This is surely not a detailed website strategy, but here are three easy things that will set a great foundation for the growth of your website.
Step One – Compose a List of Keyword Phrases Focused on Benefits Your Visitors Want
Assume your visitors do not care about you, your company, your super sweet new website, or how great you think your products and services are. The one thing they care about is what’s in it for them. Does your website accurately represent the benefits that visitors will receive from doing business with you? If it does, great, but that’s not all, there is still work to be done. You need to use the same language that your visitors do. No, I am not talking about Spanish, French, or English—I mean utilize the words that your visitors use when they are actively trying to find solutions to their problems. Stop using industry terms, most users won’t know what you are talking about, which can lead to a frustrated user. The favorite button on a frustrated user’s browser is the “back” button, and we absolutely don’t want that click.
Take some time and put on your customer hat and come up with a list of key terms that they might consider while looking for solutions to their problems.
Step Two – How Often are Your Keywords Searched For Each Month?
The great thing about the online space is that almost everything is measurable, including the number of times people search using the keywords you came up with.
For example, we were working with an organization who felt great about the high rank they received for a particular keyword. We did some investigating and found they were indeed ranking number 3 on Google for that phrase.
We kept digging and determined that although they ranked well for that particular keyword, the search volume for the phrase was extremely low. We also found out they ranked 18 on Google for the plural version of that same keyword, and the plural form of the keyword was searched for more than 12,000 times per month.
It’s amazing how one “s” can make such a huge difference. The great thing is you have access to the same information–and it won’t cost you anything! Do a search for the Google Keyword Tool, and you will find a very useful tool that can give you some solid general information related to the search activity of your chosen keywords.
Step Three – Find out if Your Customers are More Apt to Buy When Using Certain Keywords
Just because you find your keywords are searched for frequently on a consistent basis doesn’t mean they are the most important to target. There is a tool that will give you general information about the likelihood of a user to make a purchase based on the phrases they are using.
The MSN Commercial Intent tool is a neat little device that can give you an idea if keyword terms are more apt to result in conversions (sales). You should already have a nice list of valid keywords, now type them into the commercial intent tool, and it will give you a percentage that helps you determine how likely that person is to purchase something when they use a specific keyword term.
Optimizing a website simply for the sake of driving traffic, is an exercise in frustration. You can gain lots of traffic to a website, but actually, the desired outcome of your web marketing is not only to gain an increase in visits to your site—the main focus should be getting customers to your site who are ready to purchase your product and/or services.
Conclusion
If you take the time and effort required to think like your customers, understand what they are looking for, and recognize when your customers are looking to make a buying decision, then you can use this intelligence to give them exactly what they are looking for.