Keywords: SEO, Placement, and Consistency in Marketing

Amber Gold Marketing, Amber Dixon, How to social network, what are marketing techniques, how to use social media, public relations and, marketing collateral, brand awareness, build brand, keyword selection,

I met with a client this past week and when I asked, “How is the keyword search going?” His reply was, “I have them, but because I am not doing a lot of social media right now, I put that task lower on the priority list.” This is not something that should be a low priority. Keywords are not only for social media, but should be consistent across all forms of media. In fact, keywords need to be the base of your marketing plan (which I hope you have one, if you haven’t, view my earlier post regarding developing your marketing plan.

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Keyword is Misnamed

The term, “keyword” is sadly misnamed. It gives the impression that it can only be a single word, when it can actually be a couple of words to create a specific search variable. When choosing your keywords, remember to keep your audience in mind and the search terms they are most likely using to find solutions to their query. Do not know what your audience searches by? Ask. Conducting research is an ongoing process that every business professional should frequently do.

Why Keywords

Your goal is to be listed on the first two pages of any search. Choosing 3-5 keywords is important to reach this goal because searches are content driven. Because your content is what search engines use when organizing the results for a query an individual has typed in the search box, you need to choose your keywords wisely. Remember, content drives consumers to your website, so your selected keywords need to be included in all off- and on-line content. Keywords also should not be too long, no single words, and not a vague “vanity” keyword, but does represent your company and your audience.

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Using keywords effectively increases page ranking

A “vanity” keyword as mentioned above is a keyword that describes what you are selling in general, but not what most people will search for. Because Christmas is almost here, I’ll use an example of a jewelry company. Yes, they sell jewelry, but not many consumers will only type in “jewelry” into a search engine like Google. Instead they would most likely type something like, “stirling silver necklace.” In this example, “jewelry” is the vanity keyword, and “stirling silver necklace” is the correct use of a keyword to drive traffic.Keywords also keep you consistent with your marketing allowing consumers to remember your company and what you are offering, similar to your logo. With the use of frequent keywords in all materials like blog posts, social media updates, advertisements, and tie in with your brochures, postcards, business cards, and all other marketing collateral.

How to Choose Keywords

This is a task that stumps many individuals. Coming up with only a few keywords can be difficult if you do not know where to begin. I will provide you with some tools to get you started for you to begin optimizing your searchability.

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One of the Best Tools is Google Adwords Keyword Tool

One  free tool that is highly rated is the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. You can search using filters like your website, a phrase, or a category. You will want to choose the keywords that may be lower on the competition scale, but rank high in the global and local search columns. You want to stay ahead of your competition, so if the competition ranking is lower with a high number of searches performed, you can compete while increasing your opportunity for visibility. Maybe a mixture of high and lower competition rankings would serve your business goals well depending on your target audience.

For example, when I type in my website as a filter, I get a large number key phrases to choose from as the picture shows below.
(view larger document)

Amber Gold Marketing, Amber Dixon, How to social network, what are marketing techniques, how to use social media, public relations and, marketing collateral, brand awareness, build brand,

Google Adwords Keyword Tool
Click for Full View

For my keywords I chose: “How to Use Social Media”, “How to Social Network”, “Amber Gold Marketing”, “public relations and”, and “What are Marketing Techniques.” Notice that none of these are as the name implies, a single keyword. They do, however, accurately represent what I offer my clients.

Once you have chosen your keywords, you can now analyze them with the websites I have listed below. Although I believe that Google Adwords Keyword Tool is by far the best, other highly rated free websites are listed below:

Microsoft Ads – Must create a free account but is worth the few seconds it takes to set up.

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Microsoft Ads to Rank Your Keywords. Click on Picture for Full View

SEMRush – Perfect to view your competitors, your current ranking, and keyword effectiveness.

Amber Gold Marketing, Amber Dixon, How to social network, what are marketing techniques, how to use social media, public relations and, marketing collateral, brand awareness, build brand, keyword research

SEMRush for Your Competitors Research – Click to View Full Size

SEOmoz – Free trial available

Wordstream – You will need a Google Adwords Account. If you do not use Adwords, this tool will not work for you to evaluate.

Word Tracker – 7-day Free Trial

Trellian Keyword Discovery – Free Trial – Must create an account.

Other Free Websites:

Keyword Spy, Wordz – with 30 day trial, Good Keywords, Nichebot Classic (Free, but you can upgrade for a small fee), Keyword Eye

Placing Your Keywords

Your keywords must be strategically placed in several key areas. The key areas are:

  • Place at least one keyword in each of your website and blog headers.
  • Pictures themselves are not recognizable by search engines. When incorporating images into your website and blog for example, you will want to add your keywords to the Alt Tags or Alt Text area of each uploaded photograph.
  • In your content (body), but do not use your keywords too many times as this method will produce the opposite results. That is why you should only choose 3-5 keywords for all marketing content.
  • Description area of your website or blog posts when available.
  • Use secondary keywords as your subheadings.
  • Add your keywords in your tags regardless if they relate to a particular post.
  • In your URL slug. Always edit your URL to consist of at least one keyword, and a couple of words describing your post’s topic.

Amber Gold Marketing, Amber Dixon, How to social network, what are marketing techniques, how to use social media, public relations and, marketing collateral, brand awareness, build brand, URL Slug

The above information are only a few of the ways you can optimize your searchability online. Remember you need to understand your business to correctly choose your keywords. Always use your keywords in all of your marketing collateral that includes traditional marketing like public relations materials and social media platforms.

I will continue to post more social media techniques to assist you in effectively reaching your target audience and increase your search engine ranking. Understanding the numerous ways of social media networking, and frequently implementing what you have learned, will help you reach your business goals.

Until next time.

–Amber
Marketing and public relations strategist assisting businesses by filling the marketing and public relations gap. Want to learn more about how we can help you grow your business? Learn More about AGM

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