Keywords - The First Step in SEO

Promoting a business online has become one of the more powerful ways to market a business. Part of the allure is it is relatively inexpensive when compared with other forms of advertising like newspapers, television, radio and phone books. Another positive is that it is extremely targeted especially when using search engines to market a business. If a person is searching for something and finds a website that answers their question then that site has a good chance of making a sale to someone. The process of ranking a site highly like that is known as search engine optimization or SEO. When thinking of SEO the first thing you need to think about is keywords. Keywords are the terms that people type into the search engines when looking for something. This can be anything from looking for a plumber to looking for new tires on their car. That can be taken even further because they may want to find the cheapest tires or the most reliable plumber in a certain geographic area. The longer the term they type into the search box, the more specific their needs and the more likely they are to need something in the short term. These are known as buying terms or long-tailed terms. Not only are they more powerful, they are easier to rank on. They may not get thousands of searches a month, but they can result in more sales. A million people searching for cars every month may not yield as much profit as 1000 people searching for an affordable car in Chicago each month. The second example is more direct and focused. So, the first thing to do is to get inside the head of your potential customer. Think about what they would be searching for when looking for your product or service. Come up with a list of 10 base keywords that describe your business. After you come up with this list it is a good idea to then expand that list and add some more phrases to the beginning and end to come up with these long-tailed keyphrases mentioned earlier. Adding a geographic location on the end, for example is a powerful idea. Or adding buying terms like : cheap, best, cheapest, low cost and other similar phrases are also powerful ideas. If you can rank on these types of long-tailed keywords you will see incredible results from your marketing efforts. a SEO is a powerful way to market a business these days. It is cost effective and targeted. It is not like television where you are just casting a wide net and hoping to catch a few prospects. It is laser focused because prospects are finding you through their search terms. It reverses roles because a person is seeking out your services rather than you looking for the customer. And, by being able to place on a word that relates to a search it captures them at the moment when they are ready to buy. This can significantly reduce the buying cycle as well which makes SEO that much more powerful.