What exactly is a keyword in terms that the average Internet user will understand? What does a keyword or keyword phrase have to do with your copy? And what exactly is a keyword queue? Keywords are the words that Internet users enter into search engines to locate a specific website, product or service. For example, if someone wants to improve their grilling skills, they can write grill cooking, or grill cooking, or grill cooking, gas grill cooking recipes, or even grill cooking. That’s the challenge, figuring out what words people will type into the search engine. Take a look at the example below and notice the difference in results for what appear to be similar keywords
1. Grilling – 10,700,000 results
2. Cooking on the barbecue – 721,000 results
3. Grilling – 15,600,000 results
4. Recipes for cooking on the gas grill – 188,000 results
Keywords are very important for search engine success and effective web copywriting. Focus on the wrong keywords and you’ll get less website traffic. Pick the right keywords and your website will light up like a Christmas tree… well, maybe not like a Christmas tree. Keywords are the spinach that will power your copy.
Keywords are not just words! Many Internet users have found that they can search using a statement (a keyword queue) and narrow down their search results more effectively than using a single word. Simple keywords are like Twinkies, while phrases are Paula Deen’s healthy and delicious cooked meal: totally fattening and guaranteed to increase her search results.
Let’s look a little closer. Whether you’re doing pay-per-click (PPC) advertising or working to improve your ‘organic’ search results, keywords are the lifeblood of your success. Before creating a new website, updating an old one or starting a new pay per click campaign; you need to take the time to do your keyword research. It’s not rocket science, but it’s not finger painting either.
Here are some thoughts that can help you understand the principles behind keywords. You saw the example above. Here’s another one. When a person begins their initial buying process online, they’ll likely enter something like “new homes in Baltimore” in the search field. Now, as you can imagine, that’s a pretty broad search term. What I mean by broad is that many builders, realtors, and brokers want that search term to show them on the front page of a search engine. Since there are only 10 organic places and only a few more sponsored places (paid places) on the front page of, say, Google, and there are probably hundreds of builders, realtors, and brokers in Baltimore; so someone, or many, will be disappointed. When a search term is that broad, it’s usually expensive in a PPC campaign and usually faces a lot of competition. That doesn’t mean you don’t use broad terms, but it does mean your keywords should narrow down the search process.
Once the online home buyer realizes that the query ‘new homes in Baltimore’ generated millions upon thousands of results, they are likely to narrow their search by adding a modifier. Your next search might be something like ‘energy efficient new homes in Baltimore’. Because they remembered that they were very concerned about energy efficiency. But that also generates a ton of results. Now, they’re narrowing down their search and using the term ‘new energy efficient Baltimore homes in Fells Point.’ Wham, now the list has significantly decreased.
The point is this: if you’re building new, energy-efficient homes in Fells Point, Baltimore, that’s a great keyword phrase!