Keyword strategies part I – the Mom test July 29, 2008
Posted by bohenriksen77 in SEO.Tags: keyword, keyword strategy, SEM, SEO, the mom test
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This is vacation week in Denmark, meaning that less than half of our company is at work, and the rest of us are strugling with the heat, we doen’t have A/C and rigth now there is about 86 degrees in the offices. So I thougth this migth be a good time for rambling about keyword strategies and how to pick good keywords in terms of SEO.
This first talk on keyword strategies, will be a very simple approach to getting started, which I’ve chosen to call the mom test. The principle behnd this way to find a good set af keywords to begin with, is to have someone without a deep knowledge, technical insigth or understanding of your products, services or business to help you, for example your mom. The reason for doing it this way, is that people with a good knowledge of the product, or people working with it every day, tend to be blind to the way their clients search. One example of this could be a computer parts webstore optimizing keywords for specific harddrives like ‘Hitachi CinemaStar 7K500 320GB’ because they always know what they want for themselves, but they migth have bigger success if they optimize keywords like ‘Cheap Hitachi harddrives’ or ‘Reliable harddisks’.
They point is, that even though you know every bit and piece of your business, you migth not know the how your users search for your products or services, so ask people who doesn’t know your business what they would search for, if they were to aquire your products or services.
End of part I, I’ll be back soon with part II.
SEO != 42 July 17, 2008
Posted by bohenriksen77 in SEO.Tags: search engine optimization, SEM, SEO, usability
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For those finding the title of this post a little cryptic i recommend reading the Wikipedia articles Operators in C and C++ and Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.
In the time I have worked with SEO, most of the sales pitches I have heard regarding SEO and SEM, from our own sales staff, partners and competitors, has concluded that “If you wan’t your online business to succeed, all you need is SEO/SEM, and your ROI will skyrocket!”. I know and accept that salesmen tend to glorify the product, and will do almost anything to sell it. I know they will make it look like you doen’t need anything but SEO/SEM and you will be fine. But I disagree.
While I’m not a business genius, my understanding is that keeping a client happy means keeping a client, and it takes less effort to keep a client, than to gain a new client. Assuming that my simple business understanding is correct, I have fougth for a more holistic approach, where SEO is an important part of the foundation for online success, but not the one true answer.
My view on things is that SEO/SEM should go hand in hand with usability, design and market analysis. Having the best, most userfriendly website in the world won’t do anything good, if nobody can find it. Having lots of search engine top rankings won’t do anything good if people exit your website as soon as they get there, because it is ugly or userhostile. Even the best website with great rankings won’t do anything good for your business, if users can’t relate the website to the search they just did, so this is where market analysis comes in.
The market analyst in cooperation with the SEO/SEM can help tailor content and searchphrases to match your products and services, so that rankings on the rigth words will lead to qualified traffic. The market analyst together with the usablity and design teams will be able to apply a model like AIDA to make sure the relevant traffic has easy access to your conversion points, so you can earn your profits.
Summed up, when done rigth, visibility will lead to traffic which leads to conversions.
