If you don’t want to save some serious cash flow and improve your marketing efforts, then read no further.
But if you’re all about saving $$$ while allocating your ad budget towards keywords that lead to a better ROI and conversion ratings…
Then you’ve come to the right place.
Truthfully, we all have gaps in our marketing efforts that we need to fill in order to maximize our ad budget; who doesn’t want to save money while absolutely killing it when it comes to improving marketing, revenue and conversions?
In previous articles I’ve covered the importance of improving your landing pages headlines, design, UX/UI, colourways, field forms and CTA strength as a means to landing page optimization. However, sometimes we all skim over the fine print (literally) when it comes to optimizing pages for better conversion ratings.
After you’ve checked off the above list, think about considering those keywords that you have in the fine print of your body copy.
Whether we’re talking about long-tail or general keywords, negative keywords or broad match keywords — it costs $$$ in your marketing campaign to have the right keywords that lead valuable customers to your page and services. In this day and age, SEO optimization with the right keyword search-terms is of paramount importance to lead customers to the right place:
Your bid-ness.
But it’s 2015, and we’re all about smart marketing. Right? So what if, instead of you spending hours upon hours researching the right types of keywords you need, the ones you don’t, and playing the guessing game as to what people are looking for — why don’t you let Google give you a helping hand?
Through Google Related Search Terms, Google Suggest, and mining your analytics — you can not only save time on your effective keyword search terms but let Google intuitively find the keywords that customers are truly searching for, which helps to save you time and money on your marketing efforts. SCORE.
Smart Marketing: Keyword Search Strategies – Google Suggest
Know how Google has auto-completes suggestions for restaurants, shopping sites and more based on your previous search history and popular searches? That’s an actual thing, referred to as Google Suggest.
But instead of late-night pizza places or shopping websites, can you imagine Google Suggest being used for keyword research? Think about it; Google Suggest is an awesome source of short/long-tail keyword variations that’s quite easy to use; just start typing your primary keyword into the Google search box and see what variations Google suggests.
If the phrase readily turns up in the search bar with examples and related searches, then you know they’re keywords that are commonly being searched for. The same principle applies with Google’s Related Searches, Youtube’s related searches, and other social media related searches.
Google Suggest is a great resource for even simple base terms as a reference for your keyword search; by using it, not only can you save time on effective keyword research, but find the terms and long-tail keywords that are being readily searched for.
The result? Better efficiency, effective keyword generation for your PPC/ad campaigns, and better ad budgeting towards the efforts that increase conversion rates.
Google Related Searches
The same concept with Google Suggest applies to Related Searches; by examining the related search terms to your service or products, you can determine the keywords that are truly impactful and effective among customers.
But aside from the short + long-tail keywords that are effective, remember to consider the keywords you should avoid!
If you refer back to our post on negative keywords, sometimes knowing what not to include is the most important. Google Related Searches helps to show related services, products and keywords that are popular and effective for finding your page; however, Related Searches can reveal what people are not searching for as well. These will be the keywords that signal that your customer is searching for a different product.
With negative keywords, you can not only steer viewers away from things you don’t offer, but reduce overall costs by excluding keywords that might have you spending serious $$$, but not exuding a serious ROI.
The Art of Web Analytics
And that term isn’t used loosely, either; data-mining analytics is more or less an art, than anything else.
Again, we’ve illustrated in previous posts the awes and wonders of Google AdWords, but what of analytics in regards to keyword research? By segmenting data and examining what keyword sets performed the best by date, time, geographical location–hell, even by weather–you can determine which keywords are the most effective, and which ones aren’t.
Accordingly, this allows you to allocate your ad budget in a manner that not only increases your ROI on keywords, but select the keywords that are improving conversions, engagement, and impressions for your services.
Because when it comes to keywords, it’s all about relevance, irrelevance, and performance.
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Free tools like Google’s External Keyword Tool are great for ideas and information about the volume of traffic particular search terms are generating. Here is an example using the Google tool to look for additional keywords related to ‘concrete forms’.
There are a couple of other free tools from Google that are worth checking out. Google Insights can provide, well, insight, into markets for search terms.
Another good tool is Google Trends which shows the level of interest in keywords, how frequently those keywords have appeared in Google News stories, and in which geographic regions people have searched for them most.
To find your own private store of long-tail keywords, go into your analytics and locate your organic keyword referrals.
Before you go…
What Have We Learned?
In short: be intuative when it comes to long-tail keyword search; since these terms that many people are looking for, be sure to check Google/social related items, Google Suggested search terms, competitor keyword lists, Google Trends, and your own Analytics to farm out the right keywords that will help to improve your marketing/PPC efforts.
