Filed Under: Keyword Analysis Part 2 of 12
Welcome back to our series that is designed to guide you through finding the best keywords for your small business. If you missed it, here’s the link to read Part 1 Keyword Analysis: How Keywords Work.
As we work through this series have your business plan handy, we didn’t just put that together to sound “cool”. I want you to keep it handy and tweak it as you feel the information needs to be updated. If you haven’t had the opportunity to finish it yet, no worries, just do what you can when you can.
If you are just joining us now, and are wondering “What business plan?”. Our first series was dedicated to putting together a Simple Business Plan to market your small business online. There is a downloadable kit and a series of 7 articles to walk you through step-by-step. So, go check it out.
So, now that we have all of that outta the way, let’s carry on…
The King of the Keywords
Every time a new page is posted anywhere on the Internet, Google's spiders crawl the page, recording and indexing every word and phrase they find. They add this information to Google's vast databases.
In order to understand how keyword analysis is supposed to shape up, let’s talk about how keywords can help your business and your profits. For this, we first must understand how search engines work. Open up your favorite web browser and type any phrase into Google,then hit the “Google Search” button.
Instantly, Google presents you with a list of hundreds of thousands of websites that might be what you’re looking for, conveniently sorted according to relevance. Pretty good for a microsecond of time, huh?
But that’s the power of keywords at work. You see, every time a new page is posted anywhere on the Internet, Google’s spiders crawl the page, recording and indexing every word and phrase they find. They add this information to Google’s vast databases, so whenever someone searches for the words that page contains, Google can point them in the right direction.
Now of course, there’s more to search algorithms than just crawling sites looking for keywords. It’s also important where and how keywords are used, and the context of the site overall. In addition, there are things you have no control over, like the words other people use to point to your site from their site.
We’ll get to those a little later, but for our purposes, the definition of a keyword is this:
A significant word or phrase, relevant to the web page or document in question. Keyword searching is the most common form of text search on the internet.
(Web Analytics Glossary, NetStrategies.com)
Brainstorming Keywords
The best place to begin your keyword research is inside the mind of your ideal customer. Imagine you are looking for your small business or website.
Before you build your first website or pen your first blog post, you need to spend some time researching your keywords. This can’t be stressed enough. Failure to do proper keyword analysis will result in a scattered, unfocused website that, while it may survive, will certainly not thrive. Sound dire? That’s because it is. Keyword analysis is the most important part of your business plan.
So, Where Do You Start Your Keyword Research?
The best place to begin your keyword research is inside the mind of your ideal customer. Imagine you are looking for your small business or website. What word or phrase will you type into Google in hopes of finding what you’re after? For example, if you sell hand-dyed yarn to knitters, someone looking for your site might use the phrase “hand- dyed knitting yarn” to find you. That’s a good search phrase to start with.
It’s Homework Time
Now, grab a piece of paper and your favorite pen and begin writing down all the phrases relevant to your small business that you can think of. If your customers come to you looking for knitting needles or patterns or stitch markers, write those down, too. Write down anything at all you want to be found for online. Don’t worry if your list is growing quite long, that’s a good problem to have!
In the next part of the keyword analysis series we’re going to refine and sort your keyword list.
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