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Sarah Moore is group manager at Zango, an online media company that automates and monetizes relationships between content creators, Web publishers and advertisers of all sizes.

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Six Strategies for Keyword Optimization Success

Written on
Oct 12, 2007 
Author
Sarah Moore  |
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Six Strategies for Keyword Optimization Success

rubikscube.jpgOptimizing a Web site doesn’t require a huge budget. It doesn’t require the latest and greatest technology, a “Beautiful Mind” mind, or round-the-clock vigilance to keep your site ranked highly.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that it does require diligence, especially if your primary online marketing component is paid search. You’ve spent hours upon hours coming up with and testing the right keywords to attract the right traffic to your site. Now it’s time to fine-tune them.

There are six easy ways to redefine and expand your keyword list to help ensure paid search success.

Add Related Keywords

By adding related keywords, you ensure you are covering a broad spectrum of searches, as well as increasing your traffic. For instance, if you are using the keyword phrase “women’s shoes,” you may also want to consider adding related terms such as “girls’ shoes” or “ladies’ shoes.”

Use Keyword Variations

Adding variations of the same keyword will also maximize your traffic. For instance, if “women’s shoes” is working well, then add variations of it like “women’s shoe,” or “woman’s shoes.” This works great for URLs, too.  So for example, in addition to targeting “soppaz” (fictional shoe site), try “.soppaz.com” or just “soppaz.”

Target Your Keywords

Specificity sells. Try adding specific keywords to zero in on customers who are ready to buy. The keyword phrase “women’s shoes,” while good, is pretty broad. Refine your list with terms that more narrowly match what your customers are looking for, such as “red women’s shoes” or “designer women’s shoes.” Also, consider your specific product/service and use terms that are related. If you are selling a line of Steve Madden shoes, then using a keyword phrase like “Steve Madden sandals” will target those customers who are most interested in that specific product type.

Broaden Keywords

Okay. I know. I just told you to be specific. But very specific keywords often generate limited volume, so finding that perfect mix of both targeted and broad keywords is the goal. You’ll want to test your keywords to find the right mix for you and your product/service.

Take Advantage of Your Competition

If you are only using keywords in your campaign, you’re missing out on great traffic! Adding your competitors’ relevant URLs is an extremely successful way to drive more, better, and yet still highly targeted traffic to your site. Still using women’s shoes as an example, a shoe advertiser may want to target Web sites that promote similar products, such as “soppaz.com/womens.html.” Targeting competitor URLs will allow you to reach consumers who are looking to buy your product or service. Both consumers and savvy advertisers benefit when relevant competitor URLs are properly utilized. 

Separate Top Converting Keywords

If you have a keyword or a few keywords in a campaign that are consistently converting but causing you to hit your daily budget consistently, you may want to separate these keywords into their own campaigns. These keywords are probably consuming a large portion of your budget and preventing the remainder of your keywords from receiving more traffic. Moving your top converting keywords into their own campaign will allow you to maximize traffic for all of your keywords.





Reader Comments.

These are great keyword reasearch tips Sarah, In addition, though website marketing teams also should consider taking proven steps to optimize their top level domain for higher organic/natural keyword rankings. Websites that rely exclusively on sponsored listings and PPC bidding are missing more than half of all search traffic and are more susceptible as PPC rate increases occur.

Posted by Jack Roberts | 5:39 pm on October 13, 2007.

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