day-to-day contact with your customers. So why not ask them what words and phrases people generally use when calling to book holidays?

You can also use keyword selection tools like Wordtracker (requires subscription) or free services like Google’s keyword suggestions or Overture’s search term selection tool. These services allow you to type in a keyword and then get a list of other similar phrases and word combinations. Remember, the more tightly you target your keywords to your actual products or services, the higher your conversion rate and eventual ROI.

2. Search volume
When you have your universe of potential keyword targets you then need to establish which ones generate the most visitors. Interestingly, similar phrases do not always attract similar numbers of online searches. For example, the keyword “Italian villas” is searched for 3.5 times more than “villas in italy”. The keyword selection tools listed above will enable you to discover this crucial information by calculating how many people on average search for your shortlist of keywords.

Visitor volume itself is not the object of this part of the selection process. The challenge is to attract the highest volume of relevant visitors – those that are specifically searching for what you are selling.

3. Level of competition
Finally, you need to determine the level of competition for each keyword. Some keywords are simply too competitive to realistically expect to get a top 20 ranking in the search engines, however, others are surprisingly uncompetitive and would make very effective targets.

In order to determine the competition of a keyword, go to
Google and type the keyword in the search box in inverted commas and this will return search results that match your exact keyword phrase. This is your competition for that particular keyword. Obviously, the more competition you have the harder it will be to get a good position in the search engines for that particular keyword, and so you need to weigh this risk against the attractiveness of the keyword.

So, as you can see, the key to successful search engine marketing is implementing a keyword selection analysis that effectively balances the mix of relevancy, search volume and competitiveness. Get your keyword selection strategy right and you will attract a continual flow of pre-qualified sales prospects to your website.

If you are employing a marketing agency or SEO company to promote your website it is important to ensure that they are using a sound research based approach to their keyword selection process. If they come to you with a list of keywords that they believe you should target ask them to explain how they made the selection and what criteria they used. It is also important to make sure that they involve your company in the keyword identification process.

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