When it comes to generating leads for your website, high traffic is the main goal, right? Not necessarily. Imagine that you run a site aimed toward retirees, and you see that a lot of people are visiting the site, but when you look at your analytics, you discover that most of your visitors are teenagers. That’s not going to lead to many sales! While having a high volume of traffic is certainly a good sign, big numbers are not enough to push your conversion rates higher – you want the right people coming to your site, the ones who are in the target market for your product or service. This is where keywords come into play.
SEO is constantly changing, but keyword strategy is one thing that has been around forever and still makes a big difference. Because of Google’s ever-evolving algorithms, strategies have to be very different than they were even just a few years ago, but the basic tenet is still there: you need to be utilizing and optimizing for the same keywords that your target customers will be searching for.
It may sound simple, but it’s a little more complicated than it looks on the surface. To get the best keyword strategy, the one that leads to visitors who buy rather than visitors who bounce, you have to go beyond the obvious. Sure, if you sell high-end men’s clothing and accessories, you’re definitely going to want to prioritize keywords like custom men’s suits , men’s shirts, designer ties and so forth. But what other terms could people be searching for that might not be as apparent to you? You might find the answers in your existing website analytics, or you might use online tools like SEMRushor Google’s Keyword Tool to find out what short and long-tail keywords your competitors are having the best luck with. Expanding your relevant keyword sets and prioritizing the right ones can be a delicate process, but when you start to get it right, the ROI speaks for itself.
So if keywords are the way to dominate search, then you might think that more is better… but this is where you have to be careful. Over-using keywords or using them out of context in an attempt to boost your rankings is frowned upon, and not only do search engines penalize sites for it, it also makes for an unpleasant visitor experience. The last thing you want is to irritate the customers you worked so hard to attract! This is why it’s important not only to understand your best keywords, but to know how to use them wisely (or to hire someone who does!).
Correct use of keywords can connect your website to exactly the right customers at exactly the right time, so a strong keyword strategy is invaluable to your overall internet marketing approach. Getting the balance right and making the smartest adjustments as you go along can be tricky, so don’t hesitate to ask for expert help. Especially if your marketing budget is limited, the faster you can hone in on the right keyword strategy, the faster you can turn those website visits into leads, and that’s what it’s all about!
This blog was compiled by our staff writers. If you are looking for a solid inbound marketing strategy, contact us today for a free consultation, we are here to help! Follow @cogomojo on Twitter, the COGO Interactive Company Page on LinkedIn, and subscribe to our blog, for more tips and resources.
