Review your website for new keywords
you even look up your first keyword. Once you have your strategy in place, Amber revealed six free keyword tools that will help you expand your list. After you have laid the strategy ground work, expanded your keyword list with every possible variation - where do you go from here? Where do you get even more keywords and additional traffic? Sometimes what you are looking for is hiding right in front of your eyes. Conduct another thorough review of your website, especially those pages that are deep within your site, for even more keywords ideas; you’ll be surprised at what you discover!
Sure, you know every limb of your keyword animal from head to long tail, and you know the 20% of your keywords that drive 80% of your traffic - but there are always ways to strengthen your keyword list, expand your keyword real estate, and increase your traffic. Yes, there are keywords that are hiding right out in the open and you just need to stop thinking so hard and find them! When you created your original keyword list you made an expansive list of your services and products, which is a great way to start but there is a keyword goldmine you may not be excavating to it’s fullest potential: here is a list of pages on your site that you should review again for potential keywords.
Product/Service Pages
Yes, when you created your initial keyword list, you brainstormed on every possible variation on your products & services. But I encourage you to look again. Don’t just look at your product/service name or benefits, really think about the solution you have to offer your potential clients. When users are searching, they are not always looking for a specific product because they don’t know the solution to their problem, so they may search on the symptom to their problem.
For example, if you offer lawn care service, your clients may not always be searching for “lawn care.” They may not even be searching for your core services such as lawn trimming, landscaping, grass seeding, hedge shearing, tree removal, but they maybe searching under “dead grass solution” if they need help with their lawn; or “hedge service,” or “raised flower bed” when they are searching for landscaping services. These are all symptoms to larger problems - how can you be the solution? Review your product/services pages and give this some thought!
FAQ Page
You may be answering questions about your company on your site that you are not addressing with your keyword list. Most FAQ pages give users a better understanding of who your company is, what you have to offer, the details of your offerings, and why they should choose you over the competition. Basically, this page answers questions (that’s obvious) and builds trust. Reviewing your FAQ page can be helpful in two ways: first, it will help you build your keyword list for terms & phrases you can add to your long tail keyword list; and second, this is a good source for PPC ad copy. Your PPC ad copy is basically providing an answer to a query, so there maybe text on this page that will inspire you!
News/Updates Page
New products, new services, speaking engagements, conference appearances, strategic alliances, news articles, product reviews, acquisitions, and list the goes on and on in regards to topics that you can cover on the news/updates page of your site. There could be new keywords lurking within these news items! A speaking engagement topic may contain keywords you don’t have your in campaign, or users may be searching for the firm with whom you are forming a relationship. A product/service review from another website may highlight a benefit or solution that you hadn’t even thought of before!
About Us Page
Branded terms almost always generate highly qualified traffic. Since the user knows who you are and they are actually searching for you, it doesn’t get any better than that! However, on your About Us page, how do you describe your company? There could be terms on this page that users are searching on, but they just aren’t aware they are actually looking for you. When users don’t know exactly what they want, they will describe it and see what the SERPs have to offer.
Site Map
If you were writing a term paper (and your website was the actual paper), then your site map would be the outline. Do a review of your site map just make sure that your keyword list has every bullet on your website outline, as these are the most important points/pieces of information on your site.
And a quick note: don’t forget to review these pages on your competitors’ sites as well!
Finding keywords within your website can be like finding loose change in your couch. It was yours to begin with, you may just have lost it temporarily. But when you do re-discover what’s been lost or misplaced, it gains extra value - even it’s only a nickel, or a long-tail keyword. These efforts will help you build a better keyword list and generate more traffic.
source: ppchero.com
Bidding on branded keywords
According to a study conducted by Hitwise, one in seven brand searches do not end up at the searched-for brand’s website. This is an indication of a number of search trends:
* Bidding on branded keywords, your own as well as those of your competitors, is absolutely necessary.
* When users search for a specific brand name, six out of seven times they already know what they want and who they want it from.
* However, when users search on branded terms they are not always committed to that branded term, but they are searching for similar services/products. Therefore, their search begins with a brand term they’re already familiar with but they are actually in the research phase of the buying cycle.
If you are going to employ this strategy, you have to adhere to the proper copyright and trademark laws, as well as the editorial guidelines governed by the search engines. If you play by the rules you can bid on your competitor’s branded keywords and acquire that one-in-seven users who aren’t committed to the brand that started their search.
First, let’s review the basic copyright and trademark laws as they apply to PPC. For this article I am going to focus on bidding on competitor’s brand names. Bidding on competitor’s names is allowed, and this practice was upheld in the decision of Geico vs. Google in 2005. Geico sued Google for allowing competitors to bid on their name and trademark phrases. The court decided that as long as sponsored ads do not confuse the consumer, then this practice is legal. Marjory Stewart, a Milwaukee-based intellectual property and business law attorney, said of the Geico/Google case:
“What looks like a victory for Google after the early part of the decision of the court, may include liability on the finer points of trademark law.” She said. “A company can be held vicariously liable for trademark infringement if it has the right to control someone else downstream or DOES control them and that party infringes on another’s mark. Some of the results in the Geico case involved sites that used the Geico mark without Geico’s permission. That’s a problem.” She said that it is possible for companies like Google and Overture to be held liable for “contributory infringement” if they intentionally induced another company to engage in infringing conduct.
Bidding on a competitor’s name was deemed acceptable; but it was the advertiser’s intentions that were called into question and how they use competitor’s names within their messaging. As long as an ad is not misleading or misrepresenting your competitor, then the ad is legal. Google, Yahoo, MSN and every other search engine have established their own regulations in order to mitigate any association with contributory infringement. This is where comparison marketing comes into play.
Also, let us make the distinction between bidding on a competitor’s name and using their logo. Using a competitor’s logo for any purpose is strictly prohibited. Unless you have written permission to use a company’s logo or symbol, don’t do it.
If you are going to bid on a competitor’s brand terms, then your intentions can not be malicious or misleading. In fact, if you are going to target these terms you need to make sure that your intentions are pure and that you make this crystal clear to the search engines. The only strategy we use when bidding on these kinds of keywords is to make direct comparisons between the searched-for brand and what our client has to offer. Most searchers are looking for the best service, product, and price. If we know that our offering presents an alternative, then we’ll call a searcher’s attention to our ad and let them decide who addresses their needs best.
We believe in playing fair and generating great results, and hopefully you do as well. If you are going to utilize this strategy, make sure that you follow these steps:
* Bid low on competitors’ names. As stated earlier, six out of seven users have a clear idea of they what are looking for when searching a specific brand name. Your ad should serve as an alternative to the user’s query, and so you shouldn’t bid aggressively, otherwise your ROI will suffer.
* Write relevant, targeted ad text. Yes, you can bid on competitor’s names but take caution when using it in your ad text. I would highlight the service/product that a user maybe searching for, as opposed to using the your competitor’s name within the ad. Remember, each search engine wants to deliver a quality user experience, and in doing so they want to make sure that users are served the best possible results for their query. Relevancy is their core concern, so it should be yours as well.
* Directly compare your services/products to your competition on your landing page. Using a competitor’s name in your ad text could get your ad rejected, but you need to mention your competitor on your landing page, otherwise your quality score will suffer. Making a direct comparison to your competitor, and using branded keywords (yours and theirs) in the process, will let the search engines know that your intentions are not malicious.
Bidding on your competitor’s branded terms can be a successful way to draw qualified traffic to your site and generate additional conversions. However, be sure that you adhere to the established laws and editorial guidelines, otherwise you will have wasted your time and negatively affected your quality score with poorly chosen and executed keywords. Remember, with this strategy you are seeking that one-in-seven user who is looking for what you have to offer, they just may not know they want it from you - just yet.
source: ppchero.com
