Tag Archives: keyword research

Tips to Improve Google Rankings for Small Business

Posted on 25 May, 2009 by Jamie

Small businesses face an uphill battle online. Creating a website optimised for search engines that could eventually rank on Google for significant keywords can be daunting. Here are some tips to help SMEs get their site optimised.

1. Free SEO Tools Are Your Friend

Build a Site on the Cheap with WordPress

For small businesses that don’t already have a website, WordPress provides a great platform to build a search-friendly website quickly and on the cheap. It’s not something you’d use to sell online (for eCommerce, you’ll want something more substantial), but if you’re looking to disseminate information and get calls, then WordPress might just be for you. (FYI: Amplify’s Blog runs on WordPress and provides us with a cost-effective, search friendly blogging platform…)

Open a Google Webmaster Tools Account

Once you’ve built you’re website, a nifty SEO tool to keep tabs and enhance your website for search engines is Google Webmaster Tools. Among its many features, Webmaster Tools can give you a Google search bot’s view of your website – a quick and easy way to spot trouble and stay on top of your SEO game.

Google Webmaster Tools Screenshot
Oh! And the best thing about WordPress and Google Webmaster Tools – they’re free!

2. Do Keyword Research First

Now, before you leave this blog post and run off to build your WordPress website, think about the keywords you want your business to rank for. What words do you use to describe what you sell and (more importantly) what words do your customers use? Using those words as a base, it’s time to find out what words potential online customers are using. It’s time to start your keyword research using some free keyword tools like:

Keyword Research – A Great Way to Better Understand Your Business

From your keyword research you may learn that the keywords you want to rank for aren’t being searched by your customers, while other keywords are extremely popular.

A classic example is ‘health insurance’ vs. ‘health cover’. Insurers often refer to their product offering as ‘health cover’, but many more Australians search for ‘health insurance’ according to Google Trends.

Google Trends Screenshot

To Rank, Be Relevant

To improve your website’s ranking on search engines like Google, incorporate the most relevant keywords into your site’s copy. Remember, it’s always easier and cheaper to build a website based on keyword research than to change an existing un-optimised website.

3. Now, Build Your SEO Friendly Website

With the keyword research out of the way, now you you’re free to create your optimised WordPress portal. Create a well structured website with a few categories formed around some of your top keywords. Add keyword-optimised content sprinkled with keyword heavy page headings and subheadings and you’ll be well on your way to developing a user-friendly website built to rank on search engines.

4. Quick Keyword Optimised Content

If you think the easiest way for websites to rank highly on Google is to repeat the same keyword phrases again and again, you’d be wrong. Sure that might have worked back in the day when search engines weren’t as sophisticated, but nowadays, Google considers this practice ‘spammy’ and will likely penalise your site if it finds out.

Optimise Content – But Don’t Over-Optimise

The key to SEO is to use the words your audience is using, but not to overdo it! Rather, include important keywords throughout your content and make use of keyword optimised <H1> heading tags. Keywords should also be included in your website’s main category names, Meta data and even in your URLs. But again… don’t overdo it. If you’re in a pretty competitive online space for certain keywords, build specific pages (and back up subpages) around those keywords. It’s radical, but you may just have to go there!

Optimise Your Page Titles

An example of a simple keyword optimised Meta title for Brand X’s family health insurance page might be:

<title>Family Health Insurance Quotes – Brand X Family Insurance</title>

This title tells the search engine what your page is about with the inclusion of keywords. Common mistakes include having a Meta title that only contains the brand name across the entire website or an over-optimised Meta title which includes every variation of a keyword.

Note: Remember to lead with important keywords and to save your brand name for the end of the page title.

Things to Keep in Mind

These are just a few tips that can help your small business get a website up and running for search engines. Naturally, there are other factors that will help boost your your site’s Google ranking and no doubt you’ll encounter some hurdles along the way. But to get started quickly, we trust these quick tips will help your small business get a foothold online without breaking the bank.

Do you have any other SEO tips for SMEs to get a site up quick and on the cheap? Please feel free to share them below!

Posted in SEO | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Great Online PR Starts with SEO & Keywords

Posted on 27 November, 2008 by Josh

Let’s throw some numbers out there:

  • 91% of journalists use search engines to research stories (Pew Internet & American Life Project, March 2007)
  • 98% of analysts use search to research and find news (Forrester Research, 2006)
  • Seven out of 10 people initiate their Internet experience with a search, and 49% of people use search daily to find information online (Pew Internet, August 2008)

Search engines are part of everyday life. While most PR specialists have heard of SEO, for them it’s just a way to get media releases ranking well on search engines. But it can be so much more than that.

Harnessing the power of Search

Search engine optimisation can help you gain quick wins by increasing positive brand visibility – if you do it right. As brand reputations are increasingly shaped by search engines, communications executives must look further than just optimizing media releases. There are also blog posts, corporate websites, social media sites and other online assets. Incorporating a holistic search optimisation strategy for the aforementioned can:

  • Increase the exposure of assets
  • Connect clients to key stakeholders
  • Increase brand awareness
  • Drive more traffic to corporate websites
  • Generate sales leads.

And the best thing about SEO? All PR specialists need to do is what they do best: words.

Well, not simply words… But keywords

Keywords are what search engine crawlers look for when someone types a query into a search engine.  Optimizing PR material for words that people are searching for is paramount, and this starts with keyword research.

Keyword Research

The first step begins with the discovery phase – what are the objectives of this PR exercise? Who are you speaking to? What are their preferences? Recognizing these factors will put you in the right state of mind when you next start identifying possible phrases that consumers use when searching for particular products or services.

During this phase, think of both broad and specific words that are relevant to the brand in mind. There are a number of keyword research tools out there to help you, though none are perfect just yet. So it’s always good to use multiple tools to compare different keywords that are generated. Here are some free tools that are out there:

It’s easy to drown in hundreds, even thousands of keywords at this point. To counter this, moderate your list only include the ones that are highly relevant. You won’t be able to include every last keyword in your PR communications anyway.

Optimising your PR content for Search

Integrating keywords into your PR material is more than just sprinkling them in your content after writing a press release. SEO should be considered from the start. Here are some rules of thumb:

  • Ensure keywords are strategically placed in your headlines, sub headings, and body text
  • Avoid keyword stuffing. Search engines are good at detecting poorly optimized content, and may sometimes regard this as spam
  • Add relevant, keyword optimised tags. Tags are a great way to organise and classify your PR releases or blog posts whilst creating an extra layer of context for both search engines and consumers
  • Where possible, add keyword rich links within your articles
  • Give each article, blog post, media release its own unique page with a keyword optimised URL – just like this blog post. This is not only beneficial to SEO, but lets you track the exact amount of traffic or sales gained from each PR effort

Sound easy? Keywords are just the beginning. It gets more complicated when you’re trying to manage a crisis, which will be covered in the near future. In the meantime, I’d love for you to share any ideas relevant to this topic.

Posted in public relations, Reputation Management, SEO | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Google Search Query Reports – Tweak your PPC and SEO

Posted on 17 March, 2008 by Josh

So your Google PPC campaigns are under-performing… Or your SEM client now wants you to do sort out their SEO… This is where running a Google AdWords Search Query Performance Report could come in real handy!

Search Query Reports – Where the magic happens

So what’s a search query report? It’s a report containing nearly every searched term that triggered a Google PPC ad. You find it under the AdWord’s Reports tab and it comes loaded with heaps of information on user search queries.

Google Search Query Report

Which keywords are converting? Which ads are performing?

Say you want to know which search query is your highest performer and which of your ads gives you the best return from that query… Search Query Reports deliver. You can drilldown to average position, clicks, impressions, CTR, etc, and at a glance identify the winners and losers among your ads and your keywords.

Spot negative keywords. Spot new ones too!

If you find your ads are being shown through irrelevant search terms, add these to your list of negative keywords. And should you happen to come across new keywords which led to conversions (if conversion tracking is on) you know what to do.

Give your CTR a boost!

The proof is in the pudding! When we tweaked the performance of a new account following our analysis of a Search Query Report, we noticed an immediate performance lift; a 20% sales rise coupled with a drop in our CPA!

Conversions vs CPA

You might not get this result every time, but with new accounts when you’re unsure about where you’re at, a Search Query Report can point you in the right direction.

A perfect SEM tool? Well… almost!

One thing you’ll notice when you run a Search Query Report is that Google spits out results in that show up as ‘## other unique queries. And no (before you ask), you cannot see what those ‘unique queries’ are… So what’s up with that?

Firstly, it’s labeled as a ‘unique query’ because that’s exactly what it is: ‘unique’. It may be a sentence long and could turn up once a year at best, so you’re not missing out! Google lumps these ‘one of a kind’ queries with the other one timers to save you the bother of sifting through the clutter.

Secondly there’s a server issue. Listing all one off queries would require heaps of memory – and even Google can’t carry that load!

That said… Give Search Query Reports a try and see how you go! It could make a big difference to your accounts.

Posted in SEM, SEO | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment