keyword research and online copywriting: a new perspective by christine churchill

Keyword Research And

Online Copywriting: A New Perspective

Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 1

SMX East Christine Churchill

President, KeyRelevance @KeyRelevance @ChrisChurchill

@ChrisChurchill

•  President of KeyRelevance, LLC •  Member of Founding Board of Directors of

Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO)

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

•  Author at Search Engine Land & Web Marketing Today

•  Longtime Speaker & Instructor, Search Engine Strategies, PubCon, and Search Marketing Expo Conferences

•  Masters degree and over 15 years online marketing experience

Speaker: Christine Churchill

Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC


Keywords = Dead

SEO = Dead (but some of the rules have changed and

we have to be better MARKETERS!)

@ChrisChurchill

@ChrisChurchill

•  Keyword Research – What is it? Why do it?

•  Knowledge Graph •  Hummingbird Algorithm •  How to do KW Research •  Keyword Tools •  How to use Keywords to

Optimize Content •  Online Copywriting Tips

What We’ll Cover


@ChrisChurchill

Keyword Research

Fundamental step to all search marketing

Keyword Research is the

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

Keyword Research helps you

get inside the mind of customers


@ChrisChurchill

•  People use search engines to find you on the web •  Engines use text to categorize pages •  Research unveils terms people actually use •  KW Research improves performance of online

marketing

Why Do Keyword Research?


@ChrisChurchill

Who Benefits from Keyword Research? •  Everyone in publishing •  Marketing staff and Search Marketers – both paid and organic •  PR – Better pickup if use keywords in articles & in press releases •  Content writers

–  a way to keep content fresh and relevant –  Inspires topics readers are interested in

•  Your targeted audience –  By using the phrases readers are using in search, your audience

can find your great content •  Your Company – targeting the phrases people actually use brings

motivated customers to your site which improves conversions and user experience

Knowing the best words to target helps you plan your content marketing strategy


Knowledge Graph


Announced in May 2012 “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

@ChrisChurchill

How the Knowledge Graph Changed Search

•  Critical 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


@ChrisChurchill

Sources of the Graph

•  Google’s Knowledge Graph –  contains more than 500

million objects, as well as more than 3.5 billion facts about and relationships between these different objects

–  Sources include Freebase, Wikipedia and the CIA World Factbook.


Important


The launch of the Knowledge Graph and Google’s Hummingbird Algorithm changed forever how we do keyword research and online copywriting.

What is Hummingbird?


Hummingbird is the name of the search algorithm that Google announced in Sept 2013. According to Google the new algo 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. Hummingbird is paying more attention to each word in a query, ensuring that the whole query — the whole sentence or conversation or meaning — is taken into account, rather than a few exact terms.

@ChrisChurchill

Do We Still Need to Worry About Keywords?


Yes, for several reasons: Keep in mind that although Hummingbird is an overhaul of Google’s algorithm, 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 some on-page optimization still is needed

Exact phrase matching for SEO is a thing of the past.

@ChrisChurchill

Tips on Surviving Online After Hummingbird and the Knowledge Graph


Marketers now need to: -  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 vertical

-  Consider multiple ways to show leadership: 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.

@ChrisChurchill

How KW Research Changed


The New Approach: •  Focus on the intent behind the search term

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

•  Stop focusing on exact match phrases

Ø  Look more to long tail and related phrases. Ø  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)

@ChrisChurchill


New Ways to Do Keyword Research

@ChrisChurchill

Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 17 17

Keyword Research is an Iterative Process

Brainstorming &

Discovery

Keyword Expansion

Keyword Evaluation

@ChrisChurchill

@ChrisChurchill Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 18

Keyword Brainstorming and Discovery Phase


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

@ChrisChurchill


Learn the Lingo of the Customer

–  Customer interviews

–  Customer Surveys and Focus Groups

–  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.

@ChrisChurchill

@ChrisChurchill 21

Speak the Language of Customer

Increase conversion by speaking the customer’s language

Correct bad keyword choices

–  Missing traffic –  Missing sales

Discover new keyword

opportunities - Find overlooked or new keywords

- Take advantage of longer tail phrases

“Duplicate a CD” vs “Burn a CD”


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The Long Tail Finding New Opportunities

•  Based on frequency graph

•  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

•  Popular phrases on left – highly

competitive and expensive. Less popular on right – lower volume

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

Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC @ChrisChurchill

@ChrisChurchill

Example Head-Tail Keywords

Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 23 Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Camera, digital camera, Sony

Nikon D7000 digital SLR camera

compare digital cameras

buy digital slr camera


Create Keyword List Using Diverse Sources

•  Online and Traditional Print Magazines

•  Company and Product Reviews

•  Online Thesaurus

•  Search in Google with tilde ~ for synonyms

@ChrisChurchill


Create Keyword List Using Diverse Sources (cont)

Competitors –  Review their web site and collateral for keywords

–  Look at words they are buying in PPC

–  What terms are they –  targeting in SEO

–  Can give you competitive insights and ideas on overlooked terms

@ChrisChurchill


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.

@ChrisChurchill


Site Search

@ChrisChurchill

Keyword Research

Tools


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

29 Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC @ChrisChurchill

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Keyword Research Tools Free •  Google Keyword Planner Tool •  Google Webmaster Tools •  Google Trends •  Google Display Planner •  Google Instant •  Bing Keyword Tool •  Bing Ads Intelligence Excel Plug-In Fee Based •  WordTracker •  Searchmetrics •  Trellian Keyword Discovery •  Hitwise •  WordStream •  SEMRush •  ComScore •  SpyFu •  Keyword Studio


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.

New Google Keyword Planner


- Combines old Google Keyword Tool and Traffic Estimator Tool -  Oriented for Paid Search

-  Must be Logged Into AdWords to Use

-  No device filtering (no mobile vs desktop filtering)

-  Numbers shown are average search volume numbers for ALL devices (old tool defaulted to desktop) so numbers may look higher

@ChrisChurchill

Google Trends


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

@ChrisChurchill

Google Hot Trends

Copyright 2014KeyRelevance LLC 34 @ChrisChurchill

Google Webmaster Tools shows top search queries


Sort by Clicks to see the terms that actually

brought the most traffic to the site

If you click on the query,

it shows which pages appear for the term

Using Filters can separate brand/non-brand and core

terms, plus sources from web, image, mobile, & video

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

@ChrisChurchill

@ChrisChurchill

GWT KW Data

Advantages: –  Shows KW, impressions, and click data –  Impressions w/out clicks might indicate a Title/Meta

Description/Snippet issue Disadvantages:

–  Cannot break out data by other segments (KW leading to conversions, for example) so data is not highly actionable

–  Mapping KW to landing page is tedious 1-at-a-time process – not useful for large scale KW analysis

–  Requires you to download reports regularly since GWT data expires in 90 days


Google Display Planner (replaced Contextual Targeting Tool, Placement Tool, and the Google Ad Planner)

Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 37 @ChrisChurchill

Adwords Search Term Report Great for new 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.

@ChrisChurchill

Keywords Versus Search Term

•  A search term is the exact word or set of words a customer enters when searching on Google.com or one of our Search Network sites. (Search Term is the query people type in at a search engine.)

•  A keyword is the word or set of words AdWords advertisers create for a given ad group to target your ads to customers.


Search Term Report Doesn’t Show All Terms


That’s a lot of terms Google doesn’t show!

Bing Keyword Tool


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

@ChrisChurchill

Bing’s Ad Intelligence


•  Plug-in with Excel

•  Data source Live.com and adCenter

•  Provides related keywords

•  Extracts keywords from a URL

•  Gives insights on seasonal “spiky” keywords

•  Shows geographic and demographic info on keywords

@ChrisChurchill


Keyword Discovery Suite of Tools Includes Keyword Density Tool

@ChrisChurchill

WordTracker.com

•  Data pulled from meta search engines •  Eliminates most skewing issues caused by robots •  Differentiates between singular & plural •  Offer Free Tool for trial


Wordstream http://www.wordstream.com/keywords


/

Useful for developing your vocabulary of related terms for Hummingbird

@ChrisChurchill

Google Instant


Shows suggestions as you type

@ChrisChurchill

Google Instant – Shopping Search


Different set of keywords on

Shopping search from regular web

search

@ChrisChurchill

@ChrisChurchill

Soovle.com Gives suggestions from different perspectives


Provides suggestions from Google Wikipedia Answers YouTube Bing Yahoo Amazon Plus option for15 other sites

Ubersuggest http://ubersuggest.org/


YouTube Keyword Suggestions


YouTube Keyword Tool


Twitter Search Provides real time search results and trending topics


Tag Clouds helps identify related terms


Searchmetrics Can Identify Co-Occurrence Terms, Competitors Terms, etc


Keyword Expansion Phase


@ChrisChurchill

Target Variations of Your Keywords

•  Comparison (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!


Keyword Permutations

•  Number of keyword permutation tools –  Tools that allow you to mix and match terms to

create new keyword phrases •  Enter keyword terms, and modifiers •  Combines variations of phrases •  Can use concatenate function in Excel or

specific tool

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Using Excel to Expand KW List


@ChrisChurchill

•  Group related keywords into lists of related terms

•  Remember to identify terms that frequently occur with your main terms

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

•  Develop a keyword matrix

Keyword “Buckets”


@ChrisChurchill 60

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.

@ChrisChurchill


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

@ChrisChurchill

Popularity Considerations •  Popularity gives insight on

traffic potential

•  Being popular Is overrated

•  Popular phrases –  Less relevant –  More competitive –  Examples: “cars” or “homes”

•  Less Popular –  More Focused –  Satisfies Need of Searcher –  Higher Conversion –  Less Traffic


Popularity Considerations (cont)

•  Consider seasonality and cyclical popularity of phrases

•  Identify trend lines •  Many phrases lost or

increased popularity in recession


Seasonal trends of term “air conditioner”

@ChrisChurchill


Consider User Intent Getting 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


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

Problem Recognition

Information Search

Evaluation of

Alternatives

Purchase Decision

Adapted From: Marketing Management by Philip Kotler

Select Alternatives

Searcher Behavior

Three 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


Evaluating KW By Competition Who Are Your Competitors?

•  Who is ranking for your keyword terms? •  Who has PPC ads?



Evaluating KW By Competition

To compete, you need Search Term Parity You need to see how active the competitors are

within the same marketing environment - What keywords are they targeting? - How optimized are their sites? - Are they doing PPC? How much are the bids? - What’s their linkage situation?

@ChrisChurchill


Competitive Intelligence Tools •  Hitwise •  ComScore Marketer •  Trellian’s Competitive Intelligence •  Keyword Difficulty Tool •  SpyFu •  SearchMetrics •  KeyCompete •  Compete •  SemRush •  KeywordSpy •  AdGooRoo •  Keyword Analyzer

@ChrisChurchill


SEMRush

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

@ChrisChurchill

SEOMOZ Keyword Difficulty


Relative yardstick

of difficulty

@ChrisChurchill


Performance Considerations

•  Use PPC to test candidate KWs

•  Gives quick

quantitative feedback on the KW performance while controlling costs

Test Keyword Performance Early

@ChrisChurchill

Content Optimization

Putting the Pieces Together


Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 75 75

Everything Is Better with Chocolate

Image: Graeme Weatherston / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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

@ChrisChurchill

@ChrisChurchill

Good Online Copywriting Is a Balancing Act

•  You have to write to engage 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


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

Image: winnond / FreeDigitalPhotos.net


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On-Page SEO Guidelines (cont) Think keyword phrase NOT

single keyword Create a matrix chart to

assign different phrases to different pages - Divide and conquer

Use synonyms and related

words on page to reinforce main topic


@ChrisChurchill

Feed the Knowledge Graph

•  On-page Text – implicit method

•  Schema code and other structured data – explicit method


@ChrisChurchill

New Rules for Online Copywriting

•  Mix in more synonyms, long tail terms and variations •  Use author markup to get advantage of author rank •  Encourage social media interaction, especially G+ •  Clean up the site

–  Remove low quality pages, write longer deeper content –  Replace duplicate content with original writing and canonicals

•  Write for the target audience –  Know their motivation and preferences

•  Practice scan friendly layouts – bullet points, headers, appropriate bolding

•  Highlight benefits, not features •  Don’t forget to include a Call to Action!


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•  On-Page Keyword Usage •  A Quick Primer

@ChrisChurchill

Where to use keywords Title Tags Meta Description Meta Keywords H Tags Visible portion of page Alt Attribute Links and anchor text File names URL Schema code Bold, strong, emphasized tags Breadcrumb Navigation


@ChrisChurchill

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

•  Most important “on-page” tag •  Title contents appears in first line of listing on SERP •  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


@ChrisChurchill

Meta Description Tag <meta name="Description" content=“Compelling marketing

message that reads well and contains targeted keywords">

•  Should provide a summary of the page •  Frequently used as snippet on results page •  Should contain keywords relevant to the page •  Should be unique to the page •  Include synonyms and related words – don’t just repeat

core terms


@ChrisChurchill

Structured Data

•  Google loves structured data –  Schema –  Tables

•  Adds confidence in data for Google •  Helpful as a template to build out quality

content •  Google using structured data in snippets on

search results pages


@ChrisChurchill

Home Page SEO

•  Usually your strongest page •  Target most competitive

relevant keyword phrase •  Depending on strength of

your site and the competition, target 2-3 keyword phrases

•  Don’t try to cover EVERY KEYWORD related to what your company does


@ChrisChurchill

Internal Page SEO

•  Divide and conquer: Assign KW phrases to different pages on site

•  Focus, focus, focus: Make that page ALL ABOUT the keywords you’re targeting

•  Use related terms and synonyms

on the page to reinforce what the page is about

•  Balance: resist temptation to stuff

Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 87 Image: winnond / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

@ChrisChurchill

Golden Rules for Writing Copy

Talk about benefits, not features

- You have to tell them why they should care

Appeal to emotions and senses….most buying decisions are emotionally based Copyright 2014 KeyRelevance LLC 88

@ChrisChurchill

Make Content Easy to Read

•  “Chunk up” the content – Use headers, subheadings & bullet lists to add

hierarchy – White space is your friend – Keep paragraphs short

•  Avoid “noise” and distracting items on page •  Include visually attractive graphics

– Faces & bright colors attract the eyes •  Make it easy to share!


@ChrisChurchill

Points to Take Home 1.  Keyword Research never ends 2.  Assemble list of keyword phrases and related terms from

a variety of sources 3.  Use tools to increase productivity & provide insights 4.  Don’t use keyword popularity as sole evaluation criteria 5.  Look at popularity as traffic potential and consider

seasonality and trends 6.  Use keywords in all digital assets 7.  Write to enhance the user experience 8.  Compose quality content that satisfies user intent 9.  Use keywords and related terms on the page & in

schema code 10. Make content easy to share



Thank You!

Christine Churchill www.keyrelevance.com [email protected]

@KeyRelevance @ChrisChurchill

@ChrisChurchill

keyword research and online copywriting: a new perspective by christine churchill

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