electrifying your online marketing message by christine churchill

#SMX #11D @ChrisChurchillCopyright 2017 KeyRelevance

Electrifying Your Online Marketing Message

Keyword Research & SEO Copywriting


• President & CEO of KeyRelevance, LLC

• Member of Founding Board of Directors of Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO)

• Member of the Founding Board of Directors of the Dallas/Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Organization (DFWSEM)

• Author at Search Engine Land & Web Marketing Today

• Longtime Speaker & Instructor at Search Marketing Expo (SMX), Search Engine Strategies, PubCon, and other conferences

• Masters degree and over 17 years online marketing experience

Speaker: Christine Churchill

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What We Will Cover§ Keyword Research Defined§ How & Why Do KW Research

§ The Evolution of Keywords§ Keyword Tools

§ Content Optimization Best Practices§ Online Copywriting Tips

§ Q&A

Our Path Today

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Keyword Research Defined

Keyword Research is the process of researching to identify the keyword terms customers use to find your products and services

- Fundamental step to all online marketing

- Keyword Research is an integral part of successful content marketing

Keyword Research helps you get inside the mind of customers

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People use search engines to find you on the web

Engines use text to categorize pagesResearch unveils terms people actually useKW Research improves performance of online marketing

Why Do Keyword Research?

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How to Do Keyword Research

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Keyword Research is an Iterative Process

Brainstorming &

Discovery

KeywordExpansion

KeywordEvaluation

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Keyword Brainstorming and Discovery Phase

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Create Keyword List Using Diverse Sources

Brainstorming session – no judging words at this stage. Goal is to cast your net widely and generate broad list.

Keyword lists from within company

§ Review company web site and print collateral

§ Press Releases

§ Often too much insider jargon

§ May or may not be customer’s lingo

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Learn the Lingo of the Customer

§ Customer interviews, surveys and focus groups

§ Company & Product Reviews

§ Talk to support or sales personnel who talk directly to customers

§ Review discussion forums, user generated content, blogs, social media

The best keywords come straight from the customer’s mouth.


Speak the Language of CustomerIncrease conversion by speaking the

customer’s language

Correct bad keyword choicesMissing trafficMissing sales

Discover new keyword opportunities- Find overlooked or new keywords- Take advantage of longer tail phrases

“Duplicate a CD” vs “Burn a DVD”

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The Long Tail Finding New Opportunities

Based on frequency graph§ Popular “head” phrases on left – highly

competitive and expensive. Less popular “tail” phrases on right – lower volume

Chris Anderson wrote book about it§ Describes it as new economic model

§ Unlimited selection – Amazon books, iTunes

§ Idea is that non-hits can make money based on sheer volume

“20 to 25% of the queries that Google sees today have never been seen before.” – Udi Manber, Google VP of Engineering

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Review Competitors

§ Not with the intent to copy, but to gain insight

§ Look at words they are buying in PPC & targeting in SEO

§ Review their web site and collateral for keywords & related terms

§ Get competitive insights and ideas on overlooked terms and where they are putting emphasis

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Use Site Search Data

Site Search Box

• Reveals keywords and expressions that visitors are actually using / wanting

• Acts as a direct feed from the visitors brain

• Make sure you collect site search data – can tie it to your analytics for easy viewing

Downside is data is limited and site search is usually a fall back when users can’t find what they are looking for on your site.

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Developments That Changed Keyword Research

Google Knowledge Graph

Hummingbird Algorithm

RankBrain

Not Provided Keywords

Other Recent Algorithm Changes

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Knowledge Graph

“The Knowledge Graph enables you to search for things, people or places that Google knows about—landmarks, celebrities, cities, sports teams, buildings, geographical features, movies, celestial objects, works of art and more—and instantly get information that’s relevant to your query. “

Source: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/introducing-knowledge-graph-things-not.html


How the Knowledge Graph Changed SearchCritical first step towards building the next

generation of search

• Taps into the collective intelligence of the web and understands the world a bit more like people do

• A step toward artificial intelligence

Google now has a database on entities and understands relationships between different entities

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What is Hummingbird Algorithm?

According to Google the algorithm (announced Sept 2013) delivers better results that are "precise and fast" - like a hummingbird.

It’s Google trying to figure out user intent and improve conversational search.

Google wants to match the meaning, rather than pages matching just a few words.


Do We Still Need to Worry About Keywords?Hummingbird is an overhaul of Google’s

algorithm, but many of the old parts are still used.

Google’s semantic analysis considers the language in your content

- so you still need to use keywords and related phrases on the page to communicate to users and Google what the page is about

- means on-page optimization is still beneficial


What is RankBrain & Why Do You Care?RankBrain = Google’s name for a machine-learning artificial intelligence system that’s used to help process its search results

Machine learning = where a computer teaches itself how to do something, rather than being taught by humans or following detailed programming.

Third most important ranking factor after links & content

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Tips on Surviving Post Recent Changes

Create high quality longer content that establishes your site as the place to go for answers

Develop ways to increase the authority of the site

Become a leader in your verticalShow leadership thru social media, links, user metrics, online relationships

Google has made it harder for “fake” authority to win. Going forward you have to earn your position.


The New Approach To Keyword ResearchFocus on the user intent behind the search term

- Try to develop content that delivers answers to what the searcher wants

Stop focusing on exact match phrases - Look more to long tail and related phrases - Build a vocabulary of terms that are related to the

phrase

When doing KW research now, research core phrases plus related, synonyms, and words that frequently occur with your main terms (co-occurrence)

Google’s move toward Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) and recent Google Patents dealing with re-ranking of results suggest that using synonyms and co-occurrence terms has benefits


Keyword Research Tools

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Benefits of Keyword Tools• Saves money and time• Provides insight outside of your site• Identifies keyword opportunities you

might miss• Offers popularity numbers you

can’t get from your own analytics• Moves you beyond keyword

assumptions • Allows you to compare phrases

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Free• Google Keyword Planner Tool• Google Webmaster Tools

• Google Trends

• Google Display Planner

• Google Instant

• Google Related Searches

• Bing Keyword Tool

• Bing Intelligence Tool

• Bing Webmaster Tools

• AnswerThePublic

• Amazon Suggests

• MetaGlossary

Keyword Research Tools Fee Based

• MOZ Keyword Explorer

• WordTracker

• Searchmetrics

• Hitwise

• WordStream

• SEMRush

• ComScore

• SpyFu

• Long Tail Pro

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Google Keyword PlannerOriented for Paid Search

Must be Logged Into AdWords to Use

Provides keyword ideas & monthly search volumes


Google TrendsGoogle Trends provides trends from web searches, images, news, shopping and YouTube

Shows seasonality of phrases

Can compare popularity of phrases

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Google Search Console (aka Webmaster Tools)shows actual search queries

Shows up to 2000 top queries for the last 90 days

Not affected by the Not Provided – this is limited but actual keyword data

Provides Impression, Clicks, and CTR, but no conversion data


Google Display Planner

Free Adwords tool

Built for display advertising in paid search but can give insights on keywords

Suggests related keywords

Gives demographic information on keywords


Adwords Search Term ReportGreat for keyword discovery, but have to be running PPC

Query People Actually Typed

Shows you how customers are finding your ad. With the Search terms report, you can see the actual searches people entered on Google Search and other Search Network sites that triggered your ad and led to a click.

Identifies new search terms with high potential so you can add them to your keyword list. Allows you to look for search terms that aren't as relevant to your business, so you can add them as negative keywords.


Google Related Searches


Bing Keyword Tool

- Shows actual queries numbers (not rounded)- Has 6 months of data- Drill down by Country


WordTracker.com

Data pulled from meta search engines

Eliminates most skewing issues caused by robots

Differentiates between singular & plural

Offer Free Tool for trial

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Wordstreamhttp://www.wordstream.com/keywords

Useful for developing your vocabulary of related terms for Hummingbird


Moz Keyword ExplorerNew Tool from Moz

Keyword suggestions come from Keyword Planner data, Google Suggest, Related Searches, other keywords that the ranking pages also ranked for, topic-modeling ideas, and keywords found from clickstream data


Inside Moz’s Keyword Explorer


Google InstantShows suggestions as you type


Google Instant – Shopping SearchDifferent set of keywords on Shopping search from regular web search


Soovle.comGives suggestions from different perspectives

Provides suggestions from GoogleWikipediaAnswersYouTubeBingYahooAmazon

Plus option for 15 other sites

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YouTube Keyword Auto SuggestionsShows popular video search queries

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Amazon Suggests


MetaGlossary

Provides a definition and related terms


AnswerThePublic.com Fun keyword tool that gives you lists of questions and phrases

Excellent for giving content ideas or thoughts to flesh out an article


Related Searches


A couple of things to remember…No one tool has all the answers

Don’t just extract keywords from a tool and run with them…review them for relevancy

You need several tools in your toolbox

Combining the tools synergistically works well.Some tools are better for certain functions. For instance, Google Instant is used for discovering new keyword phrases and Google Trends is good for comparing or identifying cycles


Keyword Expansion Phase

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Target Variations of Your KeywordsComparison (best, compare, reviews)

Price (cheap, discount)Product Description (green, plus size, unique)Intended use (gift for mother, baptism gown)

Product (gift basket, mortgage, flight)Location

Action (apply, book, find, buy)Season (holiday, Christmas, Halloween)Abbreviations

Brand / vendor / manufacturer

Modifiers are great at helping you expand your keyword list, but remember to keep “user intent” in mind when you combine the modifier to the core term!

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Keyword Permutations

Mix and match terms to create new keyword phrases

Many tools that do this for you

Can use concatenate function in Excel or specific tool

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Using Excel to Expand KW List

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Group related keywords into lists of related terms

Remember to identify terms that frequently occur with your main terms

Develop a keyword matrix

Do a series of keyword research projects on a site, not just one

Keyword “Buckets”

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Evaluating Keywords

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KW Selection Considerations

• Relevancy to Site• Keyword Popularity• User Intent • Competition• Performance

Always test your keywords.

Keywords can sounds like a good idea, but upon testing, they can fail miserably.


Relevancy Considerations

Relevancy means choosing the keywords that best describes what the site offers

Traffic alone isn’t the goal, you want targeted traffic that is searching for what you sell

Best bet: Find words that resonate with your target audience and are descriptive of your site


Popularity ConsiderationsPopularity gives insight on traffic

potential

Popular phrases Less relevantMore competitiveBeing popular Is overrated

Less PopularMore FocusedLess Traffic

Consider seasonality and cyclical popularity of phrases

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Consider User IntentGetting inside the searcher’s head

Understand the “why” behind the motivation for the search and you can better target how to respond

§ Research vs Purchase

§ Stage in buying process

§ Audience Demographic

Buying vs Browsing

“car reviews”“fast auto financing”

“80% of all searches on the Web are non-commercial” - Jim Lanzone of Ask.com

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Evaluating by the Stage in Buying Process

Keywords indicate where consumer is in the Buying Process

Match your content to satisfy the user’s intent when using the keyword

ProblemRecognition

InformationSearch

EvaluationofAlternatives

PurchaseDecision

Adapted From: Marketing Management by Philip Kotler

Select Alternatives

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Searcher BehaviorThree types of searches:

• Navigational

- I just want to be at your web site.

• Informational

-Do hybrid cars require special maintenance?

•Transactional

-Interactive, purchase, subscribe, download

-I want financing to buy a hybrid car.

Adapted From: A Taxonomy of Web Search by Andrei Broder

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Results Pages Give Insight into What Google Thinks the Searcher Wants

Type the proposed query into a Search Engine

Look at the kinds of sites and files returned- PDFs, white papers, in-depth articles – likely informational query- Ecommerce sites – transactional

- Brand site – navigational- Are Knowledge Graph Answer boxes returned?

- Are local results or shopping ads returned?Looking at the results can help you interpret what Google thinks the user wantsDo this on both desktop and mobile

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25% of searches in Bing are Voice


Evaluating KW By CompetitionWho Are Your Competitors?

Who is ranking for your main keyword terms?

Who has PPC ads?How well optimized are

competitors sites?Are they active on social media

and review sites?What is their link profile?

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Competitive Intelligence ToolsSEMRush

SimilarWeb

HitwiseComScore

MarketerQuantcastMoatMoz Tools

SpyFuSearchMetricsKeyCompeteCompeteKeywordSpyAdGooRooKeyword AnalyzerScreamingFrogDeepCrawl

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SEMRush

Provides:• Top Keywords• Rankings• PPC Terms• PPC Bids• Traffic Trends

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SearchmetricsCan Identify Co-Occurrence Terms, Competitors Terms, etc


MOZ Keyword Difficulty

Provides quantitativescore of kwd plus linkagedata for ranking sites


SPYFu


SimilarWeb

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DeepCrawl

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ScreamingFrog

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Test KW PerformanceUse PPC to test candidate KWs

Do keywords bring the amount of traffic you want?

Does the traffic convert?

PPC gives quick quantitative feedback on the KW performance while controlling costs. If works well in PPC, expand kw use in SEO, social and content marketing

Downside: Terms that work well in PPC are often transactional. You may have to expand your list to include informational terms


Content Optimization - Best Practices

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Everything Is Better with Chocolate Keywords• Web sites• Paid search• Articles• White Papers• FAQ pages• Product Feeds• News• Blog Posts• Press Releases• Images• Videos• Podcasts• Schema• Social Media• Content Marketing

Optimize all digital assets

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Good Online Copywriting Is a Balancing Act

You have to write to engage the human reader

You have to write so search engines understand relevancy of content

It is this talent for doing both that separates high quality SEO content from spam

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On-Page SEO Guidelines

Has to be NATURAL

Elegantly work keywords into visible content on web pages- Don’t stuff keywords - Do the “Read Aloud” test to gauge natural tone

SEO helps good content get found

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On-Page SEO Guidelines (cont)

Think keyword phrase NOT single keyword

Create a matrix chart to assign different main phrases to different pages

Use synonyms and related words on page to reinforce main topic

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Where to Use Keywords On Site

Title Tags

Meta Description H TagsVisible text on the page

Alt AttributeLinks and anchor text

File namesURLSchema code

Bold, strong, emphasized tagsBreadcrumb Navigation

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Title Tags<title>Interesting Relevant Keyword Rich Blurb</title>

Title contents appears in first line of listing on SERP so spend extra time to create compelling titles that grab attention

Include keyword phrase early in title

Should be unique…don’t use same title on multiple pages

Title should be accurate and reflect content of page

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Title Tag is most important “on-page”

criteria


Example of Wordpress Title Tag Using Yoast Plugin

27% Of All Sites use Wordpress in 2017. Each day50,000 new Wordpresssites are launched.

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Meta Description Tag

<meta name="Description" content=“Compelling marketing message that reads well and contains targeted keywords">

Should provide a summary of the page and should be unique to the page

Frequently used as snippet on results page

Should contain keywords relevant to the page. Include synonyms and related words – don’t just repeat core terms

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Feed the Knowledge GraphExplicit method

- Schema- Tables

Implicit method- On-page Text

Adds confidence in data for Google

Schema is helpful as a template to build out quality content

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Golden Rules for Writing CopyTalk about benefits, not features

-Tell them why they should care

Appeal to emotions and senses

- most buying decisions are emotionally based

Solve problems and answer questions in your content

Don’t forget to include a “Call to Action”

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Develop Shareable ContentStart with relevant interesting content

Place sharing social share icons in susceptible moments – Make it easy to share

The Title can make or break your content so take extra time to create a compelling headline

Use a subheading to further entice reader

Include social media sharing and keywords in editorial calendar planning

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Editorial Calendars Take Content to Next Level• Allows you to think strategically• Proactive planning and faster reaction• Pre-publish content• Coordination across media outlets, blog, PPC, articles, SEO, graphics, videos, social media

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Good User Experience Increases Share-ability

Include visually stimulating graphics

- Good graphic draws reader in

- Faces & bright colors attract the eyes

“Chunk up” the content layout to be more scan friendly

- Use headers, subheadings & bullet lists to add hierarchy

- White space is your friend

- Keep paragraphs short

Avoid “noise” and distracting items on page

Don’t forget Google tracks user behavior

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Use Social Media to Share Content68% of US adults use social networking sites (Pew, 2016)

79% of internet users use FacebookThat’s eight-in-ten online Americans now use Facebook, more than double the share that uses Twitter (24%), Pinterest (31%), Instagram (32%) or LinkedIn (29%). (Pew, 2016)

Consider your target audience demographic and match it with social media site they use

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Getting Your Great Content Found OnlineMix in synonyms, long tail terms and variations

Replace duplicate content with original writing and use canonicals

Clean up the site - Remove low quality pages, write longer deeper content

Link to related useful content

Be professional - run link checkers, spell checkers and avoid foul words

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Points to Take Home

1. Keyword research Isn’t dead – helps identify user intent

2. Exact match keyword targeting is dead3. Use keyword phrases, synonyms and related terms on the page, in

schema code and in all digital assets

4. Use tools to increase productivity & provide insights5. Test keywords for true worth. View popularity as traffic potential and

consider seasonality and trends6. Write to enhance the user experience - Compose quality content that

satisfies user intent and answers questions

7. Develop an editorial calendar and use it to maximize content’s potential8. Make content easy to read & share

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Thank You!

Christine [email protected]

@KeyRelevance@ChrisChurchill

Questions?

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