Amar E. Chakravarthi’s Blog

You’re stumped! You just created the BEST content to add to your blog but you are now stuck. What are the MOST effective SEO keywords to use on your site? Where do you start? What tools do you use?

Keyword research is THE most important part of effective SEO. If you pick the wrong keywords, you will waste both a lot of time and money. You also won’t get the search engine rankings you want.

There are some basic criteria you need to keep in mind when searching for keywords:

• Relevancy – What keywords are relevant to your market/niche?

• Search volume – There are many users searching for that keyword/term

• Current ranking – What is the keyword ranking? If it’s a high volume keyword such as “marketing” (ranked #10) compared to “retail marketing” (ranked #600)- go with the former because you’ll get better results faster (more qualified traffic)

How to Avoid Bad Keywords
• Keywords should be relevant with a high traffic volume

• People aren’t always going to search for difficult terms. Don’t use complicated terms such as “freestyle snowboarding champion in Lake Tahoe, California” It’s very unlikely that a person is going to search for that specific term – keep it simple!

• Sometimes keywords with high search volumes may be more difficult – you may have to work a little harder! Check out the following tools to analyze keyword difficulty: SEOmoz Keyword Difficulty Tool ( http://www.seomoz.org/keyword-difficulty ) and SEOlogs Keyword Difficulty Check Tool ( http://www.seologs.com/keyword-difficulty.html ).

How to Choose Effective Keywords
The first step in choosing keywords is brainstorming. You also need powerful tracking tools that will lead you in the right direction. Learn about the buying process and how consumers research and buy online.

• First, ask yourself this question: “How would my customers/clients search for my products and services online?”

• Brainstorm a seed list (it helps to brainstorm with other colleagues) – choose a list of terms that would answer the above question.

• Use the following keyword tools to expand your list: Google Keyword Tool ( https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal ), WordTracker ( http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ ) and WebCEO ( http://www.webceo.com/download/index.htm ). This is how you optimize keywords/terms that people search for the most.
• Place keywords you find underneath your seed list. The goal is to grow your list with well-optimized keywords/phrases. You need to figure out which keywords have the most relevancy, search volume and current tracking.

• You could spend up to hours looking for optimized keywords – that may sound long and boring but you could end up with the wrong keywords and mess up your SEO. It’s better to take the time to research keywords NOW then to regret it later!

• Pay attention to keyword discovery – broad keywords (broad terms with a high search volume) versus long-tail keywords (less searches but more specific/relevant terms related to your products and services)

• Figure out the search volume for each keyword. You need a relevancy value for each keyword and then calculate the score of each keyword.

• Choose 5-10 primary keywords (keywords that have high relevancy and search volumes), 20-60 secondary words (lower search volume but very relevant) and keyword modifiers (words that go before, after or in the middle of primary or secondary words – i.e. “free”)
When choosing keywords keep the following criteria in mind:
• Brand names (i.e. Target)

• Generic product names (i.e. laptops)

• Product attributes (i.e. affordable laptops)

• Brands (i.e. Dell laptops)

• Models (i.e. Dell Inspiron E1705 laptops)

• Action keywords (i.e. buy laptops)

• Problem-related keywords (i.e. how to fix laptops)

• Specials (i.e. laptops free shipping)

Google Analytics ( http://www.google.com/analytics/ ) allows webmasters/developers to easily track actions visitors take on websites. It’s easy to customize Google Analytics to track a wide variety of events for your site. You just need to modify your code to match your website’s specific needs/functions. Google Analytics event tracking guide ( http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/tracking/eventTrackerGuide.html ) will walk you step-by-step through the process.

However, before you can track these events you need to have goals in mind and ask yourself some basic questions. If you have an e-commerce site you might want to ask the following questions: How many sales did I generate last month/last week? How many people are clicking on Product A on the products page?

The Benefits of Event Tracking
Event tracking will help improve your overall online sales and marketing goals. You will have a better understanding of your visitors’ actions. If you’re an e-commerce site, it allows you to figure out why a certain product isn’t selling (what’s popular, etc).

Maybe you are trying to boost membership on your site, and people aren’t opting-in to your site. You can basically track everything your visitors are doing and improve upon your site as a result.

Getting Started with Event Tracking
It’s easy to get started on Google Analytics. The following steps walk you through the basics of getting started with event tracking:

• Log into Google Analytics (if you don’t have an account, you’ll need to set one up before you proceed).

• You’ll need to create a new profile for your site. Go to “Analytics Setting” and choose “Create New Website Profile.”

• Choose a “Website Profile Type” – click either “Add a Profile for a New Domain” or “Add a Profile for an Existing Domain.”

• Enter the URL of your website that you want to be tracked. In the drop-down menu, choose either http:// or https:// format (choose your country, time zone, etc.)

• Click “Finish” and the tracking page will open and your tracking code will appear.

• Cut/paste your tracking code, and then insert tracking code before body tags of code for all the web pages you want to track.

• Read this guide from Google that explains how to track events on Google Analytics and either implement it yourself or have your developer take care of this for you.

Most Common Event Tracking
You can also customize your tracking in order to generate specific data/reports. However, modifications to the tracking code will need to happen before your visitor’s actions can be accurately reported. Event tracking really depends on the specific goals and needs of your site, and what you want to track.

Here are some common events that are tracked:

• Ecommerce activity/shopping cart purchases

• When visitors download PDFs/files or click a certain button on a page

• Member functions such as tracking new member sign-ups, log-ins, etc.

• Banner Ad exits – tracks which banner ads visitors click on to leave your site and which advertisers they visit

• Outbound links – how many times visitors click on links leading away from your site

• Actions that don’t take users to new pages – if a visitor clicks the play button to watch/listen to audio or video on your site

• Tracks Flash, Ajax and Javascript content

• Page widgets

Most business processes and competencies have not changed much in hundreds of years. Take accounting for example. Other than the introduction of computers and software, which was huge, and various changes in regulations, accounting is performed just as it was 500 years ago. And, for the most part, the same was true for marketing. That is until the invention and acceptance of the Internet. Since then, marketing has been turned on its ear. If you are a small business that is still marketing they same way you did 10-15 years ago, chances are you are wasting a lot of marketing dollars and your results are far less than they could and should be.

As a small business counselor/advocate, lately, I am bombarded with questions about “social media and networking”. It is certainly a buzz phrase these days, but, not many in the small business community seem to know a lot about it. Furthermore, they fail to realize that in most cases, social media and networking is not a stand alone strategy/technique but rather an extension or enhancement of other types of online marketing. Nonetheless, it should be an integral component as it is hot, inexpensive and effective when used correctly and in conjunction with a total online marketing strategy/technique.

As a result of intense interest by my clients and others, I have decided to take on the dangerous task of explaining the total Web 2.0 Online marketing strategy (including social media/networking) through a series of posts (of which this is the first) as it is far too comprehensive and detailed to address in a singe article. I describe this task as dangerous because I know it will stimulate a lot of comments due to definitions (it means different things to different people), what is included and what is not, and my approach to certain issues. To minimize these risks, I have invited others to assist me and contribute in areas where they are more knowledgeable and skilled than am I in order to bring you the best education possible.

This article is simply an overview of the various aspects of Web 2.0 online marketing. Each of the ensuing articles in the series will drill down on a single aspect.

Web 2.0 Online Marketing

Overview
One reason you have not seen articles on this subject from me sooner is that I have been trying to figure out the best way to explain it. Recently, I saw a great graphic created in 2008 by Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends that illustrated the ROI impact of various aspects of Web 2.0 online marketing. However, it left out a couple of things I wanted to cover and many things have changed since 2008. So inspired by Campbell’s concept, I recreated her graphic representing how the most significant ROI impact begins with an effective website and radiates outward.

Now, I realize that it looks rather intimidating. It really isn’t, once you understand what each activity is and how it works. So, I will give you a short overview of each below and will go into depth on each of these strategies/techniques in subsequent articles in the series over the next few weeks.

Bulls-Eye
In the graphic, your website is the “bulls-eye” or center of your Web 2.0 online marketing strategy. Think of it as your virtual store/office. This is where business is conducted and, as such, provides the highest return on investment (ROI).  Everything else represented on the graphic is available to increase the amount of business you do at your website. Expect an article on websites within the next week or so as it is the next up in the series.

Second Ring
Located in this ring are initiatives such as autoresponders, blogs, pay-per-click advertising, email marketing, online press releases, and search engine optimization (SEO). Once your website is in place, the marketing activities/techniques in this second ring should be your next priority consideration because they are critical to increasing the activity at your website and will net you the next highest ROI.

Third Ring
The strategies/techniques in the third ring are not necessarily less important than those in the second ring but simply net a smaller ROI relative to the amount of time and/or expense required to execute them. Take affiliate programs for example. If your business is totally web-based and you are selling products, offering an affiliate program might be among the most important things you do. However, you will need to pay a commission (25%-50%) on each sale generated by your affiliates. So unless you can sell your product with huge margins, there is a substantial cost associated with it. Many of these strategies/techniques require an investment of time but are usually totally or mostly free. And, they can have a very positive impact on traffic and orders.

In conclusion, other than alerting you to your choice of Web 2.0 online marketing strategies/techniques with a fancy graphic, I realize that I have not provided many details. Rest assured that in the weeks to come, I will provide you with detailed information on each of these strategies/techniques. You won’t want to miss a single post in this series. So how can you prevent that from happening? There are a couple of things you can do:

1. Subscribe to my RSS feed by either email or reader . If you are unfamiliar with RSS Readers, then select “Subscribe By Email” and every time I post a new article, you will receive an email about the article. With one click you will be at the new article.
2. Bookmark this page and come back to check it whenever you can as I will add links to this page each time I post a new article in the series. However, if your memory is anything like mine and your “Favorites” has as many bookmarks as mine, you will probably find that the first option will work better for you.

Firefox ( http://www.mozilla.com/ ) is a popular search engine created by by Mozilla AND it’s FREE to download! Firefox is also a highly secure browser and works on Windows, Linux and Mac. Their browser is very user friendly. By providing additional themes and extensions, Mozilla created their browser just for YOU! You can build it to your unique specifications and tweak according to your specific needs.

However, Mozilla didn’t forgot about search engine optimization and created specific extensions just for SEO that are easy to download and use. These are the BEST SEO addons recommended to add to your Firefox browser.

SEO for Firefox ( http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/seo-for-firefox.html)– A useful tool that pulls data research right into Yahoo’s and Google’s search results and includes some of the following features:

• Page links – Shows estimated total number of links pointing to pages in Yahoo
• Cached – Shows how many sites in Google are indexed
• Provides Alexa site rankings
• Gives PR stats (Google PageRank)
• Bloglines – check out how many people are subscribed to certain blogs

SearchStatus 1.30 ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/321 )

• Displays Google PageRank, Compete Ranking, Alexa Rank and SEOmoz Linkscape mozRank in browser
• Includes backward/related links
• Fast keyword density analyzer

SeoQuake ( http://ff.seoquake.com/?sln=en )

• Allows users/web developers to view large number of SE parameters on the internet
• SEO Toolbar – Parameters shown in separate toolbar in browser
• SEObar – Shows values of parameters of web pages currently opened in browser
• Inclusion of parameters in SERPs (customized by users)

Page Speed ( http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/ )

• Used to evaluate web page performance
• Web sites run faster – runs diagnostic tests
• Reduces hosting costs and bandwidth
• Performs tests on front-end code and web server configuration

SEOpen ( http://seopen.com/firefox-extension/ )

• Yahoo and Google backlinks
• Alexa traffic and backlinks
• Page size and PR checker
• HTML validator

yExplore ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2336 )

• Quickly accesses Yahoo Site explorer

Niche Watch Tool 1.0 ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2279 )

• Analyzes niche keyword competition
• Gives backlink numbers, indexed pages, all in anchor, and page ranks
• Builds high PR links – gain better search engine placement

Firebug ( http://www.getfirebug.com/ )

• Includes web development tools
• Allows you to inspect and edit HTML
• Monitor and debug CSS and Javascript in live web pages
• Find and edit DOM (Direct Object Model) quickly

X-Ray 0.9 ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1802 )

• Allows you to easily see how site was created
• View tags on web pages without seeing source codes
• Displays class and ID names

Web Developer 1.1.8 ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60 )

• Includes many web developer tools
• Adds toolbars and menu to browser

User Agent Switch 0.7.2 ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59 )

• Adds toolbar and menu buttons to switch user agent of browser
• Allows access to sites that restrict access

Google Global ( http://www.redflymarketing.com/blog/google-global-view-results-different-locations/ )

Has over 20 features – views paid and organic searches from any location across the globe:

• Cities
• Regions
• IP addresses
• US zip codes
• Different languages

Alexa Sparky (  http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addons/policy/0/5362/40550 )

• Shows Alexa information in your status bar
• Provides Reach and Rank data about the sites you surf
• Users can view web traffic metrics
• Find out what sites are more popular than others
• Allows you to web surf more efficiently – finds related links/sites
• Won’t interrupt your web browsing

LinkChecker 0.6.3 ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/532 )

• Checks validity of site links
• Tool button can be added on browser for easier access
• Uses color coding to highlight bad versus good links