A keyword list is a great local business marketing strategy but can grow to mammoth proportions before you know it and then you’re left staring at a bunch of words, wondering which ones will provide the biggest return for you if and when you use them for your online marketing campaign.
Some marketers use what’s called KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) to figure this out. It was originally created by Sumantra Roy and it’s fairly easy to use for your own online marketing campaigns.
First, you have to brainstorm all of the words and phrases that are relevant to your website’s products or services. KEI generally takes long-tail keywords into effect since the competition for broad keywords is too great.
KEI examines the number of searches for a keyword phrase against the number of search results. The tools that find your KEI for you will spit out a ranking for that keyword phrase and the higher the KEI, the better your chances of ranking higher in the search engines for it.
Some people rely heavily on KEI as their local business strategy but you have to use some human common sense, too. This is because KEI doesn’t take into consideration what type of quality those competitor sites have in regards to content. There may be many competitors with low SEO strategies in place, or only a handful of competitors but those who happen to have massive pulling potential in the SERPs.
The common sense comes into play when you start evaluating the keywords and phrases on your list against the motivation of your reader. For instance, a keyword phrase with the word “free” in it might return high KEI statistical data, but you know that because it’s someone searching for a freebie, the likelihood of them whipping out their wallets and paying for your products or services is diminished.
You’ll want to use keywords with qualifiers in them as a great local business marketing strategy. For example, instead of using the keyword phrase, “Internet marketing guide,” you might get a more targeted buyer if you add certain words in it, such as “buy Internet marketing guide,” or “best Internet marketing guide.”
Typically, long-tail keywords with modifiers added to the mix will help you rank higher and make more money with the content than if you try to dominate early on using broad keywords that don’t tell you much about why your visitor is using the phrase.
You can also take the tedious route and do various campaigns by cloaking your links using different keyword phrases and seeing which ones get the best results in clickthroughs and sales. Just make sure you don’t start randomly using keyword phrases because you want to focus your efforts on those that will help you profit.
David Carleton is a San Diego Local Business Marketing Consultant who specializes in showing small business owners how to spend less and get more from their marketing and advertising using low cost strategies in local business marketing, lead generation and conversion, Internet marketing and social media. To download a copy of the free report, “7 Steps to Website Success”, go to http://LocalBusinessMarketingSuccess.com
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Topic: Local Business Marketing Strategy
