If you want traffic directed to your site, then utilizing keywords in your marketing practices is an essential operation. And when we talk about traffic, we mean the right kind of traffic, which means relevant traffic that is more likely to convert. We have all heard about the importance of SEO and inserting the right keywords, but how do digital marketers actually achieve this? Here’s how:
Put yourself in the place of the potential customer
First and foremost, put yourself in the shoes of your potential customers. What words would you use in a search engine to find your product and service? This starts from the point of actually understanding what people are looking for. Do they want help with something, do they need to buy something? Think about the behavior that your potential customer will display, and to do that, you must be that customer.
Don’t edit your initial list of keywords yourself
Write down every word that you think is related to what you are offering and that you believe potential customers will enter (this is known as your seed list). And don’t limit this to just one or two-word keywords either. Remember that you may be trying to corner a niche in the market, and that means longer phrases can be identified as keywords too – this really qualifies your traffic like nothing else.
“Never edit your list of keywords yourself. This is done only after you have used them and then the analytical software gives you the information upon which you can act. This will tell you which keywords to lose, and which to add to your existing bank,” suggests Fearne Treacy, a marketing manager at Boomessays and Academized.
Use third-party tools to assist
Search engines such as Google provide paid-for tools which can help assist in building your portfolio of keywords. Of course these are useful practices, but alone they are not enough, and can be expensive too. Once more, analyzing existing campaigns and adapting accordingly in the most precise way of understanding what your keyword actually are, but utilizing third-party tools can assist in adding additional words that may originally have been outside your scope.
Think about branding
In the marketing space, branding is very important. Think carefully about the one phrase that best defines your product or service, and utilize this in your marketing approaches and obviously make it integral to keyword searches. And this is where your PR professionals also become vital to the activity. More of which later.
Use your keywords on social media too
People search for products and services within the (vast) confines of social media channels, so if you haven’t optimized your social media sites, then you are missing a trick. Populate bios and status updates for maximum optimization.
How public relations pros can use keywords
Keywords are vital to PR professionals too. In fact, PR and SEO are increasingly inhabiting a shared space and it is therefore imperative that PR professionals develop their understanding of this marketing tool. The link between PR and linked content has become important and well-documented as it has the potential to be reached by a bigger audience of potential customers. “But this involves keywords too, as if PR professionals understand very well the way to put together newsworthy content which promotes the brand in a strong light, then SEO and marketing professionals have the knowledge of keywords which will bring qualified traffic back through to the website or wherever it is that you wish to direct this traffic” states Cindy Freund, a digital marketer at Revieweal and Stateofwriting.
Of course these two activities should go hand in hand, so creating a synergy between these two practices – and this means collaborative working practices or, at the very least, effective communication – then your business is truly maximizing its potential reach through these activities.
And it’s common sense too. Lead generation and search practices have obviously dramatically increased in importance, so the field of PR has had to adapt. PR of course ow includes paid search and social media channels, and many PR firms also utilize analytics too. Creating synergy between these two departments is now essential to effective marketing and PR practices.